Digital and Critical Views on Public Art Pedagogy Erasmus Project

Project Title

Digital and Critical Views on Public Art Pedagogy

Project Key Action

This project related with these key action: Cooperation for innovation and the exchange of good practices

Project Action Type

This project related with this action type : Strategic Partnerships for higher education

Project Call Year

This project’s Call Year is 2019

Project Topics

This project is related with these Project Topics: Quality and Relevance of Higher Education in Partner Countries; International cooperation, international relations, development cooperation; New innovative curricula/educational methods/development of training courses

Project Summary

Public art is a very visible and acknowledged way to experience art and culture in everyday life. It is also accessible to everyone, not only the traditional art audiences. Public art is a way to make a living for many artists and the money spent on it is comparatively large. Therefore it should be included in the curricula of all art colleges in a versatile manner because making public art can be profitable and rewarding for both the artist and the public. The professional methods of co-operation and public engagement process are important development factors in making public art meaningful to all parties.

The European HEIs that educate professional artists are in very different levels in the teaching of public art and including it in their curricula. PARTGO improves the state and position of public art in the art college context. The project partners are European HEIs from Finland, Estonia, Hungary and Ireland who offer approximately 200 art and media students and 30 teachers and professors a possibility to develop their professional skills in the field of public art. The participants can represent the field of visual arts (painting, drawing, photography etc.) or media (tv, film, animation, media production or journalism).

PARTGO project objectives are:
1) Increasing knowledge and skills of public art among the project partnership and art education institutions around Europe, especially in public engagement and public relations
2) Developing new study modules and integrating public art into the curricula of the participating HEIs
3) Mutual learning and sharing the results among the multinational partner consortium and beyond.

These objectives will be achieved by
1) studying the ways public art is taught in art colleges across Europe and finding out the big picture and best practices of European curricula in public art
2) sharing experiences and learning about the international practices of teaching public art
3) planning and executing new international pilot courses/modules in interesting public art locations in all partner countries
4) publishing a toolkit publication of teaching public art based on the project experiences and pilot modules
5) restructuring the curricula of participating HEIs to foster public art
During the project the partners plan and execute public art works in various sites, learn new techniques and ways of collaboration with the public. The artworks, either permanent or temporary, will be the very concrete results of the project.

Transnational collaboration enriches the co-operation on local sites within the pilot course modules. As a concrete result of the pilot modules the materials and documentation from four different pilot course modules taught in Turku, Finland, Tallinn, Estonia, Dublin, Ireland and Budapest, Hungary will be collected into four public art concepts. The concepts and will be collected to a digital public art toolkit publication that will also include concrete and detailed instructions for working with different clients, countries and techniques.

After the project the publication will be available online and work as teaching material for public art teachers everywhere. It can also be used as an introduction to public art processes in the fields of architecture, real estate development, building and construction or institutions who are interested in public art investment.

The participating students and teachers learn new methods and approaches on public art, which is a lasting impact as they will then be able to use in their work as artists and artist teachers. Their international working skills and contacts also improve when they work together with the international project team. The employability of graduating art students improves when their public art skills are better and they have courage and knowledge on working with different clients.

The quality of the curricula and teaching of the participating art colleges improve as they collaborate, create and carry out the pilot study modules and adapt them to their curricula. This impact will also affect the next student generations. The organisations gain new connections to stakeholders and get more publicity to their work in the field of public art.

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 310788 Eur

Project Coordinator

TURUN AMMATTIKORKEAKOULU OY & Country: FI

Project Partners

• MOHOLY-NAGY MUVESZETI EGYETEM
• NATIONAL COLLEGE OF ART AND DESIGN
• Eesti Kunstiakadeemia