The EU4ART Alliance is an international association of arts universities whose long-term aim is to strengthen arts research programmes in EU Member States. This project is supported financially by the European Commission's Education, Audiovisual and Culture Executive Agency, EACEA (Brussels). The EU4ART Alliance project is in line with the vision of creating a European education area where all young people can best use education and training and find work across Europe.

Set up by four higher education institutions, the EU4ART European University for the Fine Arts aims to develop a joint flexible curriculum in painting, sculpture and graphic arts.

In 2022, the new curriculum should be based on an interdisciplinary and international approach incorporating innovative pedagogical methods, including digital technologies. These new curricula will serve as a model for other European universities with the long-term goal of establishing a European Virtual Art University by 2025.

The overarching goal of the EU4ART Alliance project is to promote the quality of European higher education and to promote cooperation between institutions, their students and staff, and to promote the mobility of students and academics, and to promote the competitiveness of European higher education.

The "EU4ART Alliance" project will enable art colleges to improve the quality of their education and training systems in art programs (painting, sculpture and graphic arts). Members of the EU4ART Alliance undertake to coordinate advanced practical and theoretical subjects in three specialties at the undergraduate, postgraduate and doctoral levels. EU4ART has established a common structure to share specific knowledge and know-how.

The project is organized in the following 5 work packages (WP):

WP1: Project Management
WP2: Educational Structure Analysis - Harmonization
WP3: Methodological updating of training courses
WP4: Fine Arts and Language
WP5: Project Sustainability and Dissemination

As part of a European network of arts studios and practices, EU4ART will ask questions about developing manual skills (drawing, painting and creating) and the impact, demands and relevance of teaching these traditions in today's digital world. You will also be interested in learning new techniques. The link between historical techniques and contemporary materials and technologies taught at art academies raises questions about their specific character and values. In this context, and in addition, EU4ART will explore professional artistic practice, its continuity and identity definition as one of the original roots of "European Higher Education" that can be found in the history of Western art.

Members of the EU4ART Alliance project:

Academy of Fine Arts in Rome   

Dresden Academy of Fine Arts 

Art Academy of Latvia  

Project Lead Partner:

Hungarian University of Fine Arts 

MAIN RESULTS/ACTIONS OF THE EU4ART PROJECT

1. Establishment of a single flexible arts training programme.
2. Methodological reinstatement of study courses through joint exhibitions and individual studies between partners (seminars and study works), experience gains, exchange, analysis of best practices for pedagogical approaches and extension of pedagogical methodologies. Gradually “familiarize” academic staff with the existing arrangements for education and training/study in Riga, Budapest, Rome and Dresden.
3. Networking as wide as possible. THE EU4ART Alliance will be integrated into local structures at different levels in all four universities.
4. Studies in the field of “Fine Arts Language” will be carried out and a multilingual dictionary for fine art (verbally visual) will be drawn up. As part of the project, methodological material will be developed – a guide in Latvian, Hungarian, German, Italian and English.
5. Promoting foreign language learning for students and staff;
6. A mentoring system to promote mobility will be developed.

Objectives of the EU4ART Alliance

• ensure the transfer and transfer of skills-related knowledge to future generations, which, together with the sharing of university resources, will ensure the highest quality study process;
• Strengthen interdisciplinarity by offering coursework opportunities at four European art colleges;
• strengthen collaboration through joint working groups and tools, common curriculum, mentoring system, methodological renewal, joint exhibitions, conferences, artistic expression studies, art language courses, student and academic staff mobility, common website;
• creating innovative pedagogical models and making best use of digital technologies and workplace / workshop learning;
• promoting the development, preservation and promotion of multilingualism - more effective foreign language learning, more frequent and in-depth learning;
• linking arts education with the public, with a thematic focus on European values ​​and diversity and a methodological focus on documenting learning processes, specific arts assessments and the presentation of art results through joint exhibitions;
• the establishment of a European network of training and art practices.

EU4ART Alliance project implementation period:
The project is implemented between 1 November 2019 and 31 October 2022 (36 months)

Total budget of the EU4ART Alliance project:
(EUR): 6 250 000, 00 of which EU funding amounts to 80% or 5 000 000, 00 (EUR)

Within the framework of the EU4ART Alliance project, the budget of the Art Academy of Latvia is (EUR) 1,096,874.00, of which the EU funding is 80% 877,499.20 (EUR). Within the framework of the project, the state budget co-financing of 20% (EUR) 219 374.80.

EU4ART Alliance Project Financing Agreement No: 612518
EU4ART Alliance Project No: 612518-EPP-1-2019-1-HU-EPPKA2-EUR-UNIV

Project homepage: eu4art.eu

The project is co-financed by the Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Latvia