Cultivating artistic and cultural education: reflections and sharing of experiences

On Wednesday, April 3rd, at the Gaîté Lyrique in Paris, a meeting-debate was held organized by the Daniel and Nina Carasso Foundation and the Academy of Versailles. At the heart of the discussions: the challenges to be met in order to generalize artistic and cultural education in schools, and to cultivate a real cultural transformation within schools. To be found in replay !

A look back at a collective adventure

The culmination of the Experimental Program for the Generalization of the Arts in Schools (PEGASE), which has irrigated the establishments of the Versailles Academy for 5 years, this meeting-debate was an opportunity to share valuable lessons with the aim of making artistic education a reality for all children and teenagers. As Klaus Fruchtnis, Head of the Foundation’s Citizen Art Axis France, pointed out, ” experimenting with new formats such as PEGASE makes it possible to identify practices that can transform education.” Designed to promote student success, civic engagement, transdisciplinarity and social cohesion, this ambitious program has reached 10,000 students from kindergarten to high school, by closely involving the teaching teams and cultural actors of the territories concerned.

A crossover of views around artistic and cultural education

During this meeting, the various stakeholders (teachers, artists, students, head of the DAAC), were able to testify about their experiences with regard to the conclusions of the team of researchers who carried out work to measure the concrete effects of the program on students and the educational community as a whole. This evaluation highlighted several crucial points: the essential role of the Culture referents, a strong support from students, an unequal mobilization of teachers according to their experience and disciplines, a long-term construction of partnerships with cultural institutions, a wear and tear of the teaching teams compensated by an increase in skills… The result of a rigorous and independent approach combining observations, questionnaires, interviews and analyses over 3 years, this investigation can be found in detail in a public report.

Prospects for the future

Beyond the findings, the debates opened up stimulating perspectives for the generalization of artistic and cultural education on a national scale, highlighting the challenges to be met and the synergies to be developed between the various players in the educational, artistic and cultural fields. For Marianne Calvayrac, Déléguée académique à l’éducation artistique et à l’action culturelle, Technical Advisor to the Rector of the Académie de Versailles, “working with the Fondation and university research has enabled us to take a fresh, distanced look at what we are implementing, to verify hypotheses, and to go further on questions of educational alliances and student involvement. ” Indeed, among its many conclusions, this study revealed a real plebiscite among young people for outings and encounters with artists, but also a demand to be involved in the design of projects. For Alain Ouvrard, Academic General Secretary of the Académie de Versailles This program proves that cultural practices are an extraordinary lever for fundamental learning and personal fulfillment. It also raises questions about training, staff management, student commitment and the complexity of synergies with cultural players.” An observation shared by Dieynébou Fofana-Ballester, lecturer in educational science at the Université Paris-Est Créteil, ” this research-evaluation is a form of advocacy on what artistic and cultural education can do to make it more widespread. Benoît Mounier, Managing Director of the Fondation in France, “With PEGASE, we have sought to combine our spirit of social innovation with the know-how and roots of the Versailles academy. We hope that these lessons will inspire new initiatives and contribute to making arts education a reality for all children and teenagers.”

Speakers of the meeting-debate

Introduction

• Vincent Carry, Managing Director of Arty Farty, and representative of the presidency of the Gaîté Lyrique, David Robert, Co-Managing Director of J’accueil by Singa
• Benoît Mounier, Managing Director France of the Daniel and Nina Carasso Foundation
• Alain Ouvrard, Deputy Academic Secretary General of the Academy of Versailles

Why did you set up an Experimental Program for the Generalization of the Arts in Schools?

• Klaus Fruchtnis, Head of the Citizen Art axis of the Daniel and Nina Carasso Foundation and Marianne Calvayrac, Academic Delegate for Artistic Education and Cultural Action, Technical Advisor to the Rector of the Academy of Versailles.

Presentation of the research-evaluation Dieynébou Fofana-Ballester, Audrey Boulin and Rosa Bortolotti

Round Table 1: Sharing experiences, successes and challenges encountered in the framework of PEGASE

• Samuel Bianchini, Artist and Teacher, Researcher at ENsAD
• Rosa Bortolotti, Doctor of Educational Sciences, University of Cergy-Pontoise
• Audrey Boulin, Associate Professor in Educational Sciences – University of Cergy-Pontoise
• Ambre Delaunay, Teacher-librarian, E. Cotton College Culture Referent
• Nadia Kacimi, School Teacher, School Director
• Laure Rouxel, School Teacher, Culture Referent

Round Table 2: Perspectives on the prospects for the generalization of artistic and cultural education in the light of the PEGASE experiment

• Dieynébou Fofana-Ballester, Lecturer in Educational Sciences – University of Paris Est Créteil
• Mehdi Idir, Inspector of Creation – Dance College / Ministry of Culture General Directorate of Artistic Creation
• Isabelle Jacquot-Marchand, Head of the Life Times Office at the Sub-Directorate for Participation in Cultural Life, General Delegation for Transmission, Territories and Cultural Democracy
• Mathieu Rasoli, Academic Delegate for Artistic Education and Cultural Action
• Ewan Salaün, Student Ambassador of the Marguerite Yourcenar High School

Summary and conclusion