ELIA's Executive Director, Maria Hansen, recently travelled to North America to speak at the Purposeful Travel Summit at the ELIA Associate Member Banff Centre in Alberta, Canada (and to meet with their new President Chris Lorway). The Purposeful Travel Summit discussed ways to integrate sustainability and education into travel that contributes to a better world. The conference encouraged visitors and host destinations to be increasingly intentional in the ways that they engage with traveling. Maria's presentation focused on greening travel in the arts and the recent SHIFT Eco-Certification that ELIA achieved. Very much in line with this theme, Maria used the opportunity for this trip to also visit several ELIA Members and prospective members to maximize the efficiency of her trip and to reduce her carbon footprint.  

 

Maria finds these visits to ELIA Members who reside outside of Europe to be crucial. Maria says about her trip, “Since I started with ELIA in 2017, going to see the members in their own location, in their own situation, is really helpful for us understanding what they're up against, what they're proud of, what makes them unique and it tends to lead to a lot of connectivity, with their whole organisations, not just with their leadership... I have found this to be a really, really helpful tool”. She believes that being able to visit ELIA member institutions in-person allows the ELIA Team to better understand the unique situatedness of each institution and to gain a deeper awareness of their challenges, strengths and key goals. The purpose of these visits is connectivity. ELIA is thus able to connect with its members who are further away geographically and to also maintain strong connections during times of leadership changes. These trips also empower ELIA to explore thematic connections with its members, to explore what the key themes are that each university is interested in and how ELIA can create future connections, partnerships and events around those themes.   

 

Beginning her travels in Boston, United States, Maria was able to visit Berklee, one of ELIA's newest global members. She met with Interim President David Bogen and learned more about the institution and their online programmes. She also had the chance to visit another institution in Boston, Emmerson College and had a wonderful tour of their campus. Maria also had an exciting visit to MIT Media Lab to meet with composer Tod Machover. 

 

Next, she travelled by train to Providence, on the East Coast, where she had the pleasure of meeting the new President of RISD (Rhode Island School of Design), Crystal Williams. During the visit to RISD, Maria was delighted to see firsthand the new Jacquard Loom, one of the most advanced of its kind, and learn more about its novel capabilities. She also met with Deborah Obalil, President of ELIA network member Association of Independent Colleges of Art and Design (AICAD). At ELIA Member Maryland Institute of College of Art (MICA) in Baltimore, she reconnected with Rob Sabal and his team, which also allowed for an opportunity to reconnect with former MICA president Sammy Hoi.

 

Heading north to Canada, Maria visited ELIA members Emily Carr University of Art and Design and University of British Columbia (UBC), Department of Art History, Visual Art and Theory in Vancouver. With the beauty of both campuses leaving a lasting impression, she was most interested in both institutions' engagement with Indigenous wisdom, history and art making (much more could be said about this topic, according to Maria, stay tuned for ELIA programming in the future).   

UBC expressed their enthusiasm for ELIA's online events, such as the ETHO webinars – which many UBC staff have attended online, feeling it was an important way to remain connected during the pandemic (even though they had to get up at 3am Vancouver time to attend!). The next stop was Calgary, where Maria paid a visit to ELIA Member Alberta University of the Arts. 

 

Her final trip was to Montreal to visit Concordia University, where she met with the Dean of Fine Arts, Annie Gerin. Concordia will be working alongside the ELIA UAx Platform Team to deliver the Art Hives programme. ELIA's UAx Platform is administering the programme and the course has been developed by Rachel Chainey, an art therapist and the coordinator of the Art Hives Headquarters. View the programme overview here. 

 

Maria was able to discuss both global concerns and local issues with ELIA members, addressing topics such as budget cuts, the enrollment cliff (an expected enrollment decrease in the upcoming years in North America) and new regulations about national languages and tuition fees which are particularly relevant in Canada at this time, as well as the importance of staying connected and up-to-date with international colleagues during times of change. 

 

She was able to learn more about the situatedness and locality of each institution and the unique challenges they face to better understand the ways in which ELIA can serve as a platform and tool for our members. She was delighted to visit existing members, new members, and prospective members who we hope will join our ELIA community in the future. She felt this visit was a great opportunity for her to showcase some of ELIA's benefits to members in North America, such as help with accessing EU funding (which also applies to some non-EU countries), making new connections and partnerships within the ELIA network, offering fresh perspectives outside of each institution's “bubble” and discourses, opportunities for visibility and recruitment for staff and students from around the world, online events such as our Satellite Event programme, and more.  

 

Maria encourages all ELIA members to request a visit should they want one. She and her colleagues from the membership team would be happy to do more of these visits in the future, and this opportunity is also possible online.