ELIA Head of Programmes Barbara Revelli reports back from the ELIA Leadership Symposium in Geneva. In this article, she highlights the session she co-led with CYANOTYPES partners, inviting participants to step into the 'CYANOTYPES way of thinking' through co-creative and future-oriented models.             

 

At this year’s ELIA Leadership Symposium, hosted by HEAD – Genève (HES-SO) under the theme The Power of Many, leaders in higher arts education gathered to explore how collective intelligence can shape resilient, future-ready institutions. Among the highlights was the interactive workshop “Unlocking Creativity: Key Skills for the Future”, which I was happy to co-lead together with Erla Björnsdóttir (University of Applied Arts Vienna), David Crombie (HKU University of the Arts Utrecht), and Angelika Zelisko (University of Applied Arts Vienna). 

 

Building directly on the insights of Creative Skills Week 2025 in Prague, where CYANOTYPES first united policymakers, educators, and practitioners around Europe’s future skills agenda, the workshop in Geneva translated that momentum into leadership practice, bridging the gap between creative policy and higher education strategy. 

 

The session invited participants to step into the 'CYANOTYPES way of thinking': co-creative, future-oriented, and designed to navigate complexity. Its aim was not only to inspire leaders to unlearn outdated models and relearn new ways of thinking, but to put those ideas into practice. 

 

Working in small groups, participants were given real challenges faced by higher arts education — from breaking down disciplinary and/or institutional silos to enhance collaboration, redesigning curricula, rethinking governance, and supporting professional development for staff. 

 

Using the CYANOTYPES Impact Canvas, groups collectively identified what would need to change within their own institutions to meet these challenges. They explored new skills and mindsets such as: 

 

Rather than discussing creativity in the abstract, participants applied these competences to real situations, translating collective reflection into concrete institutional actions and visions for the future. 

 

The energy in the room reflected a shared recognition: that the future of higher arts education depends not only on what we teach but on how institutions themselves learn, adapt, and lead. By engaging with the CYANOTYPES Framework, leaders began to see creativity not just as an artistic process but as a systemic capacity for renewal, essential for navigating the interconnected challenges of digital transition, sustainability, and social change  

 

The workshop demonstrated that creativity is not just a trait of artists — it is a strategic capacity that enables leaders to design, adapt, and regenerate systems. Through playful, hands-on methods, the group moved beyond inspiration into practice, using their collective intelligence to co-create future scenarios for arts education. 

 

The session proved that higher arts education is ready to do more than react to change — it can model the processes of unlearning and relearning that our societies urgently need. 

 

As CYANOTYPES enters its next phase, focused on impact assessment and open pilot participation, the ELIA community remains a key partner in embedding these competences across the higher arts education ecosystem. The ELIA Leadership Symposium served as both a testing ground and a catalyst, demonstrating how the language of competences can unlock new pathways for collective agency, organisational learning, and creative futures. 

 

 

The CYANOTYPES team now invites institutions to take the next step. Higher arts education can lead the transformation by testing and adapting the CYANOTYPES Competence Framework in its own context through tailored Open Pilots that connect learning, leadership, and systemic change. 

 

Start by exploring the CYANOTYPES Toolkit, a practical resource offering frameworks, cards, and templates to guide your institution through its own unlearning and relearning journey.