Perspectives of Asian-European Collaboration in Higher Arts Education

ELIA Representative Board member, Pawel Pokutycki travelled on 15 October to Seoul for the International Animation Conference, celebrating the 30th anniversary of the School of Film, TV and Multimedia at the Korea National University of Arts (K-Arts). He presented an overview of challenges and opportunities for international cooperation in arts education through geopolitical, economic, AI, and climate contexts. Read his takeaways below:

It's a bright autumn day in Seoul at the Seokgwan Campus of K-Arts. After a long trip, I immediately sense the brilliance of the university, its ambition and strong work ethos. K-Arts offers a wide range of art disciplines including visual arts, film, drama, music, dance, and is a living model of interdisciplinarity.  

I'm delighted to see how South Korean artists draw on their cultural heritage, while exploring new creative directions. At an extensive presentation of a couple student performances called Creatives in Motion I see a fine blend of traditional dances, costumes and instruments with contemporary choreography, electronics, digital sounds and projections. Interdisciplinarity at K-Arts also extends through a network of South Korean cultural centres around the world and international collaborations. This particular performance will soon travel to New York. 
 


The year 2025 marks several milestones: the 30th anniversary of the School of Film, TV and Multimedia at K-Arts, the 15th anniversary of K-Arts membership in ELIA, and the 15th anniversary of the CAMPUS Asia programme, a joint education initiative which could be compared to Erasmus, enabling student and teacher exchanges across China, Japan, and South Korea. To celebrate these milestones, the International Animation Conference opened on 17 October at K-Cine, K-Arts. The conference aims to bridge Asia's leading CAMPUS Asia programme with ELIA, inviting top animation schools from both regions to discuss future-oriented, advanced, and internationally cooperative animation education.  
 
A researcher presented an extensive report on the successes and challenges of the CAMPUS Asia project for the South Korean government, outlining a roadmap for the future of CAMPUS Asia. 

The programme continues now into its fourth phase, now emphasising hybrid, distance, and virtual teaching and learning. Another speaker involved advanced technologies into the discussion exploring possibilities of collaboration within the Metaverse. 

This technological focus is not merely a fascination but a practical necessity to learn and co-create internationally with lower costs and a lower carbon footprint.  “MetaKorea”- a notion introduced by another speaker captures this vision. Virtual exchange offers an alternative route to sustain meaningful artistic and educational connections across borders. 

These developments could prove highly relevant to ELIA members across the globe. There is potential to continue opening access, creating spaces to participate in and learn from these type of initiatives building on ELIA’s previous virtual satellite events and webinar series’. Both ELIA’s ETHO Technical Community Hub and the New Technologies Taskforce will continue to engage with these topics.

My presentation was lively, with an interpreter in the room, making the exchange multilingual and at times funny. I spoke about ELIA and how our network facilitates peer-learning through projects, working groups, and events, and what it means for me personally to work with South Korean students in The Netherlands. I also shared examples of Europe-Asia collaborations, including the Ars Electronica Festival in Linz, a festival that for many decades now has supported Japanese and Korean artists. 

There was a lot of interest in ELIA in practical terms. How our network can stimulate internationalisation and exchange across Europe and Asia. While ELIA does not manage specific projects, student exchanges, or mobility schemes directly between institutions in Asia and Europe, all members are welcome to participate in ELIA events and working groups. Opportunities for student participation, including bursaries supporting conference contributions were also shared. (ELIA Biennial 2026 call for contributions is open, learn more) 

 A representative from the China Academy of Art was happy to see photos of herself and colleagues at the ELIA Leadership Symposium 2019 in Hangzhou, that I included in my keynote presentation. It struck me that it means a lot to our members to see themselves in the spotlight. Small gestures of mutual recognition strengthen authentic engagement and visibility within our globally-connected network. 

I also had the pleasure of meeting and listening to the presentations of two delegates of GOBELINS Paris, a leading animation school in Paris, as well as the Dean of the School of Animation and Digital Arts at the Communication University of China, Beijing. 

His talk was about the creative and ethical approach towards the use of AI technologies. Animation, traditionally a labour-intensive art form, now faces rapid change as AI models become capable of replicating distinctive visual styles, such as those of renowned creators like Hayao Miyazaki (Studio Ghibli), to produce convincing animated sequences based on that style. These technological shifts bring both opportunities and challenges to the creative field. A very interesting proposal on how to deal with this situation ethically, creatively and practically (technically) in the context of higher arts education has been discussed.

This visit highlighted many advances and constraints we still have to overcome. It underscored the continuing importance of international collaboration in higher arts education. ELIA remains committed to connecting artistic communities across continents and exploring new ways to learn and create together.