Traditional Craftsmanship of Colombia: Fostering Intercultural Understanding through Education

Breakout Session 1: Wednesday, 18 June (16:30 - 18:30)
Juan Pablo Aschner, Universidad del Rosario, Colombia

Developed in collaboration with Artesanías de Colombia, this award-winning initiative by the Universidad del Rosario’s Faculty of Creative Studies integrates Colombia's traditional artisanal knowledge into higher education while promoting intercultural dialogue and sustainability. By showcasing artisanal practices through educational documentaries, podcasts, open online courses, and the development of a five-volume encyclopaedia, the project ensures the preservation of ancestral knowledge while creating inclusive and innovative learning environments. By increasing the visibility of artisans and creating meaningful connections between academia and communities, the project addresses historical divides between traditional crafts and professional disciplines. The session will present project outputs in an interactive format, showcasing video excerpts and short simulations of how the project is implemented in classrooms. The workshop will also propose a pedagogical alternative for how cultural heritage can redefine the future of crafts in higher arts education and promote global connections.

 

The Symbiotic Approach -- A Praise for TechnoGaia - TSA Workshop

Breakout Session 1: Wednesday, 18 June (16:30 - 18:30)
Carmen Westermeier, Academy of Fine Arts Stuttgart, Germany; Julia Hainz, Kassel College of Art, Germany

This session is a tribute to TechnoGaia, not just a personification of the blue planet “Earth” as a mythological creature, but an evolving characteristic that we all share: the ability for symbiosis. Gaia is a huge set of interacting ecosystems exemplifying constant evolution through interaction, a concept that we increasingly struggle to understand in an individualistic society. With 'The Symbiotic Approach', the workshop explores counter-narratives by appropriating the term and transferring it to our bodies through ritual physical exercises and technological tools. With a Praise for TechnoGaia, the sessions celebrate a technologised, anti-mythological ritual for a living earth. Participants are invited to work with 3D Scans, Photogrammetry, Technoprothesis, and experience glitch and symbiosis while meditating and drawing. The workshop will be led by The Symbiotic Approach, the artist duo Julia Hainz, who have been experimenting with different media to explore social issues with a feminist artistic practice, for more than 10 years.

 

Breaking Barriers: Early Insights into Accessibility in Performing Arts Education

Breakout Session 2: Thursday, 19 June (09:30 - 11:30)
Lorena Martinez Mier, Marie Le Sourd, Europe Beyond access - Sweden and On the Move – Belgium

This session will share the initial findings from Europe Beyond Access's (EBA) research on accessibility in higher education for disabled artists, conducted in collaboration with On the Move. It aims to present preliminary trends and patterns, offering a critical starting point for discussions about dismantling barriers in performing arts education, with a particular focus on dance and theatre. Rather than providing definitive conclusions, this session invites ELIA Academy participants to contribute their insights on the accessibility challenges and opportunities faced by performing arts institutions. The goal is to refine these early findings into actionable recommendations for fostering inclusive learning environments. Through an interactive in-person format, participants will engage in discussions to explore how higher education institutions can integrate accessibility into their teaching practices and curricula.

 

“Wspólmyslenia": Thinking-with at the Intersections of Art and Science

Breakout Session 2: Thursday, 19 June (09:30 - 11:30)
Anna Majewska, Doctoral School of Humanities at the University of Warsaw, Poland

"Wspólmyslenia" is a Polish neologism that defies direct translation, evoking the idea of knowledge as commons and resonating with the new materialist concept of thinking-with—a collective approach to knowledge construction rooted in the politics of nurturing diversity. The grassroots platform named after this term is designed to connect young artistic research practitioners. In Poland, many of these practitioners develop their work outside art academies, where discourse on artistic research is often marginalised. Initially inviting creators to share their experiences of working at the intersection of art and science, the platform evolved into an ongoing self-educational initiative, exploring transdisciplinary methods of collaborative thinking and uncovering situated, decolonial narratives about artistic research. During the workshop, insights from curating this project will be shared, focusing on how the concept of "wspólmyslenia" was embodied in collective self-research processes. Participants will also be introduced collaborative thinking methods and invited to engage practically with one of them.

 

Decoration as a Sense of Belonging: Feminism, Folklore, and Design as a Tool of Resistance

Breakout Session 2: Thursday, 19 June (09:30 - 11:30)
Katarzyna Kowalczyk, Polish-Japanese Academy of Information Technology, Poland

Based on a personal story of Katarzyna's grandmother, this storytelling-led performance explores the intersection of folk art, feminism, and cultural heritage. Fleeing Warsaw during World War II, she travelled across Poland, encountering different communities where women taught her to make traditional crafts. These practices became tools of survival, cultural resistance, and personal expression in times of instability. This contribution combines narrative, sound, and visual art to immerse participants in this intimate story, accompanied by recordings of the grandmother’s voice and Polish folk songs that recovered her memories lost to dementia. Featuring Katarzyna's artistic research, different mediums inspired by various Polish folk traditions explore how women have historically shaped Poland’s visual identity through decoration. The performance uncovers the marginalisation of design and decoration, spotlighting the role women played as custodians of folk traditions. By connecting personal history with broader social and cultural narratives, a reflective space that encourages dialogue is created in this session.

 

Echoes: Ancestral Breath

Breakout Session 2: Thursday, 19 June (09:30 - 11:30)
Gabriel Andres Tarazona Orozco, Universidad del Rosario, Colombia

This session is a sound exploration that goes beyond aesthetic design by delving into the use of ceramics in ancestral Indigenous instruments. Inspired by the spiritual connection that master ceramic artisans in the town of Ráquira, Colombia, have with their practice, this workshop explores ceramics as a living element. Taking the form of both a ceramic sculpture and a functional instrument, the piece is designed to invite direct interaction, encouraging participants to explore its sounds and engage with it through touch. The ceramic work also highlights the importance of being critical and deeply invested in a topic when designing—seeking meaningful answers rather than settling for superficial solutions. By stepping outside the classroom, meeting masters in different fields, and connecting with diverse communities, we can find deeper, more authentic responses to the questions that truly matter to us.

 

Life integrated learning through audience encounters

Breakout Session 3: Thursday, 19 June (12:00 - 13:00)
Johanne Karen Hagen, Kristiania University College, Oslo, Norway

This presentation illustrates the implementation of Life Integrated Learning in the bachelor's programme of Music Theatre at Kristiania University of Applied Sciences. Students engage with diverse audience groups through an annual concert project, as well as visiting institutions where audiences, for various reasons, cannot attend concerts or other cultural events. Encouraged by the accessibility aspirations of the Norwegian government, it is the responsibility of education to familiarise students with audience groups who typically cannot attend the theatre. Aligned with UN Sustainable Development Goal No. 11, through these encounters, students experience life integrated learning that encompasses physical, emotional, environmental, societal, and political dimensions. Addressing the the role of art in society, research has shown that cultural activities can elevate the quality of life for those engaged in them. In this presentation, the continuation of these encounters with audience groups who lack access to cultural events, facilitated by alumni students, will also be discussed.

 

School of Wish

Breakout Session 3: Thursday, 19 June (12:00 - 13:00)
Alessandro Tollari, Iuav University Venice, Italy (PerLa - Performance Epistemologies Research Lab) in collaboration with Lavanderia a Vapore (Turin, Italy)

What if a high school could become an artistic and embodied atelier, where adults learn from the unexpected creative talents and subtle life-skills of teenagers? School of Wish is a year-long project by Lavanderia a Vapore in Turin, the House of Dance in Piedmont, Italy, where artists work with students to empower change in schools. This project has already introduced dozens of teenagers to performing arts, allowing them to develop their own practices and, in the process, subvert the traditional structure of school. Moving forward, the project will focus on magic as a source of possible knowledge and skills, where illusions and alchemical transformations become a language to explore life’s dynamics in a mutable, obscure, and promising world. This session will explain the theme, approach, and context of the project, highlighting its relevance to artistic, epistemological, and pedagogical fields, and sharing some pedagogical tools developed by the students.

 

Bridges of the Everyday: Connections Between Art, Life, and Community

Breakout Session 3: Thursday, 19 June (12:00 - 13:00)
Teresa Veiga Furtado, Ana Pérez-Quiroga, Isabel Bezelga, Jacira da Conceição, CHAIA - Center for Art History and Artistic Research / School of Arts, University of Évora, Portugal

Four female artists will collaborate in a performance that uses art to reflect on creating intimate experiences in public spaces like gardens or squares, with active community participation. Cooking a Portuguese dish, listening to music while enjoying the sun, or sharing a glass of water connects their personal domestic moments with participants’ experiences. These everyday gestures, tied to their own performative memories, create opportunities to understand themselves and others through art. Participants are encouraged to rethink how we learn, teach, and engage with the world. As both a language and practice, art reveals new perspectives and bridges the gap between individuals and the collective. By integrating personal experiences into artistic exploration, it redefines education as a shared journey of discovery. Sharing — through food, dance, or small gestures — transforms education into a relational experience. It invites connection, reflection, and a deeper exploration of living, learning, and creating as a community.

 

Life-integrated learning and artistic research as spaces we hold together

Breakout Session 4: Thursday, 19 June (14:30 - 16:30)
ELIA Artistic Research Working Group: Ellen Røed, Stockholm University of the Arts, Sweden; Maria Topolcanska, Academy of Fine Arts in Prague, Czechia; Florian Dombois, Zurich University of the Arts, Switzerland; Michaela Glanz, Academy of Fine Arts Vienna, Austria; Glenn Loughran, TU Dublin, School of Creative Arts, Ireland; Gesa Marten, Film University Babelsberg Konrad Wolf, Germany; Jørn Mortensen, Kristiania University of Applied Sciences, Norway; Anne-Helen Mydland, University of Bergen, Faculty of Art and Design, Norway; Claus Peder Pedersen, Aarhus School of Architecture, Denmark; Veerle van der Sluys, LUCA School of Arts, Belgium

Artistic research is connected to life-integrated learning through relational, embodied practices, often rooted in personal experiences. Motivated by experiential inquiries, artistic research activates communities of practice through interconnecting fields that influence and shape one another. This working session offers space to formulate positions on life-integrated learning across various frames. Collectively, we will explore and formulate how artistic research is integrated into learning practices and vice versa, how this relational process happens, and under which conditions it thrives. By bringing together people from various perspectives within arts education, this workshop will use dialogue and excursion to map the parallels between different terminologies and approaches to artistic research and deepen our understanding of its connection to life-integrated learning. By going outside into "real life" and being exposed to the weather in dialogue, impulses with discursive/performative formats of learning within the community will be developed, reflecting on perspectives across our artistic and academic terrain.

 

Integrated Sustainable Development and Nomadic Wisdom: MNUAC’s Approach to Arts and Culture Education for a Global Future

Breakout Session 5: Friday, 20 June (10:00 - 11:30)
Odsuren Dagmid, Dorjsuren Uranchimeg, Mongolian National University of Arts and Culture, Mongolia

Drawing on the strategic sustainability initiatives of the Mongolian National University of Arts and Culture (MNUAC), this session will highlight the significance of Nomadic Wisdom. The session will explore the role of Life-Integrated Learning in shaping future-oriented education that responds to contemporary global challenges. It will focus on two main projects: the integration of Global Citizenship Education (GCED) into the arts and cultural curriculum, and the "Festival and Contents for Forests and Trees" project. These initiatives aim to develop students as global citizens and explore the role of art in driving climate action and celebrating ecological consciousness. Emphasising the significance of partnerships within the ELIA network to expand these initiatives, the session will also discuss MNUAC's strategy of integrating practices of Nomadic Wisdom to foster sustainable solutions in arts education. The session will highlight the Green Art Festival, a collaborative effort to use art as a tool to encourage environmental action across communities.

 

Projects and Methods by ArtiViStory Collective

Breakout Session 5: Friday, 20 June (10:00 - 11:30)
Adrian Buda, Ana-Maria Bozdog, Alina-Gabriela Baciu, Gabriela Olosutean, University of Art and Design Cluj-Napoca, Romania

This presentation offers an overview of the ArtiViStory Collective’s projects over the past five years, followed by an interactive discussion with the audience. The Collective’s work unfolds across four main directions. First, it aims to support the understanding of visible and invisible processes—both micro and macro—complementing research in fields such as anthropology, mental and public health, digitalisation, and organisational transparency. Second, it uses journalistic and archival methods to ethnographically map diverse communities. Third, it creates collective and individual animations that explore intimate, localised experiences. Fourth, it focuses on creative labs where site-specific installations emerge through experimental uses of traditional media. These directions come together in workshops and educational mediation programmes, while exhibitions present the outcomes of each project. In the second part of the session, participants are invited to engage with the Collective’s physical Road Map, a tool designed to reflect the learning-teaching processes behind their collaborative work.