It is ELIA’s prerogative to function as an experience exchange platform, connecting all members integral to teaching and learning schemes, internationalisation strategies, and political and social developments in the higher arts education sector.

PIE (ELIA’s Platform for Internationalisation), enables members’ international officers to meet and form effective partnerships. ELIA’s advocacy activities in the European arena ensure the dissemination of crucial information to its members, and the ELIA Academy (one of three main ELIA events) has established itself as a leading European conference in the field of learning and teaching.

ELIA Academy

The ELIA Academy took place for the first time in Barcelona in 2003 followed by Rotterdam 2005, Brighton 2007, Sofia 2009, Porto 2011, Utrecht 2013, Tilburg 2015 and London 2017, Stuttgart 2019.

The Academy is a platform for lecturers and teaching artists in higher arts education. Its aim is to stimulate and engage teaching artists, lecturers and researchers in discussion with their peers in Higher Arts Education institutions internationally through participation and engagement in a varied programme. Its main focus is the ‘state of affairs’ of teaching and learning in Higher Arts Education.

It attempts to foster learning within the respective community of practitioners by showcasing innovative scholarship, state of the art research, pertinent challenges and questions from established experts, young professionals and fresh minds.

The Academy offers opportunities to share and enjoy a range of formal and informal presentations, work in progress, lectures, creative workshops, debates and social activities by creating a showcase for arts education in relation with creative practice. The success of the Academy depends on active contribution from its participants.

Benefits for participants (and their institutions) include the opportunity to:

• engage with innovative scholarship and research
• share the experiences of others in interactive group settings
• discuss ideas about the integration of theory and practice in learning, teaching and research and how to develop further knowledge as embedded in practice
• share,create and develop new insights and ideas about current issues in Higher Arts Education
• be inspired and refreshed through sharing the work and ideas of peers and colleagues, creating new disciplinary and interdisciplinary links across Higher Arts

View the past editions of the ELIA Academy here.