How can arts education and performing arts such as music, dance and theatre contribute to strengthening social cohesion, promoting dialogue and raising awareness for mutual understanding and the value of cultural diversity?
This is what the new innovation and research project dialoguing@rts is set to find out.
Kick-off Meeting
On 18th January 2024, the Dialoguing@rts partners met online to officially kick off the project. Over 75 participants joined the meeting to either present or get to know more about the project.
dialoguing@rts (d@rts)’s mission is to “Advance Cultural Literacy for Social Inclusion through Dialogical Arts Education”. The project’s target groups comprise actors of all ages and social positions, especially in the school system and in community arts initiatives. d@rts’ mission is to empower these groups to be artistically active, dialogically related and culturally literate, giving them tools and motivation to improve their own situations and those of others within the overall frame of a cohesive European society, informed by global perspectives.
The Project Partners
The project is led by the Faculty of Education, Arts and Culture at Nord University in Norway.
Consortium members include:
- Norway (Nord University),
- Belgium (AEC),
- Germany (University of Cologne, University of Hildesheim and University of Lüneburg),
- Italy (University of Verona and Puntozero),
- Finland (University of Jyväskylä),
- Serbia (Kulturanova),
- Uganda (Makerere University) and
- Aotearoa/New Zealand (University of Auckland)
d@rts also establishes links with a large number of European networks in the fields of music, dance and theatre, which do not conduct research themselves, but are valuable as input providers and testing grounds for d@rts. These networks also ensure the widest possible international dissemination of the project outcomes, even beyond the project’s lifetime.
An ambitious budget for an ambitious project
The project is part of Horizon Europe’s Cluster 2 («Culture, Creativity and Inclusive society») and is funded with around 3 million euros. D@rts is one of the first research projects within the field of cultural anthropology and cultural education that has ever been funded through the European Union’s research funding programme Horizon Europe. The project will run until mid-2027.
What is d@rts about?
The European Union is expecting the project results to provide data that will help to plan future strategies in the areas of cultural and social policy on a sound scientific basis. The following is mentioned in this context:
– ideas and concepts for increasing the cultural competence of European citizens with the aim of reinforcing social belonging and integration;
– strengthening the ability to deal with cultural differences and to deepen one’s own identity through respectful interaction with people from different backgrounds;
– promoting diversity and inclusion in the arts and cultural education, not only within but also outside traditional institutions.
As part of the project, research studies will be carried out to analyse existing educational practices in the fields of dance, music and drama. A special focus is also placed on the development, testing and research of innovative formats to stimulate art-related dialogues.
For further information, please contact:
- Project leader: Jens Knigge (Nord University) jens.knigge@nord.no
- Project manager: Runa Hestad Jenssen (Nord University) runa.h.jenssen@nord.no
Project webpage: