Hosted in Chemnitz in the frame of the 2025 European Capital of Culture, d@rts will hold two public events at the Open Space Chemnitz: a Digital Playground Workshop and a Panel Discussion titled “Does Arts Education Make the World a Better Place?”.
17:00 – 18:30 – Digital Playground Workshop
Following a brief overview of d@rts’ objectives, our workshop will focus on a key project component: an interactive platform that establishes a digital community for the project participants. Including playful and gamified elements, this platform drives post-digital learning, fostering communication, creativity, and motivation for engagement. During the workshop, invited participants of the platform (including e.g. dancers, musicians, and performance artists) alongside workshop facilitators will showcase the online activities and verbal/non-verbal dialogues that animate this digital community.
Moreover, attendees will have the chance to explore our digital playground using their own smartphones or tablets. We believe that these digital spaces are pivotal as they allow for a more fluid exploration of aspects like (cultural) identity, class, and nationality compared to traditional learning environments.
18:45–20:15 Panel Discussion: “Does Arts Education Make the World a Better Place?”
A dialogue on inclusion, culture and community
This international panel discussion is facilitated by the EU project dialoguing@rts and brings together researchers and practitioners to explore the ambitions, challenges, and contradictions of arts education today. With a special focus on participatory approaches in music, dance, and theatre, the conversation revolves around arts education’s potentials for social inclusion.
The dialogue is motivated with questions such as: How can we ensure that arts education reaches marginalised groups? Who is included – and who remains excluded in arts education? How can we evaluate the success of arts education programmes in terms of social inclusion? And what are the risks of instrumentalising the arts for political or social goals?
The panel brings together voices from academic and practice fields, including local initiatives from Chemnitz.
Moderator: Prof. Rose Martin (Nord University, Norway) – Dean of the Faculty for Education, Arts and Culture
Participants:
- Dr Cristina Baloi (University of Verona, Italy) – Researcher on evaluation of intercultural competence in arts education
- Dr Runa H. Jenssen (Nord University, Norway) – Researcher on inclusive arts education practices
- Prof. Sylvia Nannyonga-Tamusuza (Makerere University, Uganda) – Ethnomusicologist and expert on decolonial perspectives in arts education
- Lena Rothe (European Capital of Culture 2025, Chemnitz, Germany) – TEAM GENERATION | Projektmanager Youth participation
- Michal Sandor (European Capital of Culture 2025, Germany) – Project lead “Tanzende Nachbarn”
- Milan Vračar (Kulturanova, Serbia) – President of ‘Kulturanova’, an NGO that initiates intercultural and intersectoral dialogue in society, encouraging the creativity of young people through art education