OeAD welcomes 165 new partnerships between schools and cultural institutions

165 new partnerships from all art disciplines and school types will start in the second semester of the school year 2023/24 as part of the Austria-wide initiative "culture connected – cooperation between schools and cultural institutions". A jury from the fields of education and culture selected the partnerships from 285 submissions.

The funding programme "culture connected", which is financed by the Federal Ministry of Education, Science and Research (BMBWF) and implemented by Austria's education agency OeAD, supports these collaborations with up to 1,700 euros per project. The cultural organisations – from small, regional cultural associations to large art institutions – work together with schools to develop cultural activities that open up new paths to art and culture for children and young people as well as experiences in self-determined and sustainable learning processes.

For the education minister Polaschek the focus is on strengthening the potential of the approximately 5,400 pupils who will take part in the programme. The initiative supports both cultural education and the personal development of pupils by promoting co-operation with partners from outside school. Through these diverse impulses the school as a learning space as well as the lessons are expanded to include motivation, creativity and the promotion of talent.

The OeAD’s managing director Jakob Calice emphasises: "Young people want to make changes. In this initiative pupils bring their ideas about culture into the cooperation and create films, theatre plays, musicals, sculptures, texts or radio programmes. Audio guides, videos, podcasts and interactive tours by peer groups will be created. The special thing: These will then be used in the further educational work of the cultural institutions."

Statement of the jury: "Once again this year the thematic diversity and high quality of the concepts submitted are impressive. We are particularly pleased that numerous projects in a wide range of art disciplines have been able to put the thematic focus "take HEART! Democracy, Sustainability and Cultural Education' into practice and focus on sustainability issues such as environmental protection, climate change, resource use, consumer behaviour, social cohesion and democracy. An important aspect of many projects is the presentation of project results in public spaces and cultural institutions. They allow children and young people to enter into dialogue with a broad audience and present their ideas and solutions. By partnering with cultural institutions pupils actively influence their learning environment and become co-creators of the cultural world in their school region."

Further information can be found at www.culture-connected.at