Publish at February 07 2024 Updated February 07 2024
Art and culture are formidable anthropological traces for analyzing an era and a vision of the world. The drawings in the Lascaux cave are striking because they bear witness to an ancient era with no written records. Exposure to culture opens the mind, sharpens the sense of analysis and reveals the values and preoccupations of a period.
France, an important cultural cradle if ever there was one, has clearly understood the need to expose young people to the various artistic approaches that exist as early as possible. In particular, the country has been banking on artistic and cultural education (EAC) since the mid-2010s. In 2017, the government even created a cultural program enabling young people to spend, at public expense, almost 300 euros on various products (books, cinema or theater tickets, music, etc.).
The EAC idea is based on the intersection of three aspects:
In this educational context, the classroom becomes a laboratory for learning and working on the artistic sense, and artists become mediators of their creations. It's a true pedagogy of art and for art, enabling young people to develop their sensitivity, curiosity and creativity. In 2020, the French government's objective was ambitious: by 2022, all students should benefit from a coherent EAC pathway during their schooling.
The objective has not been fully achieved everywhere in France. But that doesn't make it a failure. In fact, all départements have embarked on various initiatives to introduce culture from an early age.
The beauty of this educational approach is that it promotes local artists. So there's no need to travel to Paris to enjoy the arts. Encouraging local troupes and museums gives these generations the opportunity to realize that artistic creation is possible everywhere.
In 2023, 79 communes, intercommunalités and départements were awarded the "100% EAC" label by the Haut Conseil de l'éducation artistique et culturelle (HCEAC), which recognizes local commitments and strategies in this area. This national "promotion" should not, however, be seen as an end in itself, but rather as a good start to be perpetuated and enriched.
In fact, it may be interesting to note the forms taken by these various initiatives. The possibilities are numerous:
Although the majority of French territories are working to offer interesting educational pathways in EAC, the fact remains that some environments are seeking to improve. This rather new approach to arts education is not always easy to set up with local partners or residents in general. All the more so as some projects are, in some cases, hastily initiated, and feedback on effects is sometimes limited. Participatory research carried out with a focus group came to one such conclusion:
Some people think that EAC projects could be much more effective if the promoters had more time to collect, digest and process information, thus adding value upstream of the project and downstream, in its evaluation phase; a necessity also for anticipating the actions to be implemented in the field.
Not to mention the fact that not all départements are equal when it comes to cultural spending and facilities. Metropolises, particularly Paris, offer a much wider range of cultural possibilities than rural localities. This is as true in mainland France as it is in the overseas territories. Inequalities of access are therefore still present, complicating the life of certain communities wishing to develop EAC pathways.
How can this be achieved when cultural players are less well-known or less accessible? We need to respond to these situations if we are to offer truly high-quality cultural and artistic education everywhere. To help them, teachers can always access the ADAGE application to create their own projects, as well as accessing a database of resources on local partners.
Photo: monkeybusiness / DepositPhotos
References:
"100% EAC: proposing a coherent artistic and cultural pathway for all pupils." Académie De Besançon. Last updated October 2023. https://www.ac-besancon.fr/100-eac-proposer-un-parcours-artistique-et-culturel-coherent-a-tous-les-eleves-122738.
"100% éducation artistique et culturelle: a label that promotes committed territories." France Urbaine. Last updated October 17, 2023. https://franceurbaine.org/actualites/100-education-artistique-et-culturelle-un-label-qui-valorise-les-territoires-engages/.
"EAC et territoires." Iddac. Last updated: October 3, 2023. https://www.iddac.net/actualites-pro/item/2394-l-eac-sur-les-territoires.
Karam, Antoine, and Sonia De la Provôté. "Les nouveaux territoires de la culture." Sénat. Last updated: December 18, 2019. https://www.senat.fr/rap/r19-210/r19-2103.html.
Knauf, Audrey. "Information practices at the service of territorial cultural policy: the challenges of territorial intelligence for EAC." HAL Open Archive. Last updated November 14, 2023. https://hal.science/hal-04283756/document.
Le Blé, Sarah. "Label 100% EAC, a new tool for artistic and cultural education." L'A. Agence Culturelle Nouvelle-Aquitaine. Last updated February 2023. https://www.la-nouvelleaquitaine.fr/ressources/laffut/label-100-eac-nouvel-outil-de-leducation-artistique-et-culturelle/.
"Médiation culturelle & EAC." Aulnay-sous-bois.fr. Last updated June 9, 2023. https://www.aulnaysousbois.fr/mes-loisirs/culture/conservatoire-de-musique-de-danse/qui-sommes-nous-2/.
Pacaud, Stéphanie. "EAC Projects 2023-2024." La Cité De La Voix. Last updated: November 23, 2023. https://www.lacitedelavoix.net/actualite/les-projets-eac-2023-2024/.
"Artistic and Cultural Education Projects." Le Diapason. Accessed February 2, 2024. https://www.diapason-saint-marcellin.fr/mediation-et-cr%C3%A9ation/projets-deducation-artistique-et-culturelle.
"What is artistic and cultural education (EAC)?" Fraap: Fédération Des Réseaux Et Associations D'artistes Plasticiennes Et Plasticiens. Last updated: November 28, 2023. https://fraap.org/article1010.html.
"Use adage, the application dedicated to the generalization of artistic and cultural education." Académie De Paris. Last updated September 2023. https://www.ac-paris.fr/utiliser-adage-l-application-dediee-a-la-generalisation-de-l-education-artistique-et-culturelle-129089.
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