Artistic education in training citizens

EDP was one of the entities responsible for the creation of the first Artistic Education UNESCO Club, in 2008, in Portugal, by supporting their activities since then. The Club is a permanent space for discussion and affirmation of the importance of Artistic Education, as well as the dissemination of its models and practices. Under the aegis of UNESCO’s National Commission, and the support of the EDP Foundation, this Club also presents itself as a partner for the education community, in the promotion of Artistic Education and, also as an available correspondent for everyone who acts over it, on an institutional and particular level.

Among their activities, we highlight the direct work with 1st cycle children, namely in the deployment of activities related to dancing, music, dramatic and plastic expression, training of teachers, providing workshops about artistic areas, giving conferences, in collaboration with the National Culture Center, and since 2016, the establishment of partnership agreements with institutions and schools with the goal to assemble a Group of Traditional Dancing and Singing.

The focus of intervention of this Club centers on four main areas:

• The dramatic expression, as a booster for children’s global education, with a fundamental role in their cognitive and emotional development, by representing an excellent vehicle of socialization.
• The musical expression, which whilst being a means for creation, expression, and communication, plays fundamental importance in the global education of human beings.
• The plastic expression, a spontaneous vehicle to voice personality and interpersonal experiences, and a means for communication and representation, that come from the individual perception of a person.
• Dancing and movement, as a privileged language and method so that students can learn to know their own bodies and perfect their creative abilities.

Education through art to new ways of expression and communication

The Artistic Education UNESCO Club develops its activities in a school context and is destined for students, teachers, or entities related to teaching. Its mission is:

• The clarification of the Artistic Education concept, as a fundamental and necessary tool in everyone’s education, essential to teach wholesome citizens;
• The affirmation of Artistic Education’s transversally, by cross-cutting areas such as education, culture, innovation, and creativity;
• The contribution for the collective awareness of the responsibility of the entire society, educators and citizens in Artistic Education.

The Artistic Education UNESCO Club intends on disclosing, promoting, and implementing Artistic Education in schools, empowering their elementary and secondary educational programs, by introducing artistic activities that help their recipients, which are essentially students, find ways to express their individuality.

Impact (results)