Since the start of the year, AEC has been active in participating in meetings and events throughout Europe in order to advocate for the recognition of the importance of Music Education and to defend the position of Higher Music Education (HME) institutions at different levels.
 
Involvement at the national level
  • At the end of January, AEC Council member Elisabeth Gutjahr and AEC CEO Stefan Gies attended the ANESCAS (Association nationale d’établissements d’enseignement supérieur de la creation artistique arts de la scène) conference “L’étudiant agent, acteur ou auteur de sa formation” in Paris. ANESCAS is a young organization that brings together French conservatoires and higher education institutions in the field of performing arts.  By attending this conference, AEC has strengthened the contacts with the French colleagues, while contributing to the debate on student-centered learning in France from an international perspective.
  • AEC has been particularly active in the United Kingdom (UK) during the last two months: several meetings have taken place in February between the principals of the AEC UK member institutions and the AEC President and members of AEC Executive Committee in order to discuss the future of the UK higher music education institutions within the uncertain context consequent to Brexit. Through these meetings, it has become clear that the UK institutions are willing to continue their internationalizing processes despite the Brexit restrictions. As a result of these discussions, AEC has proposed to launch a joint statement on Brexit together with the UK HME institutions in order to support their efforts to continue their relations with the rest of Europe in the field of art, music and higher music education. 
Advocating at the European level
  • AEC has held several meetings with other European organizations active in the cultural sector such as ELIA (European League of Institutes of the Arts), Cilect (Centre International de Liaison des Ecoles de Cinéma et de Télévision) and CUMULUS (International Association of Universities and Colleges of Art, Design and Media). These associations are strong representatives in the fields of visual arts, design and film. During these meetings, the four associations discussed common topics of interest such as quality assurance, ranking or the teaching of the arts in primary and secondary schools. These conversations are intended to be taken to a higher lever by the organization of an ‘experts meeting’ composed of Board and Council representatives from the four organizations in 2019.
  • On the 24th of January, AEC attended a conference organized by the European Coalitions for Cultural Diversity at the European Parliament in Brussels. The topic of the conference was “Cultural diversity: how to sustain in the digital age?” During the event, issues such as how to best remunerate European creation in the era of the platforms or how to make European creative works more visible in the EU were discussed by the attendees. Art and music seems to become increasingly important for the European Parliament in the context of digitization and its social relevance.
  • At the end of January AEC, as an official partner of the  European Alliance for Culture and the Arts, endorsed the joint statement on the Post-2020 Multiannual Financial Framework: Call for a substantial and meaningful support for culture and the arts as generators of an EU added value. Through this statement, the partner organization composing the European Alliance for Culture and the Arts aimed to call on the European institutions and Members States to ensure substantial support for culture, the arts and heritage within the post-2020 Multiannual Financial Framework (MFF). You can find the whole statement here.
  • AEC General Manager attended the kick-off meeting of the “Music Moves Europe” Preparatory Action on 14th February. “Music Moves Europe” is a pilot project adopted by the European Parliament that will help test ideas and projects in 2018-2020 in order to explore the desirability and the feasibility of a new EU programme dedicated to music after 2020. AEC joined more than 25 organisations from across the spectrum to call on all EU institutions to endorse the idea of a dedicated EU music programme as part of the next multi-annual financial framework (see letter sent to President Juncker here). For now the preparatory action will fund training actions for young musicians or young performers taking place in 2018-2019. The call for tenders shall be published in April 2018! 
You can find a complete overview of AEC lobbying activities in our calendar: https://www.aec-music.eu/about-aec/calendar.

AEC is looking forward to continuing its work on developing new connections and strengthening the recognition and the influence of the association and of its members in the field of education and culture.