Earlier this year, the Diversity, Inclusion and Gender Equality (DIGE) Working Group of the AEC – Empowering Artists as Makers in Society project (ARTEMIS, 2022-2025) launched a call for AEC member institutions to host an interactive workshop titled ‘Diversity, Equity and Inclusion in Higher Music Education: An Invitation for Action’. The workshop aims to share experiences, identify good practices and collaboratively envision institutional change in relation to Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) in Higher Music Education (HME).
The AEC is happy to announce that, by the deadline of 30 September, a total of 16 applications had been received from AEC Active and Associate members from all over Europe and beyond, coming from many different backgrounds and cultural traditions. Thus, making the selection process highly competitive and demanding. Only three institutions could be selected for hosting the workshop in the upcoming years, and these were announced during the last AEC Annual Congress and General Assembly in The Hague.
The selected institutions and timeframe for the workshops are:
- Hochschule für Musik und Theater „Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy“ Leipzig – 16/05/2024
- Yong Siew Toh Conservatory of Music, National University of Singapore – 07-08/10/2024
- Municipal Conservatory of Pylaia-Hortiatis in Panorama-Thessaloniki – 16/05/2025
In addition, the DIGE Working Group has announced that it will be offering the workshop to two more applicant institutions, which will be organising AEC events next year. These workshops will not be linked to the official programme of the events themselves, but will rather be targeting local staff and students. These institutions are:
- University of Ljubljana Academy of Music – 20/03/2024 (in the frame of the AEC European Platform for Artistic Research in Music)
- RIAM Royal Irish Academy of Music – 03/09/2024 (in the frame of the AEC Annual Meeting for International Relations Coordinators)
You can get a glance of what will be happening at these institutions by taking a look at the workshop organised on 2nd October at the Conservatorio di Musica Alessandro Scarlatti in Palermo, gathering 40 participants (including teachers, students and administrative staff) from six HME institutions in Sicily. You can find out more here.
Other opportunities for applying to these workshops may arise in the near future, notably in the frame of a new potential Creative Europe-funded project for European Networks. We will be happy to keep the AEC Community informed and we very much encourage all non-selected institutions to give it another try.
For more information about the workshops or the selection process, please contact Alfonso Guerra, DIGE Working Group Coordinator at alfonsoguerra@aec-music.eu.
