Training in cultural policy and management: international ... - Encatc

Survey on institutions and centers ...
With the advent of competition in the region, many art schools and universities had to introduce
changes, or at least to try some experimental programmes like summer schools, etc. (Moscow GITIS
developed with their student alumni NGO “Art profi,” an international summer school for students of
theater production, etc.)
Another big push occurred in the region after the development of the UNESCO Chairs in Cultural
Policies and Management program. This was the stimulus for universities to start reforming their
curricula, and to enlarge their functioning scope – to be more open to foreign lecturers, practitioners
and student exchange. However, we must emphasise that the guiding concept of the UNESCO Chair is
very different from what is taking place, for example, in Hungary, which just “crowned” its work with
the UNESCO chair title, without making any substantial change, or in Slovakia, where the chair is only
working on curriculum development, or Bulgaria, which organized short courses for professionals with
no requirement to enter University programmes. At the same time, it has to be said that at the
majority of the universities and training centers in this region, such opportunities were previously
unknown (along with any UNESCO competitions and deadlines in general).
The range of educational institutions in the region of Central and Eastern Europe, Central Asia and
Caucasus is now tremendously varied. There are:
Hundreds of state universities;
Ten to 20 state art schools;
A few private universities;
Ten state/city-initiated training centers for continuous professional development in culture & media;
and,
An estimated 30 to 40 NGOs with relatively consistent permanent training programmes.
This diversity had contributed to the variety of profiles of art management training programmes; there
are five basic types of curriculum in this area:
Cultural studies & humanities (Culturology departments);
Art production and management;
Economic-commercial studies & business management;
Social sciences (sociology, social work, pedagogy, andragogy, etc.); and
Professional trainings (public training centers & NGO) in continuous professional development.
Some countries offer the classic four-year study curriculum (producers' departments at faculties for
the performing arts in Moscow, Skopje, Cetinje, Baku, the cultural management department at the
University of Art and Culture in Ulan Bator), and some universities have developed cultural
management as a specialty for students in their third or fourth year of study, but the majority have
only developed postgraduate courses, both for students and professionals already working in the field
(MSSES, Moscow, Iagielonian University Krakow, Academy for Culture in Vilnius, University for Culture
in Riga, etc.). Slowly, new market demands for higher education have pushed many universities to
organize short courses and seminars for professionals as part of their permanent education process 9 ,
as well as distant learning (Belgrade University of Arts, University of Pecs, Hungary, etc). Generally
speaking, study courses in cultural management differ in terms of their theoretical scientific dominant
in study curriculum, around which teaching of certain skills or practical training is developed. The
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Those are usually weekly or weekend courses on things like fundraising, touring, cultural tourism
and the arts, or topics aimed at a specific professional group: museum management, library
management/marketing, capacity building in performing art institutions, etc.
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