KACES e-Newsletter Volume. 4 (April,2016)

MARCH 2016 VOL.4

Contents Arts&Culture Education 2016 04

Going ‌ beyond a program towards a system - Proposal for change and growth of arts and culture education

KACES Program 08

"I became a 'photographer' thanks to a camera given by a Korean teacher" - Arts & Culture Education ODA

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I nfusing new vision and global perspective to arts and culture education - KACES International Arts Education Workshop

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Artists come to our school!

- ‌ Norway school arts and culture education policy ‘Cultural Rucksack’ - Site of the 36th KACES International Education Workshop

KACES Column 18

Arts ‌ education aiming at the experience of values - ‌ Seoul Economic Daily Column “Rotary” - Joo Sung-hye, President of KACES

KACES News

KACES Message

Greetings!

KACES, having entered upon the 10th anniversary in 2015, is now looking for a new direction for making another leap forward.

We are going to present quality programs for arts and cultural education, and create opportunities for communication through exchanges and cooperation with various global partners in this field.

In the third issue of KACES e-newsletter newly launched last January, we introduced major arts and cultural education programs as well as best practices while looking back on the year 2015.

In this issue, we will look into KACES' plans for arts and culture edcation and its future direction for the better, including international exchange programs such as "Arts and Culture education ODA" and "KACES International Arts Education Workshop" as well as other interesting news regarding arts and culture education in KACES. We will ensure you that KACES 2016 newsletter also actively communicates with readers around the world through arts and culture education scenes. As always, thank you for your continued support.

Please, feel free to send us your comments and thoughts.

Thank you.

The KACES Public Relations Team

Arts&Culture Education 2016

Going beyond a program towards a system Proposal for change and growth of arts and culture education The year 2016, starting a new decade in arts and culture education, has dawned.

Let’s take this year as an opportunity to look at recent changes in the arts and culture education environment, including in schools, society and local communities, and seriously consider where policies for and practices of Korea’s arts and culture education should be headed towards down the road.

Discussions over the history and performances of policies for Korean arts and culture education over the past decade are now underway among academics and policy makers. All in all, most of them agree that the number of policies for arts and culture education has increased over the past 10 years. For example, three mid to long-term plans for arts and culture education policies were made and announced; laws and legal foundation regarding policies to support arts and culture education were established; and various policy projects have been conducted. Along with this, the number of beneficiaries of arts and culture education policy projects, arts and culture education organizations, people working for arts and culture education, as well as the size of beneficiary organizations and cooperative organizations have continuously increased. In addition, policies for arts and culture education have become representative inter-agency cooperative projects.

However, some also argue that the quantitative growth of arts and culture education did not necessarily mean its qualitative growth. These arguments are based on that arts and culture education is fixed on supplieroriented policy projects, and that the ecosystem of the arts and culture education does not have a creative innovation system. We interviewed experts, workers and instructors in the field of arts and culture education, and they all pointed out that it is time to give a new boost to arts and culture education as its current status remains stagnant. . It means that the current paradigm of arts and culture education policy for “quantitative expansion” should be changed into ‘”qualitative maturity.’” This kind of transition requires a comprehensive system-level approach taking the environment and context of arts and culture education into account, as a program-level approach has its limitations.

Lim Hak-soon He received a Ph.D. in public administration at the Graduate School of the College of Social Sciences of Seoul National University. He served as a director in the Gyeonggi Digital Contents Agency, the Korea Manhwa Contents Agency, and Korea Arts & Culture Education Service (KACES). Currently, he is the chief of the Hallyu Knowledge Center of the Hallyu Graduate School and the head of the Culture Business Institute, also serving as a professor in the Department of Media Technology & Media Contents at the Catholic University of Korea.

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The top priority is a demand analysis that embraces qualitative maturity of arts and culture education and one’s desire for active cultural activities.

For the arts and culture education policy to establish a policy paradigm of “qualitative maturity,” the following needs to be taken into consideration:

01 First,

the demand for and the level of arts and culture education should be systematically analyzed to come up with the system of supporting programs based on students’ levels and demands. To this end, learners should not only be classified into the socially underprivileged and ordinary citizens, but also can be divided into several groups considering one’s demands and levels, such as the levels of introduction, beginner, voluntary entry and active cultural activities In the same vein, policies for arts and culture education down the road need to actively engage with not only students and the culturally underprivileged, but also local residents having a “desire to pursue active cultural activities.” They not only want to deepen their cultural and artistic experience and expression capabilities, but also want to work as local cultural planners and mediators. As the arts and culture education policy has focused on students and the culturally underprivileged, post management of learners who participated in arts and culture education programs or local residents having a “desire to pursue active cultural activities” have not been taken into consideration systematically.

02 Second,

R&D activities related to arts and culture education programs must be invigorated, which requires the establishment of a planning and management system. Policies supporting arts and culture education in the past have been limited to the implementation of arts and culture education programs of organizations and instructors, and have not been able to create a research environment in which arts and culture education organizations and instructors can actively develop their programs. In order for the R&D activities for arts and culture education programs to be invigorated, there should be an environment for communication and collaboration among organizations and instructors, the development of R&D support methods, performance evaluation on arts and culture education programs along with a feedback system, and a workshop for analyzing and sharing cases of arts and culture education programs.

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Need to establish a system for communication, collaboration, and comprehensive partnership as a policy partner

03 Third,

it is necessary to build a creative communication and collaboration platform for human resources in arts and culture education. The effectiveness of arts and culture education programs depends on the will and competency of the professional manpower that interacts with learners in the field of arts and culture education and forms relations with local communities. The communication and collaboration environment of the professional manpower may serve as a positive factor in developing various arts and culture education programs, such as the ‘integrated genre’ type, the community-based type, the social problem-solving type and the convergencebased type. Over the years, policies for the arts and culture education have supported policy projects that can engage with professionals in the field, while strengthening the competency of those professionals through education and training programs.

However, policy projects only in the public sector are not enough to establish a creative communication and collaboration platform for human resources in arts and culture education, thus requires the environment where field professionals can voluntarily participate in and cooperate with each other.

04 Fourth,

it is necessary to develop support methods for reinforcing the competency of arts and culture education organizations as policy partners, and make use of them as local bases for those purposes. On one hand, organizations for arts and culture education have been regarded as core elements of the arts and culture education policies, but their roles have been limited only to implementing programs of support policy projects, since the focus has been on implementing arts and culture education programs of such organizations. On the other hand, with various policies having been made over the past decade, dedicated and competent arts and culture education organizations began to appear in local communities one by one. Future local arts and culture education policies must find ways to take advantage of the will and competency of these arts and culture education organizations as policy partners.

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05 Fifth,

the system of partnership for the arts and culture education policies needs to be developed into that of joint planning and performance sharing at the operational level. Through arts and culture education programs, related organizations and professionals visit prisons, youth detention centers, probation offices, community child centers, schools, the military, social welfare facilities, villages, community centers, homeless facilities, industrial complexes and small libraries. To conduct arts and culture education programs effectively at these sites, we need to have cooperative governance in the public sector including the government, and build partnership between arts and culture education organizations and beneficiaries of the programs. So far, however, partnership in arts and culture education has only remained at the operational level, and failed to advance to the level of joint planning, performance sharing and utilization. Under these circumstances, the performance of arts and culture education programs may influence only the participants of that year. Other agencies and beneficiary organizations, which will participate in arts and culture education policy projects, need to actively consider how to continuously realize the value of arts and culture education in such agencies and organizations, while solving diverse problems along the way. To this end, a collaboration-based and comprehensive partnership system including one for the implementation of joint research, planning, monitoring and evaluation, performance sharing and feedback must be established.

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KACES Program 01

“

Arts & Culture Education ODA

I BECAME A “PHOTOGRAPHER” THANKS TO A CAMERA GIVEN

BY A KOREAN TEACHER

"

As a part of an Official Development Assistance (ODA) for arts and culture education, KACES has implemented arts and culture education programs and "mediator" education in elementary and middle schools in Sapa, and Lao Cai College of Education located in mountainous area in northeastern Vietnam. The 2015 "arts and culture education ODA" project was implemented from August to November in Lao Cai province, Vietnam. The following is an article about this project in the Hankyoreh, one of Korea's major daily newspapers.

KACES’ overseas support on the 10th year of the enactment of the “Support for Arts & Culture Education Act”.

Programs ranging from convergence classes of photography and art to exhibitions for children from underprivileged areas in Vietnam.

Supporting sustainable learning by educating students of colleges of education and local teachers.

On the 10th year of the enactment of the “Support for Arts & Culture Education Act,” KACES provided overseas support ranging from convergence classes of photography and arts to exhibitions for children from underprivileged areas in Vietnam. Also, KACES helped sustainable learning possible by providing education to students of colleges of education and local teachers.

On the 31st of last month, students are preparing for a photo exhibition in the Kim Dong middle school in Sapa, Lao Cai, Vietnam.

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Arts & Culture Education ODA (Official Development Assistance) project In 2013, Jang Geun-beom, a teacher from Korea, handed me a camera. I went around with my friends here and there taking photos, which was amazing. Having realized that what I saw through the camera lens was different from what I saw with my naked eyes, I found myself looking at each flower petal and the blue sky very closely. The teacher left leaving the camera with me. I went to a neighboring village and talked with the villagers while taking pictures of them with my

camera. I used to be the “subject” of photographs taken by trekkers, but before I knew it, I myself had become a “photographer.”

This is a story told by Bùi Ánh Nguyệt whom I met in Sapa, Vietnam. This student, a sophomore at No. 1 High School, said the teachings of a Korean arts instructor sparked his interest in photography.

He collected photographs reflecting his own personality, and made a portfolio titled “Yongsoo (a Korean name which Nguyệt gave himself) and the H’Mong people.”

On the 31st of last month, he took a night train from Hanoi to Lao Cai. It took him nine and a half hours, and after two hours on a bus from there, he arrived at his school in Sapa which inhabits ethnic minorities of the nation and is located near the Chinese border.

After the morning classes were over, 20 or so students of the Kim Dong middle school including Nguyệt were busy preparing for the photo exhibition. They pasted photographs which they took last September in villages in Lao Chai, Ta Van and Bai Da Co on drawing papers and drew pictures. There were

KACES NEWSPAPER

On the 31st of last month, students are preparing for a photo exhibition in the Kim Dong middle school in Sapa, Lao Cai, Vietnam.

various photos capturing a child of an ethnic minority eating sugar cane, a flock of ducks crossing the street and a woman making a bag with a sewing machine.

This photo exhibition was held as part of Korea Arts & Culture Education Service (KACES)’s “Arts & Culture Education Official Development Assistance (ODA) project.” In general, the first thing that came to one’s mind when thinking about an “ODA project” is technical and economic assistance. However, the “Arts & Culture Education ODA project” is to send art instructors and planners to

developing countries and let them share excellent examples of arts education while respecting the local culture. Its purpose is to cultivate the culture and art competencies of those countries and establish a sustainable foundation for arts education. For this reason, the project provides “mediator education’” to students majoring in education, public officials and teachers as well as students of other majors. The objective is to ensure that the Arts & Culture Education program is not a one-time event, but one being implemented consistently.

On the 1st of November, professors, students and staff are making stories out of the photographs they took and adding sound to their stories at the mediator education session provided at the College of Education of Lao Cai in Vietnam.

It’s been 10 years since the Support for Arts & Culture Education Act was enacted. Early arts and culture education was provided especially for the sake of “welfare” of certain classes including children, adolescents, the elderly and the disabled. Today, however, Korean arts and culture education is being imple-

mented in general not only in Korea but also abroad.

KACES, which has conducted this project in Vietnam since 2013, began to provide convergence classes of photography and fine art to students in local clubs in Sapa and those in Ta Chai Elementary School and middle school in Bắc Hà in August. In these classes, students are to go around the neighboring villages of ethnic minorities and take a trekking course in which they would take photographs, give explanations through story-telling and hold exhibitions. One of the participants whose

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On the 1st of November, professors, students and staff are making stories out of the photographs they took and adding sound to their stories at the mediator education session provided at the College of Education of Lao Cai in Vietnam.

name is Kim Seon said he couldn’t see anything in his first photograph because he had taken the picture with his hands on the lens. He stated that asking strangers if it was all right to take pictures of them, talking with them and meeting various people were a lot of fun. Phuong, who was with Kim, also said, “I met foreign tourists, asked them where they were from and how they felt about Sapa, and took their photographs.

If it weren’t for this class, I would have never had an opportunity like this. It was very amusing.”

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As students intensively study Vietnamese, English and mathematics, they have little time for art, music and physical education. In middle schools, they have only one hour of music and art a week, and high schools do not allocate any time for music and art. Both middle and high schools have only two hours of physical education a week.

“Children have become more interested in the regions they live in and more confident in themselves while taking photographs.

More than anything else,

students who have a talent for photography had a chance to learn it intensively,” said Nguyên Deuknam of the Office of Education of Sapa, who was in charge of this project. “While preparing for the exhibition, I was surprised to learn that the children had so many ideas. Arts education in Vietnam is provided as a special program after class in the afternoon on rare occasions. Even after this project will be over, we will continue to provide photography education by having the children who participated in this project teach other children.”

The following day, Ye Jeong-won, an art instructor at the College of Education of Lao Cai in Lao Cai Province said to students majoring in education, “As children are sensitive to what they see and hear, when they play house or a game, they express their feelings through sound.

So today, we are going to focus on sound as children often do, and create images out of it. ” It was a class utilizing the principle of “soundscape.”

Combining various sounds in daily lives with pictures, handwriting and images

KACES NEWSPAPER to express their feelings, integrated arts and culture education making use of various sensory activities was provided. Professors and students in each group made sound with their body or mouth, or found sound outside of the classroom and recorded it.

They made a story out of the photographs they took reflecting their emotions in the previous class, and added sound to them. Ye Jeong-won said, “The mediator education is not to give unilateral instructions, but to provide students an opportunity to learn from each other. Getting an inspiration from this class or getting an idea from certain aspect of the class to create one’s unique program is more important than just delivering content and achieving good results.”

“Even though children of ethnic minorities learn the Vietnamese language, they still have a difficulty expressing their ideas completely, making it harder for teachers to educate them,” said Nguyên Ngoc Ngan, a staff member at the Department of Education Testing and Accreditation, who participated in the education program.

“However, I realized that those students can resort to music, fine art and sound other than language to express their feelings in class.”

“I was impressed by how the instructor conversed with the students and led the class comfortably like a friend,” said Le Ngoc Viet, junior in the College of Education. “To be honest, I don’t think all teachers who participated in this education program will change

their teaching method right away.” “Due to problems with equipment and educational courses, it will be difficult to teach students the same way in the education program. However, I am going to try what I liked in this class as much as possible when I become a teacher.” Before leaving Sapa, I was able to visit the photograph exhibition at the Kim Dong middle school. Among photo graphs hung up on the wall, a caption next to the photograph where Nguyệt was holding hands with a child from an ethnic minority group while others were sitting caught my eye.

“Usually people expect me to hold their hands, but sometimes, I need someone who will hold my hands, too.” “I believe Sapa is the most beautiful place in the world, which has raised

me for the last 17 years, and where I belong to as a photographer.” He gave his very first portfolio to teacher Jang Ggeun-beom as a present, even though Mr. Jang said he couldn’t accept it because it was too precious gift for him to take.

Hankyoreh Newspaper, November 27, 2015 Lao Cai Province in Vietnam / written and photographed by Choi Hwa-jin, Hankyoreh Education

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KACES PROGRAM 02

Infusing new vision and global perspective to arts and culture education

KACES International Exchange Program KACES International Arts Education Workshop “KACES International Arts Education Workshop" which is one of the representative international exchange programs, is a two-way participatory workshop that invites arts and culture education experts around the globe to Korea. In this workshop, art instructors, mediators and other participants share various plans and teaching methods for arts and culture education, and experience, demonstrate and discuss the issues in the field.

Since 2005 to date, this workshop has been held four times a year, thus 44 times in total, with experts in various sectors from nine countries including the US, the UK, Germany, Finland, Australia, Japan and Norway.

In 2015, the 35th~38th workshops were implemented under the themes of community-linked culture and arts, arts education for adolescents, creative music experiences, and family.

Cecily Hardy from Australian Big hART, the host of the 36th workshop in 2015, said that "during the workshop, I

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found that we had a lot in common. We have situational similarities in terms of common challenges, obstacles, and failures. It was a meaningful time in which we shared Big hART's experiences of tackling those challenges, and got to know about the current situation of arts and culture education in Korea."

Also, a participant in the 37th workshop hosted by Britain's "Sound Creation Project" said that "It was inspirational to have found out that there is a social corporation outside of the UK that cares about connecting people through the essence of music. It was a good opportunity to compare music education in Korea with that of the UK as well."

Every year, the workshop's materials come out into two versions: English and Korean. They are all available on/ offline, enabling all people concerned, invited instructors, participants share what was discussed in the workshop.

Watch the list and the source book for 2015 KACES International Arts Education Workshop Episode

Subject

Content

35th

Community Engaagement & Virtuosity - Arts Culture & Social Change

Big hART's sharing of its community linked art projects, and planning a project that fits for the context of Korean education

Invited organization/ nation

Invited instructor

Big hART / Austrailia

Scott Rankin (Co-founder, Creative director / Cecily Hardy ( Actress, Creative PD)

36th

Seanse Art Center's Engaging with Youth sharing of teaching Marit in Arts Education methods of arts Ulvund(Seanse Seanse Art Center/ - Express, Explore education for Art Center director) Norway and Exchange adolescents, and / Bente Aasheim Stories seeking ways to (Teaching Artist) utilize them

37th

Experiencing cooperative Engaging People creation workshop and Creating methodologies Collaborative based on music, Interactive Musical with people of Environments various age groups and non-musicians

SoundsCreative Project / UK

38th

Understanding the characteristics and Family Workshops the challenging - Engaging process of a Intergenerational workshop that Participants in Arts engage family Education members and people in different generations

New Victory Theater / USA

Materials (English)

Tara Franks (Cellist, Founder)

Lidsey Buller Maliekel (Director)/ Sarah Petersiel (Teaching Artist)

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KACES PROGRAM 03

Norway school arts and culture education policy ‘Cultural Rucksack’

Artists come to our Schools Oh Sook-hyun Arts Educational Support TeamⅠI

In Korea the government establishes the arts and culture education policy and has been conducting the ‘Teaching Artists in Schools’ project that supports arts education in schools around the country for 10 years. We interviewed the officials of the Seanse Art Center who visited Korea last November to attend the KACES workshop for overseas experts, and reviewed relevant materials to examine ‘The Cultural Rucksack Programme,’ Norway’s school arts and culture education policy, which is similar to KACES’ 'Teaching Artists in Schools' in terms of structure and methods.

Today everyone is aware of the necessity of arts education. In particular, many agree on its positive effect on children and adolescents. Accordingly, many countries of the world including Korea are taking advantage of their own characteristics to develop and expand arts and culture education for children and adolescents. In Western countries with advanced perception of arts education, government-led policy support is provided, and arts education has naturally become an integral part of public education, or high-quality diversified arts and culture education is actively conducted in the private sector.

Making a recirculation structure for creation and arts education

The Cultural Rucksack is a national program that dispatches professional artists to schools in Norway and allows students to experience arts and culture education. It was launched as a national policy goal based on nonpartisan agreement among several political parties in Norway in 2001.

Currently, the program was extended to include high school students, and all students between the ages of 6 and 19 are benefiting from this program.

The Cultural Rucksack enabled professional artistic and creative activities in schools throughout Norway. Also, as it is a national policy goal launched through non-partisan agreement, various entities, such as Norway’s state governments and local governments, are participating in the Cultural Rucksack project. State governments’ culture and education departments are in charge of program coordination in their respective regions, and local governments devise individual programs. By dividing roles like this, all participants have a sense of ownership and regional diversity is revealed.

The Seanse Art Center, an organization in the region that conducted the Cultural Rucksack program for the first time in Norway, has been actively carrying out this project from the early stage of the Cultural Rucksack policy.

In particular, to enforce a new and unfamiliar policy, it held a showcase

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called the ‘cultural plaza’ with the aim of publicizing the works of artists to schools and partners (people related to the policy). The ‘cultural plaza’ is a showcase event that lasts for 3-4 days where two teachers from each school in the region are invited and the artists demonstrate the projects they can do with the children at schools. This showcase is held every year, and allows their partners to experience what the Cultural Rucksack can bring to children. In the cultural plaza, schools can draw up a list of artists they desire (wish list), and in addition to the showcase, brochures describing the education program of each artist is distributed to the schools and the schools can apply for the artists they desire. Also, the Seanse Art Center joins hands with a local university (Volda University) to operate artist residency so that artists themselves can develop and improve programs.

Looking at the main programs of the Cultural Rucksack, the creative works of art instructors have the greatest influence when they devise educational programs.

“The first and essential condition of an art instructor is that he/she is an ‘artist.’ To us, an art instructor is a person who creates works of art in educational facilities or communities as a professional artist. The three competencies required of an art instructor are artistry, attitude and participation.

Being self-reflective, i.e. looking back on oneself for improvements and having the ability to listen attentively to students are also very essential qualities required of an art instructor. Along with this, cooperative, creative, and responsive participation is required.”

Marit Ulvund (Director of the Seanse Art Center)

Through the interview with the director of the Seanse Art Center Marit Ulvund, an art instructor working for the Cultural Rucksack program learned that the foremost condition of an artist is identity.

Most of the funds for the Cultural Rucksack come from the Lottery fund, so only the travel expenses and tuition fees for instructors are incurred. Art instructors can develop

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programs through the artist support policy as well as the Cultural Rucksack program.

This program varies depending on the region, but teaching artists receive separate funds for art and creation from national art institutions, such as art galleries and museums. As a result, teaching artists can continuously engage in their own artistic activities which can be related to educational programs.

Bente Aasheim, who is an animation artist and one of the participants in the Cultural Rucksack, said, “It is not easy for an artist who only engage in creative activities to make ends meet in Norway. For artists, it is true that the Cultural Rucksack is a means of livelihood. However, if this job is simply for making a living, it will be meaningless, too. I take great pleasure in meeting and teaching children. Also, devising educational programs and just being with children is a great inspiration to my artistic activities which eventually leads to creating better educational programs. The better educational programs are, the more regions and schools will need me, and I in return will get a greater source of income.”

Bente Aasheim (Cultural Rucksack’s teaching artists)

The Growth and Development of the teaching artists System

The Cultural Rucksack, which is an example of a successful government policy, will go through a big change in 2016. It has been supervised by a small department in Arts Council Norway, but it will be transferred to a larger “Concerts Norway,” which will streamline the communication and support system for individual entities, to coordinate the opinions of various entities participating in the Cultural Rucksack and increase educational support. However, there is a concern that whether the Cultural Rucksack may only focus on performing arts. Meanwhile, I hear that Arts Council Norway is thinking hard to find ways to ensure that students can participate more directly in education, while artists can work in schools without restriction for their improvement into the next stage.

The entities participating in the Cultural Rucksack may have different interests, but

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they are trying to improve the program with the common goal of “providing quality arts education for students.”

This year, we commemorated the 10th anniversary of the KACES’s school arts and culture education policy, “Teaching Artists in Schools” project. Now it’s only been 10 years, and the decade is not a sufficient period for a system to be made and stabilized.

If it is a person, the “Teaching Artists in Schools” project will be in third grade in elementary school. It will go through difficulties and experience growing pains as any 10-year-old child would. It is the “children in schools” that all of us have to look at when thinking about ways to ensure vigorous development of the “Teaching Artists in Schools” project. I hope that various entities participating in the Teaching Artists in Schools project, i.e. government agencies, local governments, central and regional institutions, schools and teaching artists will continue to think about the program’s development with a sense of ownership while putting the best interest of the children at the top of their priorities.

KACES’ Teaching Artists in Schools KACES is providing schools around the country with arts and culture education in a total of 8 areas, i.e. gukak (Korean traditional music), drama, movies, dance, cartoon, animation, crafts, and photography. It provides everyone with an opportunity to experience quality arts and culture in public education through cooperation with the Ministry of Education, education offices and local arts and culture education centers.

KACES sends art instructors to schools, provides educational materials and supports various educational activities to create an environment in which students can develop artistic sensibilities and grow into creative people with upright character.

Working in close liaison with the Teaching Artists in Schools programs, KACES holds the “Teaching Artists Open Conference,” in which local art instructors can freely exchange their opinions and talk about various issues based on their own experiences and knowledge in the field of their specialties. Furthermore, it supports the “Art and Imagination Program” which sends art instructors to schools in remote areas with no exposure to arts and culture education, and provides such education during the vacation.

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KACES Column

Arts education aiming at the experience of values Contribution to Seoul Economic Daily Column “Rotary”

Joo Sung-hye (President of Korea Arts & Culture E d u c a t i o n S e r v i c e / P r o f e s s o r, School of Music, Korea National University of Arts)

President Joo Sung-hye of KACES wrote a frank and informative contributions over eight times from November to December of 2015 in the “Seoul Economic Daily.” The following is one of those contributions.

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Korea Arts & Culture Education Service, a public institution affiliated with the Ministry of Culture, Sports & Tourism, supervises arts & culture education policy projects for the whole nation. KACES received a letter from a detention center two weeks ago. It was a letter from a prison inmate addressed to the instructor who taught him to play the Ukulele. He said that he would like to learn to play the ukulele after his release from prison and inquired about the cost of the instrument as well as a place where he could learn to play the Ukulele. The instructor, remembering the sender very well, said he was very grateful to him for his great enthusiasm in class and for having maintained orderly behavior to obtain permission to take the class. I was touched by this story, and perhaps because of my feeling, it seemed that a little tear welled up in the eyes of the team leader who delivered the letter to the president of KACES. On the weekend in front of Hongik University, the “We are Rock (樂)” event was held with the aim of announcing results of the arts & culture education support project for military units. Various performances, which 14 teams from 6 military units had prepared since spring, were put on stage.

Some parents came from afar to watch the 10-minute performances of their sons and rooted for them ardently, and some civilians, who kept practicing with the current members of the bands even after their discharge as they could not forget the thrill of band performances in the military, came on the stage too.

A touching experience not only leaves good memories, but also energizes our daily lives and sometimes changes the direction of our lives. The life of the prison inmate who made preparations to play the Ukulele while dreaming of a life outside of the detention center and those lives of veterans who visit the military units and keep playing in the band after the discharge from the military might have been greatly changed since they learned to play musical instruments. Those who experienced immersion through artistic activities will not only enhance one’s self-esteem, but also find the joy of collaboration and learn a new way of communicating with others while discovering an amazing world which they had created themselves. As the desire for the skills accompanying such artistic activities gradually increases, they will begin to enjoy observing the artistic activities of experts, and enter into the world of art lovers, i.e. the so-called art consumers, who find happiness through art. A society with many blissful art consumers no doubt has a great deal of potential for creating a cooperative and vibrant world.

The process and opportunity of artistic experiences are beneficial to anyone, and everyone should be given the right to enjoy them. However, in Korea to which the principal grammar of art and culture was introduced by the West about 100 years ago, art is still viewed by the majority as an awkward activity which must be started with determination and is considered as an event which they must memorize and pretend to know and imitate. This is all the more reason to make sure that education for letting people experience the value of art properly is planned and receives policy support. Education on art consumption needs to be designed elaborately just as well as education on art production. The desperate need for education on art consumption aiming for the experience of immersion and delight as well as qualitative education that touches people deeply keeps revolving in my mind these days.

KACES News

The Publication of KACES Series : "Why Arts and Culture Education Matters?"

KACES is translating and publishing a book each year as a series in order for the public to better access and understand arts and culture education. This year, KACES published "Why Creativity and Cultural Education Count?," a translation of "The Virtuous Circle" published in 2014 in the UK. The original book is based on three reports on creativity and arts education, issued throughout Tony Blair's New Labour and David Cameron's Conservative administrations, and persuades readers why arts and culture education is necessary as a policy.

Production of "Arte infographic" KACES is planning and producing "ARTE Infographic" in order to promote easy and accurate understanding of professional and complex contents of arts and culture education. In 2015, a total of 10 infographics under the various themes such as whole-life arts and culture education, the dream's orchestra program, arts and culture education program for the disabled and youth in detention centers, support projects for art instructors, and the healing power of art were made, enabling you to understand Korean arts and culture education at a glance.

2016 International Arts Education Week In its second world conference on global arts education held in May 2010, UNESCO designated every 4th week of May as "the week of global arts and culture education," in commemoration of May 28 when this conference adopted "Seoul Agenda: Goals for Development of Arts Education." As a result, in coming May 2016, we are going to celebrate the 5th week of global arts and culture education. Through various events of the week, we will present the future direction of arts and culture education policies under the theme of four core values of opening, communication, sharing and cooperation, to which much of your attention will be appreciated.

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KACES Message

-KACES e-Newsletter Volume.4Published by the Korea Arts & Culture Education Service 76, Sangamsan-ro, Mapo-gu, Seoul, Korea, 03926 eng.arte.or.kr / kaces@arte.or.kr

Serial No. KACES-1650-C003

Copyright Š 2016 Korea Arts & Culture Education Service Some Rights Reserved.

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