A Strategic Partnership supported by the ERASMUS+ programme of the European Commission. September 2015 – August 2018
The European Academy of Participation (EAP) brings together 10 organisations from all over Europe, from higher education, from the arts and culture. They want to make a contribution to a more inclusive Europe, in which people live together in mutual respect of their differences. They identified participatory practice in art and culture as a central tool to involve communities in a positive process of constructing a shared cultural space.
It raises high hopes to compensate for withdrawing state structures, it is fashionable at funding bodies, fosters social cohesion and it exposes us to a world of ethical questions around responsibility and authorship. It also embraces the dissolving of boundaries between academic and artistic disciplines and those between the policymaker, the artist, the curator and the audience. This increasing fluidity brings about a new practice profile: the creative producer.
EAP want to develop
The ambition of EAP is to tap into the existing potential of higher education and the unique and hard won endeavours of creative projects and organizations scattered across Europe that are engaging the public as active agents in their work. Through their cross-fertilisation both sectors impact on the diversifying societies of Europe, capitalizing on participatory practice in the arts.