Arts, Sustainability and Education

This book explores the potential of arts and cultural education to contribute to on-going efforts to promote Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) in line with UNESCO’s conceptualizations of the field. It builds on the experiences of arts educators working to build sustainable futures and portrays new and innovative approaches. Chapters comprise case studies that combine arts, culture,  sustainable thinking and practices. They also include research from historical perspectives, evaluations of public policy measures and offer theoretical approaches and methodologies. The book unfolds the possible relationships between arts and cultural education and Education for Sustainable Development.

• arts education and sustainable development
• cultural education and sustainable development
• education for sustainable development
• learning through culture
• arts education in Europe
• education in sustainable development in Europe

• Academy of Fine Arts Munich, München, Germany

  Ernst Wagner

• Department of Nutrition, Exercise and Sports, University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark

  Charlotte Svendler Nielsen

• Iscte-Instituto Universitário de Lisboa, Lisboa, Portugal

  Luísa Veloso

• Aalto University, Aalto, Finland

  Anniina Suominen

• RMIT Europe, Barcelona, Spain

  Nevelina Pachova

Ernst Wagner, Prof. Dr., is a lecturer and a researcher at the Academy of Fine Arts in Munich. His research explores on visual literacy, international cooperation / intercultural communication, heritage education / art history and education for sustainable development. Ernst studied art education at the Academy of Fine Arts in Munich and exhibited in Germany and the USA. He is graduated with a Ph.D. in art history. He taught visual arts at secondary schools, was employed by the Institute for School Quality and Research in Education in Munich and worked as the executive coordinator at the UNESCO Chair in Arts and Culture in Education (University of Erlangen-Nuremberg). He has published over 300 books and chapters in eight languages.

 Charlotte Svendler Nielsen (Ph.D.) is an associate professor and the head of Studies at the Department of Nutrition, Exercise and Sports, research cluster “Embodiment, Learning and Social Change,” University of Copenhagen, Denmark. She is aco-editor of (2015) Dance Education around the World, (2017) Dance, Access and Inclusion, and (2020) Dancing across Borders, all forming part of the book series Perspectives on Dance, Young People and Change published by Routledge UK. She is also an executive board member of Dance and the Child International and Chair of ENO, the European Network of Observatories in the Field of Arts and Cultural Education.

 Luísa Veloso is a sociologist. She teaches in the Department of Sociology of ISCTE-Instituto Universitário de Lisboa and is senior researcher at CIES-Instituto Universitário de Lisboa. She has been developing research in various fields, namely learning, public policy, work and professions. She is an associate researcher at Instituto de Sociologia da Universidade do Porto. She is also the national coordinator of ENO, the European Network of Observatories in the Field of Arts and Cultural Education. She collaborates with various cultural institutions and artists,namely Cinemateca Portuguesa, Museu do Cinema and Serralves Foundation.

 Anniina Suominen is a professor of Art Pedagogy at Aalto University and the head of Education for the Department of Art. She earned her BA/MA from the University of Arts and Design Helsinki (1999) and her Ph.D. in Art Education from the Ohio State University (2003). Prior to Aalto, she worked for two universities in the USA and has recently visited the University of Florida. Her current publications and presentations focus on marginalized and crisis areas arts education, environmental concerns, feminism and queer in art education pedagogy and policy, animal and immigrant rights as part of contemporary democratic societies and visual/artistic knowing, learning and research.

 Nevelina Pachova is a research and development practitioner with ca. 15 years of experience in the fields of sustainable development, community engagement, education, culture and social inclusion. Her expertise lies in the fields of participatory planning, policy analysis and evaluation, and she has used it to support the design and implementation of both urban and rural development initiatives across Europe, Africa and Asia in the framework of EU and UN agencies and programs.

Policies and ethics