Access to Cultural and Arts Education | Towards the Culture Compass: A Sector Blueprint

This briefing on Access to Cultural and Arts Education (Chapter 8) was edited and coordinated by ELIA and forms part of 10 policy briefings in the discussion paper ‘Towards the Culture Compass: A Sector Blueprint‘ published by Culture Action Europe. Read the Sector Blueprint to discover other briefings on:

• Artistic Freedom
• Working Conditions
• Artistic Research, Culture and Innovation
• International Cultural Relations
• Culture and Health and Well-Being
• Culture and Sustainability
• Cultural Participation
• Culture and Security
• Culture and Digital

download the sector blueprint

Context

The EU Work Plan for Culture 2023–2026 opens with a clear premise: ‘Culture is an infinite source of inspiration and innovation.’ Yet the EU still lacks structural, long-term support for artists, creators and cultural practitioners to pursue their most innovative and transformative work. In particular, the arts as a knowledge domain remain undervalued, despite their proven capacity to drive change within the cultural and creative sectors and industries and to help address today’s societal challenges across the green, digital and social transitions.

The EU should fully recognise the arts as a knowledge domain and support artistic research, positioning the arts within the knowledge triangle (research–education–innovation) at European, national and regional levels. Doing so will strengthen the cultural sector itself and contribute to EU priorities, such as social cohesion, democratic resilience and competitiveness.

There is a solid base to build on. The New European Bauhaus anchors arts and culture in Europe’s green and social transformation. EIT Culture & Creativity mobilises innovation across the cultural and creative sectors and industries. Horizon Europe has funded cultural, creative and artistic research, while EU competence frameworks (e.g., Key Competences for Lifelong Learning, GreenComp) recognise creative skills. Erasmus+ initiatives such as the Cyanotypes Sector Blueprint have expanded applications of creative and transversal competencies.

This momentum should not be lost. The sector faces funding cuts, pressures on freedom of expression and organisational autonomy, and excessive instrumentalisation. Plans to discontinue the Horizon Europe’s Cluster on Culture, Creativity and Inclusive Society in the next Multiannual Financial Framework 2028–2034 are especially concerning. Despite repeated evidence from the sector, creative and transversal competencies are not clearly integrated into the Union of Skills.

Proposals

• Recognise the arts as a knowledge domain within the European Research Area—by fully recognising doctorates in the arts across Member States and updating international research classifications, namely the OECD Frascati Manual so research in and through the arts is properly defined and comparable.
• Establish Creative Innovation Dialogues, a recurring forum between Commissioners and Directorates-General for culture, research, innovation, education and skills (and, when relevant, those for climate, environment, economy, and regional 15 development) paired with structured stakeholder consultation. The aim of such a forum would be to fully leverage the arts as a driving force of transformation and innovation, as well as to facilitate trans-sectoral engagement with the arts through EU policy and funding frameworks.
• Provide policy toolkits and roadmaps that Member States can use to widen equitable, diverse and inclusive access to careers in artistic research and creative innovation, starting with inclusive arts education across all levels.
• Embed creative skills and competences in the Union of Skills, including monitoring through the European Skills Intelligence Observatory and engagement of relevant experts in the European Skills High-Level Board.
• Secure support for collaborative research across arts, culture, heritage, and creativity as a structural component with its own dedicated financial envelope in the Competitiveness cluster under Horizon Europe 2028–2034 Pillar II. Additionally, systematically support arts as an independent knowledge domain across all Horizon Europe pillars—the recommendations from the Artistic Research Alliance can provide guidance.
• Design AgoraEU and Horizon Europe synergies: how the outcomes of research and innovation projects can be leveraged and implemented to benefit the development and resilience of the European cultural sector.
• Position the cultural and creative sectors and industries as a strategic growth and resilience domain in the Competitiveness Fund with relevant funding.

Annex: Resources

1. ABC — Artistic Beginnings in Co-creation, RESEO, 2025.
2. Approaches to a Cultural Footprint: Proposal for the Concept and Ways to Measure It (Roig, E. and Baltà, J.), European Sources, 2011.
3. Art Is Essential: Creative Education Manifesto, 2023.
4. From Margins to Masterpieces: Charting Pathways to Arts in Global Public Education (Lahmann, H.), Community Arts Lab / Porticus and Community Arts Network, 2025.
5. On the Value of STEAM and Arts Education, ELIA, AEC, Culture Action Europe and European Music Council, 2023.
6. Porto Santo Charter. Culture and the Promotion of Democracy: Towards a European Cultural Citizenship, Portuguese Presidency of the Council of the EU, 2021.
7. The Five Music Rights, International Music Council, 2001.
8. UNESCO Framework for Culture and Arts Education, UNESCO, 2024.

Culture Compass for Europe

The Culture Compass for Europe released by the European Commission in November 2025 includes a section on culture and arts education (Section 4.4). The European Commission states that it will promote stronger cross-sector cooperation between arts and education and also reiterates its goal of tackling declining literacy rates through the Union of Skills and initiatives such as the European Authors Day. Notably, the Compass announces a peer-learning project for civic engagement and democratic citizenship through culture, both in and outside of schools, is unveiled:

It will foster partnerships among artists, cultural institutions, community cultural organisations, schools and non-formal education providers, and it will encourage grassroots arts and cultural education projects.

The Culture Compass is accompanied by a draft Joint Declaration entitled “Europe for Culture – Culture for Europe” to be agreed upon and signed by the European Commission, European Parliament and the Council of the EU. This initial draft states that “the synergy between culture, arts, and education is fundamental to the development and prosperity of future societies.” As part of this, it outlines commitments to:

• Fostering arts education for everyone in formal, non-formal, and informal education, including lifelong learning; and
• Supporting STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, and Mathematics) approaches in education and interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary synergies between culture, the arts, science, and technology.