ELIA - the European League of Institutes of the Arts is organizing its 4th Leadership Symposium in Zürich, Switzerland on 2-4 December 2009. Under the motto "Value is vulnerable", a theme inspired by a phrase from the Dutch poet Lucebert, the Symposium will address the present challenges facing Higher Arts Education. The relevance of this theme is underpinned by the present world crisis, which above all is a crisis of trust.
A worldview is shattered. The widely held sense of who one can or cannot trust may no longer be valid. In today’s world, a global dialogue about social value systems is more relevant than ever: the economic value systems are under strain. Globalisation is challenging traditional values and calling for new ones. What does all this mean for the values implicit in the arts?
In Zurich, key decision-makers from leading and influential art schools worldwide will enter into discussion with representatives of prominent opera-houses, theatres, art galleries and private collections about the validity of traditional and innovative values as generated by artists and art institutions, in relation to the future of our societies.
Speakers include Janet Ritterman, Quentin Cooper, Hans Jakob Roth, Hartmut Esslinger, and Nigel Carrington.
The 2009 ELIA Leadership Symposium will revolve around the following themes:
1. A Continuum of Cooperation and Competition
2. Arts in Economic Times: Arts, Economy and Ethics
3. Art Schools as Counterpart / Counterpoint to the Art Market and Creative Enterprise
4. The Value of Alliances and Mergers and the Vulnerability of Art Institutions
5. The Art / Science Paradigm
The event is hosted by Zürich University of the Arts (ZHdK), one of Europe's largest universities of the arts, comprising more than 2000 students.
The European League of Institutes of the Arts (ELIA), founded in 1990, is the primary independent network organization of major arts education institutions and universities representing all subject disciplines and has a membership of over 350 arts institutions in 47 countries, altogether representing more than 250,000 art students.