The NAIP collaboration has initiated a new Strategic Partnership, funded by the Erasmus+ programme with the title NAIP: Training Artists Without Borders. The project started in autumn 2016 and will finish in autumn 2018.
The project is coordinated by Iceland Academy of the Arts and the project partners are Guildhall School of Music & Drama, London, Stockholms konstnärliga högskola, Stockholm, Universität für Musik und Darstellende Kunst, Vienna, Koninklijk Conservatorium, The Hague, Pins Claus Conservatorium & Academie Minerva, Groningen, Yong Siew Toh Conservatory of Music, Singapore, Association Européenne des Conservatoires, Académies de Musique et Musikhochschulen (AEC), and the Icelandic Opera, Reykjavik.
This project aims at the modernisation of curricula and learning environment, through an interdisciplinary dialogue between higher education in music and performing arts. The discourse will take place within a consortium, consisting of three institutions offering the NAIP programme (European Music Master for New Audiences and Innovative Practice), four higher educational institutions offering training in music and/or performing arts, as well as a professional partner in the field of performing arts.
This project presents the opportunities offered by cross-border and cross-art collaboration as a tool for curricular innovation, with active participation of academics and students in the field of music and performing arts, as well as players from the professional field. The project's progress and results will be widely disseminated, thereby making a significant impact on higher education in the fields of music and performing arts in Europe and beyond.
This partnership project consists of several activities over a two-year period, focusing on developing:
- Cross-art modules
- Mentoring as a tool for innovation, professional integration and talent development
- Online learning approaches
The activities will be in the form of two cross-art intensive study programmes, two blended mobility courses, three working groups, a joint staff training event and a staff development seminar. The activities of the project are designed to develop new and sustainable curriculum structures, both in the physical as well as the virtual classroom, exploring the possibilities of new cross-art joint modules. The project utilizes the international conversation and cross-fertilization in the partnership to enhance curriculum development, and create new approaches for creative collaborative learning in a cross-art setting. The project explores the advantages of an active dialogue between the professional field and higher education, as well as sharing and learning through a critical discourse between academic staff members of music and performing arts.
This project builds on experiences gained through previous partnership projects, which aimed at the development of creative collaborative learning in higher music education, emphasising enhancement of personal skills, self-confidence, community engagement, collaboration skills, improvisation, peer evaluation and reflection. In today’s professional environment of artists, the boundaries between subjects of art are becoming more and more blurred. As it is now apparent that interdisciplinary skills are an inseparable part of working in the professional environment of music and performing arts, the higher education institutions must respond to the students' needs to train in a cross-art learning environment. This project responds directly to this need, offering both teachers and students the opportunity to engage in interdisciplinary discourse and activities.