Cultural and artistic education

One of the priorities of the Polish cultural policy dedicated to forming cultural competences, which enable both creation/production and the use of the cultural offer, is the cultural and artistic education and creation of the suitable infrastructural base dedicated to it. The cultural education is seen as one of tools used to create the social capacity building, focused on stimulating creativity and preparing to operate in the reality of the information society. Its aim is also to increase the level of participation in the culture of various social groups. These tasks are implemented through schools and other entities, including, among others: local and national cultural institutions, non-governmental organisations, churches and religious associations. The most active entities in this field are community centres and libraries, activities of which, particularly in small towns, are of crucial importance for the cultural development.

The important measure supporting the cultural education are subsidies held by the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage and programmes implemented due to these funds. The most important are the following:

• The Programme of the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage “Cultural Education and Diagnosis of Culture” : One of operational programmes of the Minister is dedicated to local and national cultural institutions, local government units, non-governmental organisations, as well as churches and religious associations. Its objectives include the activation and inspiration of creative behaviour, development of artistic expression and creativity, as well as enrichment of the offer of extracurricular forms of the cultural education addressed to children and youth.
• The ”Education +” Programme : This pilot programme “Education+” implemented in 2010 was addressed to national and partnership cultural institutions supervised directly by the Ministry. The programme was intended to develop education activities and creation of the so-called model projects, which may be an inspiration for other entities operating in the cultural education sector. Subsidised measures included initiatives developing the creativity in interactive creativity workshops,popularising in a nonstandard way the cultural heritage and dedicated to the increase of access to cultural institutions for people with disabilities.
• Online culture for children : The campaign is addressed to parents of children aged 4 – 7 and shall indicate the necessity of incorporating culture and arts in the educational process. The project includes also forming of the cultural consciousness of the youngest group of Internet users, for example through: organizing the knowledge about Poland and the cultural heritage.
• The school Musicoteca : The project was developed by the National Audio-visual Institute together with experts – pedagogues and musicologists. Its aim is to popularise the classical music and stimulating sensitivity of the young audience. The innovative learning platform dedicated to music education was launched in 2011. It allows users, inter alia, for the contact with archives and the European cultural heritage.