UNESCO Adopts Seoul Agenda

2nd World Conference on Arts Education May 25-28 in Seoul develops strategies for arts education

The 2nd World Conference on Arts Education took place in Seoul May 25-28, the first one to be held in Asia, with the theme of “arts for society, and education for creativity” following the initial conference in Lisbon, Portugal, in 2006.
Minister Yu In-chon of the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism, said the Organizing Committee for the UNESCO meeting began to prepare for the Seoul meeting as soon as the 34th UNESCO annual conference unanimously voted to name Seoul as the venue for the 2nd world conference on arts education.
He said the Seoul meeting was designed to upgrading the value of culture and arts education so that every one in the world would enjoy the higher value of culture and arts education in the 21st century.
The minister said he hoped that the conference would have been useful in the development of model cases through close cooperation among NGOs, research institutions, artists, local autonomous organizations and government agencies so that they would be able to strengthen the positions of culture arts education in society and schools.
Sec. Gen. Irina Bokova of UNESCO said the value and importance of culture and arts education were discussed at the 1st World Conference on Arts Education held in Lisbon in 2006 based on the roadmap adopted at the meeting and this is about time that we should focus on the implementation of the roadmap for culture and arts education around the world.
The purpose of the Seoul meeting was to expand the understanding for the importance of the role of arts education for the nations, the international union and the mankind based on diversified nature of culture and peaceful spirit so that the culture and arts education now and in the future would be more creative and effective at the same time, the top UNESCO official said.
On the last day of the conference, the Seoul agenda was adopted at the meeting as a result of the consultation with the Korean government and UNESCO, the meeting of the international advisory council, 27 sub-committee meetings, four special meetings, and other high-level meetings participated in by the representatives of 15 countries based on the road map taken up at the 1st World Arts Education Conference held in Lisbon, Portugal.
The countries that participated in the Seoul meeting increased by 60 countries from the first meeting in Lisbon bringing total number to 129 with the number of participants rising to over 2,000, up by some 1,000 from those in the 2006 Lisbon meeting, which included a large number of ministerial and vice ministerial officials from the cultural and arts ministries in their respective governments. They were able to hold significant meetings on ways to develop arts and culture education in the participating countries in the UNESCO-sponsored meeting.
The closing ceremony took place divided into two parts. In the first part, the youth forum that took place from May 22 at Seoul Arts School with the theme of “arts that shake life,” participated in by reps from 36 countries reported the results of its forum by showing films that recorded their activities during a four-day event and a mime performance about what art is about.
The second part involved the presentation on what happened during the four-day meeting on arts and culture education. Professor Larry O’Farrel of Canada reported the results of the discussions held during the meeting, along with the details of the Seoul agenda and the processes leading up to its adoption at the meeting. The agenda has three goals with each of them having four major strategies for their implementation.
The Seoul Agenda declared by Davidson Hpeburn, chairman of the Seoul world arts education conference, will give a historic nature to the Seoul meeting, putting Seoul in the lead for the implementation of the agenda’s details in 193 UNESCO member countries as strategies for the development of culture and arts education. nw

(from Left) Sec. Gen. Irina Bokova of UNESCO gives her speech at the 2nd World Conference on Arts Education held in Seoul May 25-28 in Seoul. Minister Yu In-chon of the Ministry of Culture, Sports, and Tourism delivers his speech at the 2nd World Conference on Arts Education held in Seoul. A view of the venue of the UNESCO meeting, COEX in Seoul.