Equal Access to Arts and Cultural Education: A Possibility, or Utopia?, roundtable organized by Eeva Anttila with Mirja Hiltunen and Anniina Suominen

This panel focuses on access and equality in the context of arts and cultural education. The panelists represent arts education research and arts teacher training in Finnish universities. Since 2017 they have collaborated within the Finnish Observatory for Arts and Cultural Education that seeks to reinforce the equal accessibility and effectiveness of arts and cultural education for example through increased collaboration between researchers and practitioners. The focus of this presentation on how the panelists have aligned their projects with the notion of accessibility. The aim of the Observatory is that high quality arts education is accessible to everyone as a foundational value of a democratic society. Moreover, research in arts education is considered vital for developing the quality and accessibility of arts and cultural education.