The 2014 Seoul International Symposium for Arts and Creativity was held last Monday at the Korea Chamber of Commerce & Industry, drawing on the expertise of international experts on public art education for children.

Organized by Seoul Foundation for Arts and Culture and the Finnish Embassy, the symposium, titled “Artists, Teachers, Teaching Artists: Reflections on Identity and Expansions of Practice,” shared know-how in the art of teaching community-based programs and explored the changing identities of educators.

Marianna Kajantie, the founding director of Finland’s Annantalo Arts Center, and artists from the U.S., Belgium, Sweden and Korea spoke about the powerful and positive impact art has in the development of cultural citizens. Kajantie is a world-renowned intellectual and practitioner of public arts education, and has directed policies and programs in Europe for nearly three decades.

“Our school system is in a crisis of legitimacy brought on by extreme materialism and individualism. This is manifesting itself in excessive competition for university entrance, school violence, teen suicide and the destruction of the youth,” Seoul Educational Superintendent Cho Hi-yeon said in an opening speech. “It is thus vital to bring self-confidence, autonomy, creativity and teamwork to the fore of our education.” 

According to the Ministry of Health and Welfare’s “2013 Comprehensive Survey of Children,” South Korean students were the unhappiest of all youths in the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, topping the child deprivation index at 54.8 percent.

The study cited “extreme academic pressures” from homework, tests and grades as the causes behind their dissatisfaction with life. The United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child in 2011 recommended that Korea tame its educational obsession and fierce competition by finding a balance between study and play.

“The ‘cultural capital’ which is gleaned in childhood opens the path for the individual’s consumption of culture throughout life,” Kajantie said in her keynote speech. “Access to the cultural and symbolic universe in life fundamentally shapes one’s sensitivity, expressiveness and sense of citizenry. Each person has a dynamic cultural identity.”

Despite the wealth of literature validating the rewards of arts education, Kajantie said, it is marginalized in today’s money-oriented, technology-driven world.

The problems and dilemmas that most people experience in life are quite unlike the clear-cut, black-and-white solutions found in textbooks, she said. Art teaches children passion, partnership, persistence and patience; they absorb the workings of power, conflict and emotion by learning beauty, grace and proportion.

“The arts are multicultural, even transcultural, and make a perfect framework for cross-cultural communication. By opening us to new phenomena and people different from us, they teach empathy and harmony,” Kajantie added.

Kajantie highlighted the four rationales of public cultural policy ― empowerment, entertainment, enlightenment and economic impact ― which were recommended to the Seoul City government by the European Union. She suggested making art the fourth pillar of the sustainable modern world alongside the society, economy and environment.

Kajantie said that creativity is different from intelligence, although the two are closely related: “Characteristics of a creative person include tolerance of ambiguity, playfulness of ideas and willingness to explore unlikely connections.” A creative person also needs the courage to pursue his or her own idea in the face of opposition and takes intuitive risks to achieve innovation.

The Annantalo Arts Center for children and youth in Helsinki, Finland, was opened to the public in 1987 as a venue for art education, cultural exhibitions, and dance and theater performances. It collaborates with arts institutions and schools in the city and is administered by the City of Helsinki Cultural Office.

An artist’s philosophy comes about through maturity, and cannot be manufactured, Kajantie said in an interview with The Korea Herald. The educators at Annantalo not only teach art, but activate mutual learning experiences through collaborating and engaging with students.

The Finnish academia, starting from the early 1900s, recognized the priority of developing a “whole person” through the arts, Kajantie said. Finnish art, characterized by clean-cut lines and auroral tones, expresses the candid character of the Finns and the serene nature of Scandinavia.

Kajantie noted that the cutthroat economic competition in the free market world paradoxically has spawned a greater need for arts education. In contrast to the postwar generations who lived their lives pursuing material dreams, the current and next generations are “not after the money or status,” she said. “They want the good life.”

“The future of this world rests upon the shoulders of today’s youth. It is the responsibility of adults and educators to unzip children’s creative potentials, to make the invisible visible,” Kajantie stressed.

By Joel Lee (joel@heraldcorp.com)