AEC - Association Europeenne des Conservatoires, Academies de Musique et Musikhochschulen

AEC – Strenghtening Music in Society

AEC is a European cultural and educational network with around 300 member institutions offering professional music training in 57 countries. Its members play a crucial role in safeguarding, developing and promoting European cultural heritage and diversity, facilitating access to cultural education, and in creating new jobs in the cultural sector.

The network works for the advancement of higher education in the performing arts with a primary focus on music and aims at enhancing the quality in higher music education by promoting participation, inclusiveness and diversity; strengthening partnerships with stakeholders and fostering the value of music and music education in society.AEC also acts as a think tank through projects, expert meetings and the production of publications, as a hub through the organisation of five annual events and various communication channels and as an advocate for the sector. It is the leading voice for higher music education in Europe.

2017-2020 CREATIVE EUROPE PROJECTS

Through its project “Strengthening Music in Society”, AEC will focus on six strands :

1. Increasing the impact of music and of higher music education institutions in society;

2. Promoting diversity, identity and inclusiveness;

3. Further developing the entrepreneurial mind-set of musicians;

4. Further promoting internationalisation;

5. Shaping the musicians of tomorrow through innovative learning and teaching;

6. Improving teacher education in the digital age. This last strand will be fully coordinated by AEC’s partner organization the European Music School Union (EMU).

The work in each strand will be carried out by a dedicated group of experts who will conduct surveys and research (e.g. on the integration of ‘diverse cultures’ in the training of musicians in Europe and on innovative practices in learning and teaching), develop online toolkits (e.g.an advocacy toolkit for AEC members), produce publications (e.g. a handbook on how to integrate entrepreneurship in music education training) and organise workshops and events (e.g. AEC 2020 Congress on Societal Impact and Audience Engagement).