A portrait of the artist in 2015

Artistic careers and higher arts education in Europe

New media, tougher commercialism in the cultural field, an increasing international mobility. Artists have been quite busy, lately, with pushing out their frontiers, and they intend to keep crossing borders in the future, not only those between countries, but also between the traditional artistic disciplines and those between art and entertainment. Artists' future prospects and notably their wishes, expectations and possibilities are extensively being addressed in the anthology A portrait of the artist in 2015: Artistic careers and higher education in Europe.

The contributions in this anthology plead for a more direct interaction between the higher arts education institutions on the one hand, and the professional environment of the artist on the other. Higher arts education should anticipate the reality of multiple job holding and the demand for creative talent in the creative industries. They could do this by facilitating life-long learning projects, for instance, preparing artists for, and coaching them in, their professional careers.

The anthology has been published as an introduction to a conference with the same name of the European Council of Artists (ECA). Organized by a coalition of the Dutch Federation of Artists Associations (Federatie van Kunstenaarsverenigingen), the Association of Universities of Professional Education (HBO-raad) and the Boekman Foundation, the conference was held in the beginning of October 2004 in Amsterdam.