Statement of the Rectors' Conference of the German Art Colleges (RKK) on the Art Teacher Training Program at Art Colleges

Artistic teacher training for schools must be anchored in art colleges in all federal states without exception. For teachers, artistic studies represent the most important basic qualification for bringing the experiences, potentials and perspectives of artistic thinking into schools. The art colleges see themselves as responsible for counteracting the shortage of teachers - but at the same time demand a commitment to the high quality of teacher training that can only be provided at an art college.

1. artists at schools The basis for future teachers at schools is the development of an own artistic position. Only in studio studies at an art college can the fundamental independence of artistic action and reflection be experienced in the necessary depth. No other type of higher education than that of the art academy can achieve this. Studying at an art college produces personalities who are different from the teachers trained at universities and who thus make an indispensable contribution to multi-perspective education in schools.

2. ideas are the resources of the future The artistic is a relevant factor in society and in the educational sector. We, the art colleges in Germany, see ourselves as responsible for developing this potential in both students and pupils. In doing so, politics must enable the art colleges to fulfill this responsibility. A class led by an artist opens up spaces for thinking that reflect solutions to issues of the future. They question what is supposedly taken for granted, and their potential for innovation represents a great resource - also through non-conformist and utopian ideas. Against this background, marginalizing the arts subjects in schools is hostile to the future.

3 Art as a major subject / double subject In order to keep the level of artistic education high, the RKK demands the major subject or double subject of art. It enables student teachers to complete their studies in a focused manner at art colleges and to face the challenges of teaching as mature artistic personalities. We strongly recommend that the opportunity to study art as a major/double major be created or maintained.

(Dr. Arne Zerbst, Speaker of the RKK)

Statement dated 05.06.2023:
www.kunsthochschulen.org