Tallinn Summer Academy

Registration is open until 5th of June: artun.ee/summeracademyIn August 2017, the Estonian Academy of Arts will hold its first international summer academy. Titled the Tallinn Summer Academy of Art, Design and Architecture – Edge/Blurring Boundaries, the program will offer courses in various visual culture research and artistic disciplines, focusing on innovative, solution-seeking, salient topics: cooperation between the natural environment and humans in nature, mapping roads and traffic to improve the efficacy of investments into public space, Estonian artistic life in the regional and international context, constructing and building large-scale, custom-dimensioned features for the elephants of the Tallinn Zoo and linking art and technology in Clay 3D printing. The teaching staff of the summer academy includes leading educators, researchers and artists from the EAA and partner universities.

The aim of the EAA Summer Academy vision is to contribute to fulfilling the mission, vision and internationalization goals of the EAA – in other words, to be a central and internationally respected institution for creating, developing and studying art, visual culture and the living environment in Estonia as well as a key force for enriching the country’s cultural environment and quality of life.

Activities aimed at doing so include:

– enriching the international art, design and architecture education landscape through providing high calibre opportunities for study,

– supporting the continuing growth of the international renown and prestige of the EAA’s curricula and academic opportunities,

– finding new students and teaching staff for the academy in both formal and continuing education,

– supporting the development of teaching staff,

– introducing Estonian art, design and architecture internationally,

– introducing the EAA’s English-language curricula to potential new students,

– promoting Estonia and Tallinn in particular as an attractive environment for study, artistic activity, culture and research,

– being sustainable – the international summer academy will be a major area of activity and international brand for the EAA.

Project outcomes and impact on target groups:

– creating preconditions for lifelong learning in society, the discipline, the region and the lives of individuals,

– creating a brand for the EAA in the international summer academy and quality assurance as well as increasing criteria for internationalization,

– enriching academic opportunities and broadening the existing boundaries of academic opportunity by developing new English-language study opportunities based on salient research, artistic and development topics,

– providing open and equal opportunities for study, including the possibility of studying at the academy without a longer-term obligation,*

– making the profile of students at the university level richer, above all in regard to students with a higher educational level,

– improving access to academic opportunity at the level of higher education, including

those who were not able to participate in the past due to language barriers,

– diversifying students’ learning paths,

– supporting the shaping of students’ research-related and creative competence and other skillsets,

– supporting the effective and faster graduation of students already studying at the higher education level,*

– instilling values in the local community – development building in Soomaa National Park,

– data gathered from road and traffic mapping results, shared with third parties,

– increasing the indicators for teaching staff’s research, development and creative activity, development of

teaching staff, including supplementing their teaching portfolio with international experience,

– bringing top-class international teaching staff to teach in Estonia.

(*An analysis of Suomen kesäyliopistot 2016 – an analogous Finnish summer academy – was relied on the forecast of outcomes and impacts.)

The international summer academy will provide significant support for the internationalisation objectives in the Estonian Academy of Arts

Development Plan 2016-2020 (http://bit.ly/2dMHkB7):

– the EAA is international and open – we see a key development impetus from academic migration, which allows the optimum practices and skills to be acquired,

– we put value on international experience and encourage our members to make use of the opportunities created,

– cooperation and common study between students from different cultural backgrounds will facilitate the integration process,

– we consider interest and tolerance with regard to EAA members from outside Estonia to be important and seek ways of recruiting international students and teaching staff.

In opening new curricula and developing existing ones (including international curricula) the EAA proceeds from its top competencies and areas of responsibility as well as from the needs of the labour market, and involves students, alumni, international specialists and employers in the development process,

takes into account demographic forecasts.

The EAA strives to increase public awareness of the Academy’s activities, by popularizing core activities by different target groups in each region and internationally.

We are developing a marketing and communication strategy that supports the Academy’s image building efforts. We carry out active and systematic marketing and information outreach aimed at international target groups.

The summer academy supports achievement of key indicators in the EAA’s academic affairs sphere. With regard to student mobility, these criteria are:

the ratio of students participating in international curricula to the total number of students,

the share of foreign students and visiting teaching staff,

the number of students who participated in student exchange and practicum work abroad and their share among studying students and graduates

In addition, the summer academy contributes to achieving the development activities in the implementation of the EAA development plan:

– we organize high-level international conferences, workshops and exhibitions.

– we encourage graduates to take part in the lectures and workshops of visiting teaching staff and experts connected to the EAA,

– we involve international students, teaching staff and scholars in the EAA’s activities,

– we involve foreign teaching staff in our teaching, artistic and research activities,

– we involve international teaching staff and specialists in the continuing education, re-training and informal education programmes we offer

By holding the first EAA international summer academy, we have laid the groundwork for an area of activity that supports the international renown and prestige of the EAA’s curricula, teaching staff and educational opportunities and introduces Estonian art, design and architecture internationally. The summer academy will have a planned 77 international students, to whom we have been able to familiarize with EAA’s English-language curricula and Estonia as an attractive place for study and research.

The international summer school is taking place as part of the project entitled “Tallinn Summer Academy of Art, Design and Architecture – Edge/Blurring Boundaries”. The project has been made possible by 37,079.24 euros in funding from the European Regional Development Fund.