CRAFT considers a cohesive and inter-disciplinary solution to the ever-widening issue of loss of intangible cultural heritage and knowledge. It also addresses the global, imperative concern in arts education of invaluable crafts and skills being lost due to lack of innovation and lack of a solid, established repository of knowledge. The project offers a tangible way forward, and enlists key players in the European ceramic field, to offer a specialised and complementary approach to bring together these fragmented practices, consolidating them into a range of forward-thinking pedagogical approaches. Ceramic practice and craft could then be shared and taught in a more democratic and reliable manner, to reach wider audiences and learners. CRAFT - Activating Pedagogy for Ceramic Education Futures is a 3-year project aimed to support ceramic knowledge retention and transfer by: - Mapping ceramic places, skills, process, technologies, intangible knowledge and training practices for making ceramics (O1);- Developing pedagogical approaches and innovative teaching methods to teach ceramics to sustain the future of the subject (O2);- Developing skills resources, offering repertoires of knowledge and practice for making ceramics (O3); Moreover, three short-term staff training events (M13, M18 and M25) will be delivered to co-design and test the intellectual outputs, involving all partners to carry out observations, gain feedback, evaluate the activities and integrate into these in the outputs and shape long-term impact. The project delivery methodology relies upon critical and creative thinking, participatory methods, problem and challenge-based learning approaches, design for transformational practices and collaborative methods. The project results will be research and industry informed, and implemented into each partner HEI’s teaching practice and pedagogies. Project results will be widely disseminated as open educational resources and their impact shall be maximised through dissemination and communication activities carried out by the partners, including the organisation of two multiplier events for industry and academic stakeholders. The project is delivered by a partnership of five leading European design HEIs pioneering heritage and future ceramic training. CRAFT will be undertaken by a multidisciplinary team committed to unleashing meaningful and innovative approaches to the planned activities. Partners in this project have connected through a recognised imperative and a shared commitment to providing ceramic education and the potential to scale the initiatives that they are each developing at BA and MA levels. CRAFFT reach out and impact is further extended through a network of five associate partners representing academic, societal and industry stakeholders. This partnership will be forming together the basis for a European network focused on the preservation and modernization of the ceramics craft, its effective dissemination through knowledge exchange, and the optimization and maximization of the ceramics curricula by developing new pedagogies. This partnership will enable the designer makers of the future through a new EU training network for ceramic learning, making and research at the university level.

Context/Backround and ObjectivesAlexandria Nova is a network of North European directing programs. It aims to create a international and diverse learning environment for the relatively small directing programs of each national institution and make a leap forward in the awareness about pedagogical methods used. We will share practical and pedagogical knowledge, describe and share working methods and gather together understanding about the art of directing. Number and profile of the participantsHochschule für Schauspielkunst Erns Busch in Berlin in the leading organisation with six partners including Listahaskoli Island in Reykjavik, Den Danske Scenekunstskole in Copenhagen, Theatre Academy of Uniarts Helsinki, Uniarts Stockholm, Lietuvos Muzikos ir Teatro Akademija in Vilnius and Kunsthogskolen i Oslo. Each of these institutions offer higher education in directing. In most cases (Sweden, Finland, Lithuania, Island, Norway, Copenhagen) they are also the only national institution to do so. This is why the transnational dialogue is completely essential in order to develop further artistically and pedagogically. Description of activities The three-year-project includes - Alexandria Nova Workshops and Seminars where the students and teachers can learn and exchange methodologies of directing and teaching directing. - In the Alexandria Nova Symposiums we address the current theoretical issues in the field of directing. - Alexandria Nova Labs are meant for the teachers to bring together, reflect and develop their pedagogical understanding. There is also possibility to compare and develop our curricula together: not to make them all similar, but to recognise and describe the strengths of each directing program. Methodology to be used in carrying out the projectAlexandria Nova is gathering and documenting artistic and pedagogical knowledge from the field of directing. It is essential that both teachers and students are participating in this process. This will be done through teaching demonstrations in seminars, teachers writing and documenting their own work with the supportive questions and reflections on their work from their peers in the network. The students will also be reflecting and documenting on their learning processes by documenting their artistic processes in different ways: for example by writing, video and photographs. This work will lead to the building of the Alexandria Nova Digital Library which will include theoretical texts used in teaching, theses work in doctoral and MA -level, recorded lectures, exercises and documentation of students artistic learning processes. By gathering this knowledge in one place and examining it we will be able to recognise and name the most important pedagogical methods used in the Alexandria Nova network and develop them further. We will hopefully also recognise what is missing in our curriculums, what challenges and questions of our art we fail to address at the moment. This will lead to further curriculum development and to the process of creating new pedagogical methods. The idea is that digital library is a living thing: it will carry out after the three-year-project and serve as a database for pedagogical and artistic research concerning directing in the future.After naming and recognising the essential issues in the field of directing today to Alexandria Nova will publish a book about directing. It will consist of articles addressing for example:- the historical development of the role of a director,- ethics of representation,- the new contexts of making performance and the effects that these contexts have to the work of a director, - different methods of leading and directing artistic group work,- awareness of the socio-political context and artists own possibly privileged position as an important working method of a director A short description of the results and impact envisaged and finally the potential longer term benefitsThe project will have two intellectual outputs: 1) the Alexandria Nova Digital Library and 2) Alexandria Nova: Book in directing. These, together with our last symposium in the May 2022, will be a way to disseminate the results of our pedagogical and artistic research to the wider audience. Joint European modules will be designed to share and develop the knowledge of the participating institutions by encouraging teachers and students to engage in educational mobility and cross borders cooperation. Alexandria Nova is a project that has a potential to make big changes in the way we teach and learn directing. The gathering and reflection of our pedagogical and artistic knowledge about directing will lead to a heightened understanding of the methods of teaching and learning directing. The learning environment becomes transnational and more diverse. This kind of learning environment will be a growing place for the next generation of artists who see transnational artistic cooperation as a natural part of their career.