Artistic Research and the Transformation of Art Educational Institutions

Abstract

Artistic research in Sweden has been in a developing phase for more than a decade. It is now getting established. While art education has been occupied with building and carrying out doctoral courses as well as their administration and financing, the focus is now moving to incorporation of artistic research as a normal and integrated part of institutional activities. Different art education programmes are in different phases of this pro cess and they may choose different ways to go ahead, but the opportunities and problems encountered are basically quite similar. In this article I will discuss the continued process with regard to career opportunities for those who graduate as artistic doctors. Although the article is written primarily with music educational institutions in mind it is relevant also to other areas of art education and therefore frequently refers to art
education in general. Artistic research is still a very young discipline in Sweden. However, after years of debates, plans, development and graduation of a number of artistic doctors one may well claim that it is now established as a discipline of its own. Significant steps leading to this situation have been:
• the introduction of funding for artistic research and development projects to the
Swedish Research Council in 2001
• the introduction of an artistic degree ordinance to the higher education ordinance in 2009
• the launching of a national artistic research school in 2010

Parallel to these developments, the Ministry of Education and Research and the universities have recognized that the existence of artistic research means that also institutions of education in fine arts need government research funding in their budgets. When the first artistic doctoral courses started around year 2000 the matter had already been debated for some time. The first doctoral students were admitted in 2001, and in that year two conferences on the subject were also arranged – one in Gothenburg and one in Malmö – on the initiative of the Ministry of Education and Research. These conferences resulted in a report with a number of recommendations. About the same time, what is now the Malmö Faculty of Fine and Performing Arts at Lund University had produced a proposal to the Faculty of Humanities to start an artistic doctoral course. This was done in 2000 and led to the first artistic doctoral degrees in 2006.