Fast45

Introduction

In what world will artists, arts organizations and institutions of higher arts education operate in 2045? Although we can’t predict the future, it can be anticipated and constructed by using foresight methods to create alternative images and scenarios of the future. Uniarts Helsinki’s CERADA and Open Campus are partners in the FAST45 project, launched in February 2021 and funded by the European Commission. The project will investigate creatively and critically the alternative futures of higher education institutions in the arts in Europe.

The FAST 45 -project constructs future laboratories tailored for European art schools. In the laboratories, actors from higher arts education and working life in different European countries imagine and critically reflect on alternative and desirable futures for the arts and institutions of higher arts education in a world where the arts have a key role to play – a world that has been radically changed by the fourth industrial revolution, globalization, and climate change. 

FAST45 brings together already existing but scattered information on the future visions of institutions of higher arts education across Europe, develops and tests art-based futures research methods and introduces them in future laboratories tailored for institutions of higher arts education in Finland and elsewhere in Europe. In the laboratories, teaching and research staff, students and employers’ representatives in the arts collaborate to create alternative visions and scenarios for use in higher arts institutions’ strategy work, policy development, and collaboration, giving the institutions better opportunities to anticipate the unknown and also actively build their desired futures.

In Uniarts Helsinki, Fast45 -project is positioned on the interface between Research Centre CERADA and Open Campus. The project is conducted by Director Kai Lehikoinen and Working Life Lecturer Satu Tuittila.