EU4ART: European University Network for Arts Education Expands with Rome Academy

The EU4ART program, funded by the Italian Ministry of University and Research (MUR) and the European Commission, aims to create a European university for arts education, fostering mobility, shared curricula, and cross-border collaboration. Launched in 2019 with a call for proposals, it established 17 consortia. The only Italian fine arts academy in the network is the Accademia di Belle Arti di Roma, which partnered with the University of Riga (Latvia), the University of Budapest (Hungary), and the Academy of Fine Arts Dresden (Germany). Their proposal, presented in February 2019, won approval in June 2019. Despite the COVID-19 pandemic halting physical mobility in March 2020, the project continued digitally, with online conferences and a planned virtual atelier platform for lab disciplines. Cecilia Casorati, director of the Rome academy since September 2020, described EU4ART as a novel experiment in international arts education, aiming to define a new lexicon for the field. Tiziana D'Acchille, project coordinator and former director (2014–2020), highlighted flexible mobility options compared to Erasmus+, allowing students to attend variable-length courses and earn a degree in Visual Arts. The consortium also plans webinars on artistic research and third-sector activities. D'Acchille noted that the first year revealed deep shared ideas among faculty from diverse regions, including the Baltic states, underscoring art as a universal language.