30 years of Erasmus. What next?

Semester project winter 2016/17, Wim Westerveld

The German Agency for EU Cooperation on Higher Education and the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) invite us to develop visual projects on the theme »30 years Erasmus«. The anniversary of Erasmus student exchange programme will be celebrated in 2017.

Where would we be without Erasmus? The second name of Desiderius Erasmus (1466–1536) is used by many initiatives and public facilities. He became the symbol of the promotion of qualitative education; mobility and openness in the international academic exchange; religion without fundamentalism; tolerance without exclusion of polemics, and: an ironic perspective on the world. There is an Erasmus University, Erasmus bridge, an Erasmus Prize, there are several Erasmus schools in Europe, and last but not least there is the Erasmus programme to promote European studies abroad!
Our school of art has benefits a lot from the opportunities for the European exchange and we expericience the advantages of cultural interactions. At the 25-year anniversary of the Erasmus programme in 2012, it was still not clear how the Exchange in Europe would come under pressure.
Who had foreseen the Brexit for example, what lies ahead next? And what are the consequences for the academic exchange? With regard to the current nationalist trends in Europe an anniversary celebration of the Erasmus programme looks more delicate than 5 years ago.
The more useful it will be, to show what the Erasmus programme is about. It is not only the aim to preserve the program, but also to strengthen it in future.
A foreign stay shouldn’t fail because parents have too little money to support, it should be open to students from all social backgrounds. We are not there yet...

Ideas/projects for the public can be developed; in the areas of design, visual or performing arts. Poster series, short films, short stories, interviews and concepts for the social media, e.g. to share experiences with the Exchange programme amongst students abroad. Any kind of media may be used in the implementation of the ideas. Every useful way of communication is possible. There is also a desire to design a logo and CI for »Erasmus 30 years«. A presentation
of the results is planned at the beginning of next year.

Mrs Wiebke Rockenwind of the National Agency for EU Cooperation on Higher Education and German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) is available in October
to provide us a more detailed briefing.