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7.3 (Swiss) Training options and professional associations of cultural mediators
→ Teaching Artist,
→ Trans,
→ Ausstellen und Vermitteln,
→ médiatrice et médiateur culturel,
→ Kuverum,
→ Musikvermittlung,
→ Bilden – Künste – Gesellschaft,
→ Vermittlung der Künste,
→ :
Above are some of the many initial and advanced training programmes for cultural mediators who intend to work in non-school settings which have been set up at Swiss universities in the last decade. Their heterogeneous profiles cover mainly cultural mediation in the areas of exhibition and visual, musical and theatre arts. So far there is no curriculum devoted solely to mediation in the literary arts – but it is represented in the content of coursework such as the bilingual Bachelor programme in → literary writing of Bern’s University of Applied Sciences. Courses of study in the area of both non-school and school dance mediation are offered by institutions in Switzerland’s neighbouring countries (e. g.
→ dance pedagogy at the Folkwang University of the Arts, in Essen, Germany; the
→ private Anton Bruckner University in Linz, Austria;
→ dance dissemination at the Hochschule für Musik und Tanz [University for Music and Dance] in Cologne. One of the best established training programmes in the area of
→ community dance is offered by the Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance in London. In France, Paris’
→ Centre Nationale de la Danse Pantin is one of the institutions offering continuing training programmes in dance education).
These newly created, specialized courses of study are one indication of the increasing differentiation within the cultural mediation field. Another is the enhanced visibility of occupational advocacy groups. In the exhibition world, and in theatre, musical and dance education
→ associations and other organizations are working to improve employment conditions, discussing quality criteria, organizing conferences, offering professional development courses, providing information services (such as notices about events, publications or job openings) and opportunities for networking.
Both the colourful bouquet of new training opportunities and the intensifying advocacy efforts within the occupational field are welcome in principle. It should not go unremarked, however, that institutionalization is also tied up with this process. Cultural mediation is changing from what was once a fairly ill defined, open field of experimentation into an increasingly disciplined sphere, with a varied, sometimes uneven distribution of resources, with respect to power, funding and prestige. Universities, cultural institutions and funding institutions are using cultural mediation and the knowledge it produces to enhance their own claims to legitimacy and their own images; associations are protecting first and foremost their own interests, which are not necessarily identical with those of cultural mediation. Thus institutions and other bodies are not under all circumstances automatically destined to promote new and interesting developments in this field of work. The latter quite often occur at the periphery of the field. Remaining attentive and receptive to people and developments outside of the mainstream during a phase of establishment and institutionalization is a challenge in every sphere – including that of cultural mediation.
