Futures Art School Trends - 2045

The world in 2045 was envisioned as a different place. Although we could not predict the future, we explored ways to shape it. Futures studies developed methodologies to create images and scenarios, and FAST 45 – Futures Art School Trends 2045, brought together key players from Higher Arts Education and business. The goal was to imagine a desirable future where arts participation, education, and research were integral amidst the impacts of the fourth industrial revolution, globalization, and climate change.

FAST45 collected knowledge, created and tested methods, and broadly implemented them in labs where educators, researchers, and employers collaborated to create future scenarios and operationalize them through policy papers, long-term collaborations, and tools. This empowered institutions to not only anticipate the unknown future but actively shape it.

The project worked across sectoral boundaries to envision futures scenarios for 2045 by:

- Exploring and inventorying existing research on possible, probable, or preferable futures for Higher Arts Education (IHAE) and artists' employment.

- Organizing Art School Futures Labs that enhanced futures thinking within IHAE and among external public and private partners.

- Delivering four futures scenarios highlighting discontinuities from the present and revealing potential choices and consequences that IHAE needed for long-term planning.

- Organizing discussions on policy actions to inform and facilitate transformative leadership for strategic advancements.

These actions placed the future on the agenda of all stakeholders involved. FAST45's knowledge, methods, and tools created agency and sustainability for arts institutions and their business partners. The future was seen as open and available for us to shape.