Editorial - Seventh issue of the European Journal of Philosophy in Arts Education

In really worrying times such as these, the arts and arts education proves more important than ever. When a pandemic stirs the lives of everyone, overtaking, at least for some time, the even greater climate crisis, people need something to provide meaning. People need to express themselves, communicate, create, process, enjoy, flee, protest… These human and social functions are among the most central for the arts – as a vehicle for meaning; personally and socially. In this issue I have the great pleasure of presenting three very different articles that were all written before the corona pandemic, but when read in the light of the social distancing and fear of getting ill, brings new and interesting dishes to the table of arts education. We have one article from the field of museum education and two articles coming from the field of music education, with one of them bridging the gap towards music therapy. In total there are six authors, three from Northern Europe, two from North America and one from South America. It is interesting and a nice receipt that EJPAE is getting recognition and is filling a void, that scholars from all over the world now wishes to publish in the journal. The issue starts off with a very interesting article that is written as a part of the DAPHME (Discourses of Academization and the Music Profession in Higher Music Education) research project. Two Norwegians and a German scholar, Øivind Varkøy, Elin Angelo and Christian Rolle, discusses the line between artist and crafts(wo)man. Are musicians in a philharmonic orchestra artists, or are they “just” skilled performers of other’s ideas? By employing ideas from Arendt, Heidegger, Sennet, Benjamin, Plato and others they pinpoint interesting dilemmas for music education relating to the nature of musicianship. To quote the article: “Must we let go of the ideas of art’s fundamental unpredictability and unreliability, as well as the artist’s calling to act unfaithfully and disloyally, ending up reducing art to some sort of “social handicraft”? If such ideas are to be considered with the depth and intensity they deserve, it presupposes a confidence with the disturbing features of art or art’s outrageousness”. Is it not necessary for art to hold elements of unpredictability and outrageousness? As the authors reminds us: the purpose of the article is not to solve the possible contradictions between art(ist) and craft(s(wom)an) but rather to bring to light discourses and tensions that influence teachers, students and artsts/crafts(wo)men alike. The text is a thought-starter and will continue to work in the reader for a long time after it is read. The second article connects to the first in that it also uses Arendt for its arguments, even if Martin Buber’s relational ideas are the fundament for this articles agenda. Elizabeth Mitchell and Cathy Benedict, two North American scholars representing music therapy and music education has written this article partly as a dialogue between the two scholars – a dialogue about how music education and music therapy can inform each other, what these traditions have in common and how they are separate. The article is written from a North American perspective, but also connects with European scholars to develop their discussion. Different academic disciplines often develop to become autonomous fields only referencing themselves, even in cases where they share the same challenges as questions as other fields. Articles like this where scholars think aloud about how bridges can be built between arts education and neighbouring disciplines are much needed, and this is an excellent example of how this can be done. So for anyone from music therapy or music education who is curious about the other field, read the article! Finally in this issue, EJPAE has the pleasure to welcome the first contribution from museum education, and also the first contribution from Latin America – Guatemala (even if the author is a PhD student in Norway). Andrés Álvarez Castañeda has written an intriguing article both about and utilising arts based research to investigate the possible learning in the Community Museum for Historical Memory in Rabinal, Guatemala. Referencing relational aesthetics, which is a reoccurring theme in EJPAE (see e.g. Vist & Holdhus, 2018 and Holdhus & Espeland, 2017), Castañeda argues that community museums such as the one he is investigating can be understood as venues that in themselves open for arts based research like learning. The museums multimodal and multisensory exhibitions are thoroughly presented and used to explain how the museum has the potential to provide “[…] an experience in métissage that forever transforms the visitor” (Castañeda, 2020, p 81). I am proud to present this interesting and diverse issue in these testing times, and hope the articles will provide many of you with many hours of rewarding reading and thinking. Take care and enjoy! Ketil Thorgersen Editor in Chief Stockholm June 8th 202