introduction

IDEA was founded in Porto, Portugal 1992. Its membership is comprised of national associations, groups and individual practitioners drawn from over 70 countries who seek to demonstrate and advocate drama/theatre education as part of a full human education, particularly through international project collaborations; to promote international dialogue and research around the practice and theory of drama/theatre and education; and to support the practice of drama/theatre and education to achieve human rights and peace throughout the world, particularly for young people, children and excluded communities threatened by violence.

overview

In July 1992, IDEA launched its founding world congress. Since then, thousands of drama and theatre education teachers, grassroots activists, scholars and artists from across the world have exchanged workshop techniques, case studies, pedagogical theories, new curricula and crafted performances, united by a deep respect for difference and a shared vision: to develop our creative, empathetic and analytical intelligences through performance-based pedagogies – to nurture a just and peaceful world.

It’s an inspiring story and each congress includes a General Council Meeting which elects a new team of officers to implement the will of its members to take this vision forward. In Canada, 2004, during our 5th world congress, our members resolved to transform our congress-centred organisation into an inclusive, project-driven IDEA, concerned in particular with young people and the development of a culture of mutual solidarity to ensure the participation of practitioners from every continent and social context. These decisions reflected the needs of a world searching for a new paradigm of creative education and cooperation and have stimulated three rich and intense years of policy-making and innovative projects.

A new website now enables members to dialogue and collaborate more effectively. A pilot project has brought young people together from countries inside Europe, Asia, Africa and Latin America to experiment aesthetically in regional encounters. Practitioners have bridged continents – through IDEA workshops, performances and publications – returning home to develop regional networks, seed local projects, reform curricula and to transform this wealth of knowledge into proposals at regional UNESCO meetings.

And finally, after 7 years of collaboration, IDEA, ISME (International Society of Music Education) and InSEA (International Society of Education through Art), contributed to the facilitation of the first UNESCO World Conference on Arts in Education (Portugal 2006), inspiring the assembled delegates with the dramatic launch of a World Alliance for Arts Education. In August 2006, IDEA assumed the coordination of the first phase of development of the World Alliance, organising the World Creativity Summit in Hong Kong, July, 2007.

These and other projects will be stimulated by the dynamic exchanges within the World Alliance for Arts Education and in turn generate new research and policy contributions for the next World Creativity Summit. You can learn more about IDEA and how to participate in our regional networks, projects and forthcoming World Congress in Brazil 2010 by visiting: www.idea-org.net.

Dan Baron Cohen
President of IDEA