Entrepreneurship meets the arts – Find your way through arts

Education merging entrepreneurial skills with arts and crafts can help young people prepare for the work life. Many professions require knowledge of business and management, but also creativity and innovation. 

The EU co-funded ‘Find your way through Art’ project combined entrepreneurial skills with arts and crafts. Students planned and carried out five cultural events in collaboration with their peers, handling everything from planning and organization, to promotion and content creation. The events were held in front of a live audience, giving students a chance to see what really goes into planning and executing these types of events. 

Students successfully organized a concert in Thiene, an art exhibition in Tampere, a fashion show in Jihlava, a theater performance in Rottweil, and a modern art installation in Valladolid. 

During the events, students also got a chance to network with entrepreneurs, artists and companies. This resulted in students gaining new skills, developing an understanding of the job market, and even creating their own opportunities after the project ended. For example, one student won a design competition and a group of students started their own theater group. 

When blending entrepreneurship and art the first impression may be that they are separate fields, with different philosophies, knowledge, methods, goals and thinking. While this might hold true, the revelation was: they have even more fundamental characteristics in common!