Escola Massana, Centre d´Art i Disseny

Mission Statement

The defining feature of both the Escola Massana and its teaching philosophy is its trans-disciplinary character.  This generates a symbiosis between the disciplines of art and design, thus fomenting the comprehensive training of its students.

Escola Massana’s educational programmes encompass three conceptual areas: Visual Arts, Applied Arts and Design, for three educational levels:

• Massana Superior: A Bachelor’s Degree in Art and Design, a Postgraduate Diploma Applied Contemporary Arts and eight Short Cycles (CFGS – Diploma in Higher Education in Plastic Arts and Design).
• Massana Basic: Artistic Baccalaureate and one basic training Short Cycle (CFGM – Diploma of Education in Plastic Arts and Graphic Design Printing Support
• Massana Permanent: Continuous training consisting of beginners, specialist and post-graduate courses, leading to non-official qualifications.

International Role

The Massana School’s relations with other academic institutions abroad has always been one of its major concerns, as it firmly believes that sharing teaching experiences with different cultural traditions enriches its own teaching experiences. These relations undoubtedly contribute to the School’s consolidation and outreach in the EHEA and in HEIs outside Europe in the field of art and design. Its international consolidation and outreach occurs on several levels:

• It increases the number of HEIs with which it can sign agreements, thus consolidating the Massana School’s positioning among art and design institutions in Europe.
• It encourages the integration of linguistic, cultural and academic diversity throughout the School’s community.
• It enables the School to work on multilateral projects with European institutions that share common goals and research lines.

The School has a long history of collaboration and cooperation with some of these institutions and has renewed agreements with them in successive academic years. They are universities and schools that teach art and design from:

• Culturally and geographically close countries such as Portugal, France, Italy and Belgium.
• Countries in northern and central Europe such as Finland, Sweden, Norway, Estonia, Latvia, Germany, Switzerland and Hungary.
• Countries outside of Europe, mainly North, Central and South America.

Students following either of the School’s two higher education curricula may apply to go on a mobility programme. Incoming students from other European institutions also follow one of these curricula:

• Students on the short cycle art and design courses (mural art, sculpture, textile arts, artistic jewellery, graphic design for advertising, illustration, industrial modelling, and interior design and project management) taught at the School.
• Students on the degree in Art and Design taught through the Autonomous University of Barcelona, of which the Massana School is an affiliate.

Mobility programmes that involve students on short cycles going on a work placement are managed through the vocational training organisations XARXA FP, Fundació BCN de la FP and CONSORCI ESCOLES D'ART DE CATALUNYA.
Escola Massana promotes the Mobility of teaching and non-teaching staff in general in the framework of the ERASMUS programme through which they go on short stays to similar institutions abroad, with the aim of:

• Learning about developments in other teaching environments.
• Comparing the teaching and management methods used in other institutions.

The Massana School also hosts teaching staff from other institutions in Europe who make a valuable contribution by teaching lessons, giving seminars and conferences, and taking an involvement in other academic activities in general.

National Role

The School promotes actions with businesses, as well as with cultural and social institutions, that have a bearing on its teaching activities. These actions also enable students to come into direct contact with the professional world and favour dialogue between the School, businesses and future professionals. Specifically, competitions and seminars are held that prioritise the educational, conceptual, creative and innovative development of the student body. The internationalisation of these actions, the School’s cooperation with, and the attendance of students and teaching staff at European HEIs will undoubtedly increase their significance.

Consolidate the School’s results and internationalise its participation in workshops and seminars organised by its different departments, whose main goal is to achieve sustainability through experimentation. They also give rise to new ways of understanding multiculturalism in the context of a global mass market.

Through its ideas and expertise, the School makes valuable contributions to a wide range of organisations involved in the world of arts and crafts such as ARTESANIA DE CATALUNYA, MACBA and FAD. The consolidation and internationalisation of the participation of students and teaching staff on the programme will not only increase its significance but will also contribute to opening new job markets for the School’s graduates.

The Escola Massana belongs to Design for All Europe (EIDD), Foment de les Arts Decoratives (FAD — Promotion of Decorative Arts), Associació d'Artistes Visuals de Catalunya (AAVC — Association of Visual Artists in Catalonia) and the Coordinadora d'Escoles Públiques d'Art i Disseny de Catalunya (Coordinator of State Schools for Art and Design in Catalonia).

Main Focus

Escola Massana Municipal Centre for Art and Design, a school with more than 80 years’ experience in the visual arts and design, proposes a line of education and training in which the student assumes creation as an inclusive process related to production but with an extensive grounding in knowledge not restricted to a single discipline. It applies a learning methodology whereby the different areas of knowledge enrich each other and also fosters research skills so that future professionals can anticipate new scenarios for the practice of arts and design in the future.

Massana School of Art and Design integrates three disciplines: applied arts, visual arts, and design. The link between the fields of artistic creation and design has a solid basis in extensive sectors of the professional world. The development of technologies and the growing importance of innovation in the overall production system have contributed to the consolidation of this combination. Indeed, the School meets the needs of multi-talented and adaptable professionals who can engage in creative processes of very different types. Here, students assume creation as a process related to production and at the same time backed by a broad knowledge base: they learn to create, communicate, and understand complex realities in an integrated field. A learning methodology is applied whereby the different areas of knowledge enrich each other. The teaching also stimulates research skills so that future professionals can anticipate new scenarios to practice art and design.

Graduates acquire a critical, communicative, and creative capacity that allows them to prepare innovative and competitive proposals. Students familiarize themselves with the history of art and design and their contemporary trends. They build their skills as well as their creativity in different visual and audiovisual disciplines. The range of subjects on offer in the different degree’s allows them to become familiar with new technologies and professional routines in fields such as culture management and art criticism and, depending on the type of specialization they wish to do, they can opt for five sub-categories: applied arts, art, the design of objects and spaces, visual communication, and visual narration. Escola Massana prioritizes contact with the industrial and institutional network, as well as the international projection of its activity and students.