In recent years renowned international institutions have repeatedly pointed out the importance of creativity as a key factor in solving the prevalent problems we face in the 21st century. Creativity is in this context defined as a fundamental ability for tackling social development and for paving the way for a successful future for human kind in the face of difficult challenges.
The heart of creativity is preserved and nurtured within the arts. Within the academic field of arts this core is further researched in order to heighten its development within society in general.
The arts are relevant to all and they possess qualities that few other fields of human activity do.
They work across borders of cultures, languages, and time. As such they are a unifying force – a force that interlinks our various other abilities to understand, sense, diagnose, take a stand, transform, and develop. All in order to make our society more prosperous, more tolerant, and more open.
The policy of the Iceland University of the Arts is presented at a time that simultaneously marks the University’s twentieth anniversary and the beginning of art education at the academic level in Iceland.
It aims to fully utilise the dynamics and potential that is bound in the human resources of such an institution, both with regard to staff, faculty, and students. The prerequisite for implementing this policy with the ambition that has been put forth here, is that professional conditions will be created for the operations under one roof, as was intended from the outset. Furthermore, it is obvious that if the Iceland University of the Arts is to gain full momentum as a creative and ideological force for the future, funding must be in line with practices in the countries that we compare ourselves to.
Meanwhile the Iceland University of the Arts will continue to nurture, research, and mediate the achievements of art – of creativity – for time to come.