In a context of growing inequality, armed conflict, disinformation, incitement to hatred, racism, xenophobia and other forms of discrimination, it is crucial to ensure cultural and arts education as a common good of humanity that must be accessible to all. It is essential to strengthen its role in promoting respect for diversity and intergenerational collaboration within policies, educational systems and societies at large, as well as to strengthen collective commitment and sustained public investment.

By experiencing the cultural and artistic life of their families, communities and societies, children in their early years discover and forge their own sense of identity and, by participating in the spiritual, material, intellectual and emotional expressions of their culture and traditional arts, contribute to the development of cultural heritage and the transformation of the society to which they belong. 

Participation in the cultural life of the community is central to the construction of subjectivity and citizenship. Children not only inherit and experience the cultural and artistic life of their family, community, and society, but also discover and forge their own sense of identity and contribute to the development and sustainability of cultural life and the arts by reproducing, transforming, creating, and transmitting culture through play, song, dance, storytelling, figure animation, drawing, and other activities. Children’s playful activity, expression, participation and creativity generate a “culture of childhood” that needs to be promoted and protected in families, communities and children’s schools.

Cultural and arts education, therefore, must be holistic, transformative, and impactful, based on a humanistic vision grounded in human rights and a pedagogy of childhood that enables, expands, and sustains participatory spaces and learning communities, including through culture and the arts used as an educational tool.