The EXPECT_Art project has successfully concluded its research phase with the Arts Exploratorium, designed to generate comprehensive knowledge about how arts education is taught and practiced in schools and local communities, and how cultural literacy can be enhanced. Arts Exploratorium took place in schools and local communities in 6 countries, combining participant observation, arts-based practises, interviews and surveys to capture how artistic learning unfolds in real-life settings. The findings highlight that advancing critical cultural literacy requires a shift from traditional top-down teaching toward more collaborative and participatory pedagogies.

Across countries, many teachers already integrate artistic approaches into their lessons, creatively blending traditional and innovative methods. However, significant barriers remain. Rigid curricula, time pressures, the marginalisation of arts education, neoliberal perspective prioritising subject perceived as contributing to future employability, and dominant national and Eurocentric cultural frameworks often limit the potential of arts-based learning to support deeper critical engagement.

Insights from Slovenia illustrate this tension particularly well. Children enjoy participating in artistic activities, yet often perceive them as “just fun”, unstructured or chaotic rather than meaningful educational experiences. Even when teachers successfully incorporate arts-based approaches, structural constraints can prevent these from becoming spaces where children’s lived experiences and perspectives are meaningfully explored. However, if supported by skilled facilitation, the arts practices have the potential to become important media for critical engagement. When young people feel their voices are not genuinely valued, they are more likely to participate passively rather than engage critically.

At the same time, the research uncovered strong transformative potential — especially beyond the classroom. Slovenian local communities offer fascinating activities, which can engage young people and adults in a collaborative and participatory manner. The team observed activities that involved resolving community-identified problems by drawing from participants’ personal cultural experience, as well as contributing to fostering participants’ critical cultural literacy. Local community activities that are not tied to the rigid school curricula and educational structures, offer more possibilities to dismantle the power relations and create meaningful opportunities for learning beyond the classroom by fostering inclusive spaces for agency, allowing individuals – especially children and youth – to become active interpreters and narrators of their own social worlds

From using fairy tales to explore lived realities, to participatory redesign of local spaces, to practices that challenge dominant consumption patterns, these initiatives fostered agency, civic awareness, and collective reflection. Importantly, such community-based practices demonstrate that cultural production is a vibrant, collaborative process rather than a static heritage.