There are many persons and institutions active in extramural art education: youth centres, community centres and clubhouses, the open university, teachers who give private lessons, amateur art societies and artists’ organisations with educational activities. There are also organisations that offer holiday courses. Practically every local authority has an arts centre. A number of national institutions provide support and promote the improvement of quality in amateur art.

Arts centres
There are some 250 recognised arts centres subsidised by the local authority: music schools, creative centres and combined institutions that specialise in art education and target a broad public. For example Buitenkunst, Crea, MK24 en Open Studio. Arts centres offer amateurs art education and artistic practice in a variety of disciplines, such as fine art, music, dance, theatre, audiovisual art and theatre. Music schools sometimes offer other disciplines as well.

Arts centres work traditionally for children, teenagers and adults, but the music schools, for example, cater mainly for children. Many creative centres and music schools have merged to form a combined institution in the last few years. Some have grown to become large-scale art institutions with a prominent role in local and regional cultural life.

Such an institution offers high-quality, specialized courses given by qualified teachers. Moreover, the institution can offer a basic programme as an introduction to the various artistic disciplines that is accessible for a broad public. There are carefully planned syllabuses and a large range of short courses and workshops.

First-line and second-line institutions
Arts centres are first-line institutions. They offer courses and classes to the end users. Second-line institutions have an auxiliary function. They advise schools on the drawing up of a cultural policy and also mediate between cultural institutions and schools. Usually these institutions are organised at the level of the province or nationally.

Educational departments
An increasing number of museums, theatres and concert halls have an education department. This is stimulated, for instance, by forms of cooperation between schools and art institutions. The subject Cultural and Artistic Education (CKV) in secondary schools has also provided a major impulse in this respect. Educational guided tours, workshops and teaching programmes are developed. For example, before attending a performance children can follow a workshop and receive an introduction to what they are going to see. There are also projects in which various museums enter into forms of cooperation with one another.

Institutions for amateur art
Many adults practice one or more forms of art as amateurs in their spare time. Landelijk Kennisinstituut Cultuureducatie en Amateurkunst is the national institution for art education and amateur art, founded through a merger of Kunstfactor and Cultuurnetwerk. At a city level there are active institutions like SAKA in Amsterdam, Culturalis in The Hague, ZIMIHC in Utrecht en Stichting Kunstzinnige Vorming Rotterdam (SKVR) in Rotterdam.

Own teaching practice
You can also work independently. You can work at home or at school, atelier or extra-mural care.

The Nationale Kunstlesbon makes it possible to give a (test)lesson to someone. As an art teacher you can register as a provider of art education.

Extramural care
There are many providers of extramural care (BSO). More and more often BSOs hire artists and art teachers for courses as well as structural care.