Europe is becoming more and more culturally diverse, resulting from the expansion of the European Union and from migration flows. Nonetheless, this cultural diversity remains invisible to the established cultural world and art schools. On the other hand, competences in performing arts are hardly accredited for.Luckily, numerous young artists are not discouraged by this lack of official recognition. They learn their skills by alternative means, on the street and in small community centres where they perform, practice and compete with each another, often using new technology to produce what is called ‘urban art’. The project "Roots Routes Follow-Up" was a direct result of interviews with young artists who have taken part in Roots and Routes projects since 2001 in the Netherlands and the experiences of the other partners in Spain, Germany, France, Italy, Greece, Hungary, UK and Finland. Based on the outcomes of this research, there was a seminar in which both youngsters and teachers from art school participated, and where it was decided to start experimental training courses for the most motivated talents who took part in the local talent scouting projects."Roots and Routes Follow-up" was an action-research addressing non-formal and informal learning in artistic contexts in Europe. It explored the current status of validation of informal and non-formal learning outcomes in this field, and worked on a model for the assessment of artistic skills in music, dance and media.Methodologies included peer coaching and the use of digital portfolios for the evaluation of specifically artistic competence sets.“Roots Routes Follow-up' drew on the results of a previous Leonardo pilot project 'Roots Routes Summercourses' and its innovative practice, and further developed training modules, follow-up and assessment methods, necessary competencies, and certification criteria in the field of the performing arts, on transnational level. With 'Roots Routes Follow-up' we adapted the outcomes of the Summercourses to different socio-cultural contexts (South and East Europe), and built further on the experiences and outcomes achieved.The results were presented at the Final Conference held in Barcelona on Sept 23rd, 2011.