This study explores the potentials of institutional change in Croatian higher music education related to community engagement and professional thinking. It examines how the largest and oldest higher music education institution in Croatia responds to broader social change in times of polycrisis and to the need for expanding professionalism in music toward an increasingly complex society. The aim of the study is to map the development of the higher education institution’s societal missions through the implementation of extracurricular activities, curriculum changes, and social innovations, and to investigate how these elements contribute to generating internal institutional knowledge about the civic literacy of future music professionals. Employing critical ethnography as a methodological framework, the study is centered on the question of how higher music education institutions, traditionally focused on the Western classical music paradigm, can open pathways for social engagement and civic responsibility. Theoretically, it builds on relational approaches to professionalism in music (Westerlund & Gaunt), Gert Biesta’s concept of public pedagogy (Biesta, 2012; Biesta, Laes and Westerlund, 2025; Laes, Koivisto & Saether, 2025), and recent literature that bridges aesthetic and participatory paradigms in music education (Camlin, 2023; Kertz-Welzel, 2022; 2024). Furthermore, the conceptualization of artistic citizenship competence is approached through the dual lens of education for active citizenship (Spajić-Vrkaš, 2015; Spajić-Vrkaš and Horvat, 2016) and the growing scholarship on artistic, cultural, and sonic citizenship (Westvall and Akuno, 2024; Elliott, Silverman and Bowman, 2016; Stokes, 2023). Findings derived from six years of data collection (2018-2024), including participant observations, focus group interviews, field notes, and analyses of pedagogical materials, conducted from the dual perspective of a researcher-practitioner and university teacher, The results highlight the potential synergy between top-down and bottom-up strategies for institutional transformation, as well as various forms of resistance encountered in the process of opening institutions and the mindsets of future music professionals to more socially engaged and participatory modes of learning. The study forms part of an ongoing doctoral research project situated within the Croatian higher music education ecosystem, where civic and innovative potentials remain largely unrecognized. This case is further contextualized within a broader top-down analytical framework, informed by Bronfenbrenner’s Ecological Systems Theory (Bronfenbrenner, 1977; Renn & Smith, 2023), combining policy analysis with qualitative research involving students, teachers, and staff.Keywords: artistic citizenship, civic literacy, community engagement, higher music education, institutional change, musical citizenship, music education, professional development.