Art Nouveau - Art Renouveau: a century ago a common artistic movement spread across Europe from the Atlantic to the Black Sea. This project will examine the Art Nouveau movement in its philosophical and historical context and will draw on its theories and extend them to make them relevant to today's young people. Beauty of function and design will be applied to the creative process and pupils will learn to use recycled materials and the natural form to produce an Art Renouveau house, reexamining the 'total' art style and applying it to the contemporary world. The project aims to improve young people's attainment in the areas of literacy, numeracy and science. Transversal skills will be fostered and emphasis will be placed on the development of digital skills, linguistic competence and entrepreneurship. Promoting creativity and the arts in a world which is driven by the material and the technological will add to the personal development of all participants. A major aim of the project is to contribute to the construction of Europe by bringing young people together to learn, collaborate and socialise together. There are six partner schools from Bulgaria, France, Germany, Romania, Slovenia and the UK (Scotland). Art Nouveau was an important movement in each country and pupils will observe common threads and local interpretations of the style. In each school, as many pupils as possible will be involved in the project through embedded activities. Teachers, parents, management and the local communities will all be involved. Each year a core group of pupils and staff in each school will follow the project more closely and will cascade to their peers after each Transnational Learning Activity. This core group will not necessarily be the same pupils each year; as pupils leave the schools, they will be replaced by younger ones. The participants come from a wide range of socio-economic backgrounds and from differing geographical locations. The activities include local and European research into the Art Nouveau movement; exploration of the natural within the local environment with the aim of designing new objects using recycled material drawing on influences in the natural world and thus respecting the theories of the Art Nouveau movement; the development of multi-lingual Town Trails to help young people to discover Art Nouveau in the local environment; enterprise activities which will encourage pupils to design, produce and market stock for school craft fairs; production of a short film in Paris based on Art Nouveau locations; an e-book to showcase results and an itinerant exhibition at the end of the project. The methodologies uses will be vary according to the activities. There will be some classroom based learning which will be teacher led. Participants will be expected to undertake individual research, which will be guided by staff. The creative elements of the project will be led by local experts in photography, stained-glass, wrought iron work, film. The hands-on elements of this will allow pupils to develop their creativity under the guidance of professionals and will give them an insight into the working environment of artists. Through blogs, Prezi and film, pupils will learn to work with digital technology and prepare output for a formal audience. By the end of the project, pupils will have a greater understanding of their common European cultural heritage. They will understand the importance of art and artistic movements in our common history. Through planning and organising TLAs, they will learn about events management and improve their employability. Fine motor skills will improve due to the manual dexterity needed to make objects for the Art Nouveau house. Participants will have improved their literacy skills in their own tongue and in other languages and their presentation skills should be better. These will all improve their chances of accessing higher education and the world of work. Through the exchange of teaching material, observing each other work and discussions of teaching practices in each country, teachers will have reflected on and improved their own practice. By uploading teaching plans and strategies for this project to the web, they will have shared good practice with the wider community. In the final year of the project, pupils will have the satisfaction of seeing the tangible results of their work over three years - an e-book, a film, an exhibition, a blog and website, Town Trails, Prezis, E-Twinning site, etc. Those who have taken part in TLAs will have started building their Europass portfolios. All participants should be more confident in working in a multilingual and international environment. This should result in a greater uptake in new international projects in schools and in greater mobility future students at European universities.
Art Nouveau-Art Renouveau: at the turn of the 19th and 20th Centuries a common artistic movement spread across Europe from the Atlantic Ocean to the Black Sea. Drawing on the philosophical and historical contexts of the Art Nouveau movement, participants learned about our shared European heritage and its local, national and international accents. Through developing an understanding of the beauty and function of design, students applied their knowledge to the creative process and made their own works of art. An emphasis on using recycled materials and the natural form reinforced the theory of sustainability in this project. The objectives of this project were to make young people aware of their joint European heritage and to foster a greater awareness of European citizenship. Emphasis was placed on the development of digital skills, linguistic competence, entrepreneurship and the creative process. The development of soft skills was important with young people learning how to live and work together in a multilingual and multinational environment. Six schools from six countries took part in this project: Bulgaria, France, Germany, Romania, Slovenia and the UK (Scotland). The group includes a wide variety of educational establishments: public and private schools; schools with a religious affiliation and with none; schools for children from 3-18 and those with a narrower age range; day schools and some with boarding facilities; schools with pupils from a wide range of socio-economic backgrounds; schools with pupils with support needs; city schools and semi-rural schools. Art Nouveau was an important movement in these six countries and during the project, participants worked together and discovered common threads and local interpretations of the style. In particular, they learned of the interconnectivity of design and philosophy across Europe in the years leading up to the outbreak of WW1. The main activities fell into two groups: activities undertaken during the school year and those completed during TLAs. Each year, pupils studied elements of the Art Nouveau movement in their own area. They studied Art Nouveau through printed and web-based materials and visited areas of interest. When possible, pupils visited art exhibitions, e.g. Klimt in Paris, Mucha in Glasgow, The Nature of Art Nouveau in Ljubljana. These visits and discussions with experts formed an important part of the preparation for the Town Trails. In their schools, participants undertook a number of creative workshops and produced works for sale at charity events and Christmas fairs. This gave pupils an insight into entrepreneurship and encouraged them to contribute to charities. Each TLA had a specific theme related to Art Nouveau-Art Renouveau. These are described fully in the relevant section of this report. In Scotland, the natural world was to the fore. In Germany, participants learned about Jugendstil architecture in the industrial context and in Ljubljana, the use of new materials and design in the reconstruction of the city after the 1905 earthquake were examined. In Bulgaria and Romania pupils learned that Art Nouveau arrived later. For most participants, a highlight of the project was the chance to work with experienced film producers in France. Students learned about film-making and featured in a short documentary about the French Erasmus mobility. The results of this project are qualitative and quantitative. At the end of each TLA, students presented their work in a final exhibition and during the last TLA, a digital exhibition showed the results of three years’ work. Town Trails are available through local tourist offices and on the web for use by young visitors to the project countries. The homepage provides a comprehensive picture of the work undertaken during TLAs and projects the student voice. The questionnaire confirms the positive impact of the project on pupils’ understanding of Art Nouveau. During the project, participants improved their competences in literacy, numeracy and digital skills. Improvements in soft skills were noted with pupils gaining confidence in their use of other languages, in interpersonal skills and in self-confidence. As one participant said ‘If I can dance in front of strangers at the Eiffel Tower, I can do anything!’ The improvement in soft skills is to the longer-term benefit of participants. Some students revised their future study plans based on their Erasmus experience by choosing to study a creative subject at university, by applying to study at a university abroad or by applying for courses which include an Erasmus year abroad. Pupils set up their own WhatsApp group and are in regular contact with each other. A ‘post-Erasmus’ group meeting organised for Sept 2017 in Paris is testament to the strength of the friendships forged during this project. We believe that the young people who have benefited from this project have an enhanced understanding of their roles as young Europeans today.