The open, fast-changing world and the labour market of today pose a number of challenges to young people. They need to boast comprehensive general knowledge plus vocational skills with elements of specialised foreign languages as well as a whole set of modern competences. Creating pro-active approaches, building a strong cultural identity and sensitivity along with cross-culture skills are all crucial competences that can be used to adapt school curricula to the needs resulting from the real life. They also constitute a sort of foundation upon which young people can develop their civic attitudes. The Project: “Portraits of Opole, Portraits of Dijon, Portraits of Prague – INSPIRATIONS, CREATIONS” has been developed based on the analysis of the needs of students attending the schools participating in the undertaking. It is also compatible with European education standards. The goals of the projects are: - developing key competences, sensitivity, awareness and creative expression, building pro-active attitudes at schools and in professional and civic areas of one's activity- sharing good practices, interdisciplinary methods of artistic, professional and general education as well as through developing teachers' competences (CLIL and ICT) - enhancing competitiveness and employment prospects of students (Europass-mobility) and promoting pro-European values The project is based on the partnership of 3 regions (Opolskie Province, Burgundy region, and Central Bohemia) and the partnership of 3 schools: two art schools: ZPPKP in Opole and the clothes and graphic design school in Lysá nad Labem as well as Liceum le Castel in Dijon (classes majoring in fine arts). Project participants will comprise students (approx. 220), including disadvantaged students, teachers of fine arts (drawing, painting, photography and film production, sculpting, tapestry, graphic design and audiovisual media) as well as of general subjects. The project tasks will be implemented as part of standard classes and outside them, as workshops and outdoor classes. All the activities will be documented in the written and electronic form. The performance, monitoring and assessment will be carried out in compliance with the prearranged annual schedules, based on the main schedule attached to the application, as well as with the use of reports from task and budget implementation. Every year, each partner school will be obliged to submit to the coordinating school their schedule (October) and their tasks-budget report (May). YEAR ONE (2016/2017) – Portraits of Opole, Portraits of Dijon, Portraits of Prague – INSPIRATIONS The starting point will be a survey conducted among the residents of partner cities concerning the local monuments/artistic or architectural motifs that should be included in the "Little Art Guide of Opole/Dijon/Prague". As part of project tasks, each school will develop 12 educational sheets about their respective cities in English and French. The sheets will include elements of specialist language used in the area of fine arts and architecture. The tasks will include outdoor art workshops (drawing, painting and photography) as well as practical exercises in specific art studios (graphic design, small spatial forms) and developing documentation works inspired by local natural elements as well as art and architecture of Opole/Dijon/Prague. Moreover, a video-conference will be organised along with a workshop/assessment meeting in the Czech Republic. YEAR TWO (2017/2018) – Portraits of Opole, Portraits of Dijon, Portraits of Prague – CREATIONS The starting point will be a survey conducted among the residents of partner cities to elicit their ideas for art-themed promotion of the three cities involved to be used in the development of the "Little Art Guide of Opole/Dijon/Prague". As part of project tasks, each school will develop 12 educational sheets about their respective cities/regions in English and French which will take into account the tasks aiming at creativity development. The documentation-related and linguistic tasks will be accompanied by artistic tasks, namely outdoor drawing, painting and photography workshops as well as practical exercises in specific art studios (graphic design, small spatial forms conceptualised by students). At the beginning of Year Two a workshop/assessment meeting will take place in Dijon. The project conclusion will be the publication of the "Little Art Guide" (common version and separate versions) for the cities of Opole/Dijon/Prague, a meeting in Opole as well an exhibition Portraits of Opole, Portraits of Dijon, Portraits of Prague, Portraits of European Partnership that will demonstrate the effects of work and cooperation under under the project. The educational and promotional materials that will be developed taking into account local needs will be conducive to the inspiring and creative rediscovery of participants' own cities and the cities of their European partners.
Portraits of Opole, Portraits of Dijon, Portraits of Prague – INSPIRATIONS, CREATIONS - about 300 people participated in the project, including about 220 students (years), 30 teachers and 17 representatives of various institutions. The schools supported student mobility, as the result of which 75 students took part in the exchange program (confirmed by the Europass Mobility document). They were accompanied by 16 teachers. The publication A Little Artistic Guide to Opole, Dijon and Prague was prepared in a common version as well as in native languages. The schools organized 11 exhibitions: 5 in Opole, 3 in Dijon and 3 in Lysa. Apart from that, many other cultural activities were undertaken. In the school year 2016/2017 – INSPIRATIONS – lectures and lessons on the art and architecture of Opole, Dijon and Prague were organized and conducted also in English, using the CLIL method. Inhabitants of the sister cities were surveyed to gather data for A Short Artistic Guide to Opole, Dijon and Prague. The schools held videoconferences. Foreign-language materials were added to school libraries and students were asked to prepare educational and documentary worksheets for A Short Artistic Guide to Opole, Dijon and Prague, which they did during lessons (art history, literature, foreign languages) and in their free time. In art classes, students created graphic and functional art forms, which were promotional and educational in nature. They designed bags with motifs from Opole (A Fashionable Woman of Opole) and Prague (Famous Inhabitants of Prague). The bags were decorated using transfer printing and screen printing. Students also designed clothes, accessories, jewellery, a series of booklets promoting the monuments of Prague, comics (The Legends of Prague) and graphics which depict the architecture of Prague from the Romanesque period to modernity. In the French school, students staged monodramas inspired by urban space, organized an outdoor photography workshop entitled Windows to Dijon and then posted their photographs on the blog of Le Castel High School. They also participated in cartographic workshops and prepared a miniature model and a 3D map of Dijon. The schools devised the European learning pathway for the profession of visual art technician, as well as a program of workshops in the Czech, French and Polish school. Europass Mobility documents in Czech, French, Polish and English language versions were prepared. In June 2017, a workshop meeting aimed at evaluating the project was held in the Czech Republic. All artworks were posted as an online exhibition on the websites of the three partner schools. In the school year 2017/2018 – CREATIONS – lectures on the symbols of Opole, Dijon and Prague were organized. In October 2017, an educational pathway was organized in Dijon. It included photographic narration workshops, a movie workshop with stop-motion animation, a workshop on designing logos, an outdoor painting and drawing workshop on using watercolours and ink and a joint exhibition. Disadvantaged students (underage migrants and students from impoverished families) also participated in the project. Local newspapers Trybuna Opolska, Lyské listy and Le bien public published articles about the project. Students prepared creative worksheets for A Short Artistic Guide to Opole, Dijon and Prague. The Polish school organized a workshop on Freeman Tilden’s theories of heritage interpretation. French students prepared educational worksheets in Photoshop and InDesign under the guidance of an artist and graphic designer. In art classes, students created pottery reliefs and 3D forms, small chests with craved wooden decorations promoting Opole, clothes, embroidery, tray cloths inspired by medieval Prague, which promoted the city, and promotional movies “The Faces of Dijon”. In April 2018, the school in Opole organized a transfer printing workshop, a furniture design workshop which was inspired by local Concept design and a photography and movie workshop (Europass Mobility). The cooperation between the schools concluded in the European exhibition shown in the Marshal’s Office of the Opole Province in April 2018, which coincided with the 15th anniversary of the partnership between the Opole Region, Burgundy and the Central Bohemian Region. The Polish school prepared project documentation, among others in the form of an exhibition entitled Portraits of the Cities for the 800th Anniversary of Opole. The exhibition was shown in the Opole City Hall. The main long-lasting mark left by the project are educational worksheets in national languages and in English, which became a part of A Little Artistic Guide to Opole, Dijon and Prague. The printed guidebook was given to local educational and cultural institutions in the sister cities and it is also available in the electronic form on the websites of the partner schools and the coordinator of the project: http://www.plastyczniak.opole.pl/strony/erazmus-portrety-opola-dijon-pragi/