The project My Place – My Story emphasizes the value and connections of contemporary visual arts and storytelling in the context of formal education through the investigation of local cultural heritage. Connecting students with their local culture and supporting them to revisit cultural elements in new contexts could result in deep and meaningful communication between the past and the present, the understanding of local ideas and practices regarding arts and crafts, relationships with the physical environment and popular folk stories. School collaborations with visual artists is a vital part of the project, as teachers and students have the chance to explore contemporary artistic research, teaching and learning possibilities. Finding interest in visual arts and creative writing through these partnerships, while rediscovering the local cultural past, could offer opportunities to all participants to inquire, document and preserve the past while creating a future. The involvement of students with the processes of contemporary artists could allow the development of meaningful relationships and alternative learning that could inspire their lives. Furthermore, students’ interactions with artists’ processes offer a creative space for exploration with media and techniques, ideas, concepts and issues. As 2018 is the year of European Cultural Heritage, with focus on the exploitation of arts and culture of the past, the project My Place – My Story suggests the development of a network of educational professionals that will facilitate the construction of partnerships between European schools, the exploration of the wealth of their culture, and their cooperation with visual artists' communities that produce today’s culture. The project draws upon the priority areas of the ET 2020 process and the horizontal priority of promoting social and educational value of European cultural heritage, as it directly addresses issues of students' active engagement with local cultural heritage of the past. The project also addresses the priorities of school education for promoting students' acquisition of skills and competences, as collaborations of students-teachers-artists will focus on developing students' new skills and competences in experimentation, research and creative thinking through art and language creation. Additionally the project aims to meet the priority of strengthening the profile of the teaching profession by providing teachers with new methods, tools and resources so as to design collaborative projects with visual artists that meet the needs of their students. To achieve the above, it is proposed to establish a network that will: - develop communication channels and foster professional enhancement for the design, implementation and exchange of good practices that involve school partnerships with visual artists - develop Open Educational Resources produced during and after the conclusion of the project. My Place – My Story targets to teachers and students of the involved partner schools, as well as teacher communities of the rest of Europe and the world. The project initiates with the review of existing practices regarding school partnerships with visual artists, and utilise staff expertise for the development of the teachers training events that will involve visual artists as well; it evolves with the training of educators at the partner schools in issues concerning contemporary artistic practices, creative writing and their contribution to cultural heritage studies; parallel to the training, the project continues with local school implementations by the trained educators with the involvement of visual artists; it progresses with the development of an OER website that will incorporate educational materials; it ensures quality control by milestone check-ups. The activities that are planned to be maintained after the end of the EU funding include the implementation of new local training activities and school projects with the cooperation of visual artists, and the maintenance and dissemination of the OER website. The website will serve as a contact point where teachers and artists will exchange knowledge and experiences, and develop future cooperative projects.
The project My Place – My Story emphasizes the value and connections of contemporary visual arts and storytelling in the context of formal education through the investigation of local cultural heritage. Connecting students with their local culture and supporting them to revisit cultural elements in new contexts could result in deep and meaningful communication between the past and the present, the understanding of local ideas and practices regarding arts and crafts, relationships with the physical environment and popular folk stories. School collaborations with visual artists was a vital part of the project, as teachers and students had the chance to explore contemporary artistic research and practice, and the connected teaching and learning possibilities. Finding interest in visual arts and creative writing through these partnerships, while rediscovering the local cultural past, could offer opportunities to all participants to inquire, document and preserve the past while creating a future. The involvement of students with the processes of contemporary artists could allow the development of meaningful relationships and alternative learning that could inspire their lives. Furthermore, students’ interactions with artists’ processes offered a creative space for exploration with media and techniques, ideas, concepts and issues. As 2018 was the year of European Cultural Heritage, with focus on the exploitation of arts and culture of the past, the project My Place – My Story suggested the development of a network of educational professionals that facilitated the construction of partnerships between European schools, the exploration of the wealth of their culture, and their cooperation with visual artists' communities that produce today’s culture. The project draws upon the priority areas of the ET 2020 process and the horizontal priority of promoting social and educational value of European cultural heritage, as it directly addresses issues of students' active engagement with local cultural heritage of the past. The project also addresses the priorities of school education for promoting students' acquisition of skills and competences, as collaborations of students-teachers-artists focused on developing students' new skills and competences in experimentation, research and creative thinking through art and language creation. Additionally the project aimed to meet the priority of strengthening the profile of the teaching profession by providing teachers with new methods, tools and resources so as to design collaborative projects with visual artists that meet the needs of their students. To achieve this, a network of school professionals was established from the following countries and institutions: 1. Kornos Primary School, Kornos, Cyprus – Coordinating Organization 2. Escola Básica #1 de Telheiras, Lisbon, Portugal 3. Ecole Sainte Croix, Lavaur, France 4. Kirsebergsskolan, Malmö, Sweden 5. Scoala Gimnaziala Prof.Ion Visoiu, Chitila, Romania The project partners managed to - develop communication channels - foster professional enhancement for the design, implementation and exchange of good practices that involve school partnerships with visual artists - develop an Open Educational Resources platform produced during the project. The url address of the project is https://padlet.com/myplacemystory/erasmusplus - disseminate the project results through social media channels, a practice that will continue after the conclusion of the project. My Place – My Story targets to teachers and students of the involved partner schools, as well as teacher communities across Europe and the world. The project initiated in Kornos Primary School, a small rural school in Cyprus. During this first meeting the review of existing practices regarding school partnerships with visual artists was presented, as well as the initiation of the new project under the My Place- My Story idea. During the 3-day first training, the staff expertise for the development of projects with visual artists was utilised; it included training of educators in issues concerning contemporary artistic practices, and creative writing work with students. Parallel to the training, the event included a workshop with the visual artist, as well as a cultural walk to the area and to key landmark spots that were utilised during the project. The development of an OER website was also presented, and the free platform PADLET was introduced to participants. The Padlet platform was agreed to incorporate the visual project presentation and the educational materials produced. The following meetings at the partner countries presented the visual arts and creative writing projects as they were evolved in the participating partner schools, and discussions took place that would help foster the project sustainability and its presentation through the online platform. During the last meeting a thorough discussion of the final evaluation of the project took place.