SIX EUROPEAN SCHOOLS OF ART SPIN A EUROPEAN NETWORK AROUND THE IDEA THAT THE UNIVERSAL LANGUAGE OF ART CAN VEHICLE THE CONCEPT OF SUCCESSFUL AND PEACEFUL CO-EXISTENCE BETWEEN PEOPLES AND CULTURES, IN PARTICULAR DEVELOPING MULTILINGUALISM, INTERCULTURALISM, SPECIFIC AND CROSS SKILLS. The project aims to: 1) promote the Social and Educational value of European Cultural Heritage among students, by enhancing: - their access to knowledge of the richness of the European Cultural traditions, oriented to improving the awareness and ethics of Cultural Heritage care; - their acquisition of expertise on the production of valuable objects: the specific content of the project is organized around the study/production of precious Art objects, that will allow the students to study/learn techniques of working and decorative forms from different traditions; - their awareness that knowledge and education of Cultural Heritage and their specialization and expertise in work of art, design and artistic craftsmanship can allow rapid and satisfactory entering the job market and can become a key factor to bridge the gap between school and entrepreneurial communities. THE TARGET of the project are young people aged between 15 and 18 years, but the actions will have a positive effect on the families, the school, the members of the involved schools, local communities. AR.AC.N.E. conceives a project idea (included into School sectoral priority: Contributing to innovation – developing, implementing and testing the effectiveness of approaches to promote creativity, entrepreneurial thinking and skills) where ART, with its precious, national peculiarity, is the core-theme. ART 1) as “joining factor” which fosters the sense of belonging to a common European family; 2) as “flywheel” for economy and to enter into the world of work: the study and practice of art can constitute a strategic opportunity for economic development and encourage young people employment; 3) as support for "reduction of marginalization, self-empowerment and capacity building", because allows the subject not only to express creativity, but also to feel satisfied with the production of something real and unique, in a way that appeals to intellect, sense or emotion, as described in Recommendation 2006/962/EC of the European Parliament of the Council. Moreover, ARACNE fits well in indications of EUROPE 2020 (COM. 2010 of 3 March 2010) as aims to develop the knowledge, promoting employability, social cohesion, reducing the school dropout rate and developing lifelong learning. The project involves 1 short-term joint staff training event and 5 LTTA for students and teachers. During the mobility abroad the pupils will be hosted by the families of their peers. They will be protagonist of the artistic workshops, they will tell the audience about the meaning of their handicraft, the techniques used, and will take part in creative activities or visits to art studios, museums and other institutions. This will enable them to acquire technical skills in the specific field of art, but above all to make EXPERIENCE OF the diverse, growing the awareness that not only cooperation is possible, but that diversity enriches. Students will learn to understand and to experience different cultures, to speak different languages, in parallel with developing multilingualism and intercultural sense. The planned activities are of three types: - Within the school; - Between partner schools; - In local communities; ARACNE project, in addition to weave a network of European art schools, wants to explore and decode the system of relations that has created in the centuries European art, investigating the emergence and spread of artistic techniques and decorative patterns, sure that communication and interconnection between different cultures and traditions are the key to the creation of unique and original works. ARACNE will investigate these aspects involving the whole school community and disseminating the results of the outreach project. Priority in the project are the promotion of multilingualism and interculturalism, and it is just looking at these aspects which will pursue the following main objectives: - Developing and promoting promote Social and Educational value of European Cultural Heritage among students,; - Developing language and multicultural skills; - Developing ENTREPRENEURSHIP; - Developing the ARTISTIC SKILLS; - Overcome DISCRIMINATION; - Increase MOBILITY YOUTH; - Promote a POSITIVE IDEA OF EUROPEAN UNION. The ambitious long-term goal is to co-build a new idea of Europe, sowing in young hearts the seeds of cooperation and solidarity, guided by the certainty that "Beauty will save the world" (Fyodor Dostoyevsky, The Idiot).
Context of the project After the withdrawal of UK due to Brexit, FIVE EUROPEAN SCHOOLS OF ART INVOLVED, GATHERED AROUND THE IDEA THAT THE UNIVERSAL LANGUAGE OF ART CAN VEHICLE THE CONCEPT OF SUCCESSFUL AND PEACEFUL CO-EXISTENCE BETWEEN EUROPEAN PEOPLES AND CULTURES, IN PARTICULAR DEVELOPING MULTILINGUALISM, INTERCULTURALISM, SPECIFIC AND CROSS SKILLS. AR.AC.N.E. conceived a project idea where ART, with its precious, national peculiarity, was the core-theme. ART as: - “joining factor” which fosters the sense of belonging to a common European family; - “flywheel” for economy and to enter into the world of work: the study and practice of art can constitute a strategic opportunity for economic development and encourage young people employment; - support for "reduction of marginalization, self-empowerment and capacity building", because allows the subject not only to express creativity, but also to feel satisfied with the production of something real and unique, in a way that appeals to intellect, sense or emotion. So, the project succeeded in promoting the Social and Educational value of European Cultural Heritage among students, by enhancing: - their access to knowledge of the richness of the European Cultural traditions, oriented to improving the awareness and ethics of Cultural Heritage care; - their acquisition of expertise on the production of valuable objects: the specific content of the project is organized around the study/production of precious Art objects, that will allow the students to study/learn techniques of working and decorative forms from different traditions; - their awareness that knowledge and education of Cultural Heritage and their specialization and expertise in work of art, design and artistic craftsmanship can allow rapid and satisfactory entering the job market and can become a key factor to bridge the gap between school and entrepreneurial communities. THE TARGET of the project have been young people aged between 15 and 18 years, but the actions had a positive effect on the families, the school, the members of the involved schools and local communities. Project's objectives Priority in the project was the promotion of multilingualism and interculturalism, and it is just looking at these aspects which the project pursued the following main objectives: - Developing and promoting Social and Educational value of European Cultural Heritage among students,; - Developing language and multicultural skills; - Developing ENTREPRENEURSHIP; - Developing the ARTISTIC SKILLS; - Overcome DISCRIMINATION; - Increase MOBILITY YOUTH; - Promote a POSITIVE IDEA OF EUROPEAN UNION. The activities that have taken place The project involved 1 short-term joint staff training event and 4 LTTA for students and teachers. During the mobility abroad the pupils have been hosted by the families of their peers, except in Italy, in October 2021, when all delegations (teachers and students) have been hosted in a hotel, in order to guarantee a safer accomodation. During LTTAs, students were protagonist of the artistic workshops, reflecting about the meaning of their handicraft, the techniques used, and took part in creative activities or visits to art studios, museums and other institutions. This enabled them to acquire technical skills in the specific field of art, but above all to make EXPERIENCE of the “diverse”, growing the awareness that not only cooperation is possible, but that “diversity” enriches. Students learnt to understand and to experience different cultures, to speak different languages, in parallel with developing multilingualism and intercultural sense. The planned activities were of three types: - Within the school; - Between partner schools; - In local communities; Project's results and its expected longer-term benefits ARACNE project, in addition to weave a network of European art schools, wanted to explore and decode the system of relations that has created in the centuries European art. ARACNE investigated these aspects involving the whole school community and disseminating the results of the outreach project to the greatest number of actors who would be potentially interested: teachers, schools, teachers associations, parents associations, Arts Academies, Art galleries, University departments, cultural centers, policy makers and the general public. Since ARACNE presents itself as a BEST PRACTICE TO BE RETRACED the spread of works, materials and results of the project have had a key role, available for everyone. No limitation has been put. - Works of Art in the permanent art galleries will be maintained also after the project end - The works of art will continue to be exhibit and available inside the Virtual Gallery - Teachers in their school-year programming phase, can use ARACNE materials for their didactics - Websites - Headmasters and project coordination staff of each school involved will ensure hard work of project spread.