In most of cases artistic subjects are considered to be the less important among subjects taught in primary or middle schools. There is only one or two hours of art class per week. In Poland this subject disappears after the 7th grade, in Italy and in Portugal it is taught only in primary school. As result of such an approach, students lose interest in arts and believe that this subject is completely useless. Consequently, young people who are not interested and don’t understand the art, don’t want to participate in cultural events. Nonetheless, paintings are a testimony of passed time, of the period in which they were created, and they are part of our cultural heritage. We strongly believe that a good introduction of subject – historical and cultural context of the times – helps to understand a piece of art and leads to its appreciation by a young viewer. Artistic heritage is extremely rich in our regions, unfortunately not many people are interested in, and pupils and their families don’t even try to develop their knowledge about this subject. This project is a perfect occasion to discover our local artists and make them known abroad. Our goal is to increase the sensibility of youngsters towards arts, to show them that there is a close correlation between arts and everyday life, and teach them how to be aware art audience. Thanks’ to international cooperation we have a chance to convince our students that artistic tendencies were developed and transferred in Europe even though the Internet and fast ways of communication didn’t exist yet, and they were related to political and social context of these times. We are convinced that teaching of art correlated to other subjects will help pupils to be successful: methods of teaching artistic and non artistic subjects, and of course their contents, are son diverse that putting them together is surprising, and that way more interesting for students, but also it demands their involvement in learning. Through this multidisciplinary approach pupils will receive information that the world is coherent, that different cultural trends are strictly related to everyday life, and that art may be a source of inspiration, of subjects to discuss, and a pretext to meet or contact citizens of other countries as well. The innovation of our project is based on development of an attractive method of teaching satisfying the needs and expectations of young people, using activating methods on class and digital technologies as well, adjusted to educational systems in different countries: - multidisciplinary analyze of paintings: before regarding a painting, students participate in a literature and history class in order to discover what was happening in Europe in this period. This way, they will get a large knowledge about the era – historical events and their impacts, life conditions, musical, literature and artistic trends – thanks’ to which it will be easier to understand the message of the painting - creative use of a painting/ work of art which is an inspiration for pupils: they will create their own products, like lapbooks, films – learning how to write a screenplay + making videos, video reportage – collecting of testimonies, talking to witnesses of history (grandparents, neighbours, etc.), collecting of family historical objects and preparing expositions - team work – working with project method helps to develop soft skills, like discussion, searching of compromise, cooperation, respect to other people and their opinions - preparation of publications – learning of the basis of graphic design, awareness of intellectual property, copyright, protection of image - participation in cultural life of the regions, events and expositions organized by local museums and cultural institutions. On the basis of information received from teachers (related to their needs, experiences, reactions of students) we are going to develop interactive learning kits, a scalable solution to promote the adoption of developed pedagogical results of the project towards other institutions. These kits will be tested during mobility activities (artistic camps), and after the end of the project we will share them on open license. Kits will consist of reading materials – teachers guide, an exercise booklet (with suggested activities mapped to national and school curricula of the partner countries), a set of tools required to developed activities and a collection of resources (physical objects, digital objects) that represents the museological reality under appreciation in the activity, especially interesting for low-mobility groups. Exchanges of animators working in museums and cultural institutions will be a value added of this project, because they will have a chance to exchange experiences and good practices of work with young people and enrich animation offer of their institutions, which can lead to a better cooperation with schools in the future.
Our goal was to raise students' sensitivity to the visual arts, show them the close correlation of art with everyday life, and teach them to consciously receive art. Through international cooperation, we wanted to show students that artistic trends circulated and spread in Europe in the days before the Internet and fast communication, and that they were linked to the political and social situation. We are convinced that teaching art in combination with other subjects will make it easier for students to succeed: both the teaching approach and the content of art lessons and non-art subjects themselves are so different that their juxtaposition is surprising, thus arousing students' interest and increasing their commitment to learning. Thanks to the multidisciplinary approach, students will get the message that the world is a whole, that various cultural trends are closely connected to everyday life, and that art is a source of inspiration, topics for discussion, and a pretext for establishing contacts with citizens of other countries. We also wanted to show students the concrete, pragmatic dimension of knowing a foreign language, which the project used both to communicate in class and to cope abroad in everyday situations.
In most cases, artistic subjects are considered to be the less important among subjects taught in primary or middle schools. There is only one or two hours of art class per week. In Poland this subject disappears after the 7th grade, in Italy and in Portugal it is taught only in primary school. As a result of such an approach, students lose interest in arts and believe that this subject is completely useless. Consequently, young people who are not interested and don’t understand the art, don’t want to participate in cultural events. However, paintings are a testimony of past time, of the period in which they were created, and they are part of our cultural heritage. We strongly believe that a good introduction of subject – historical and cultural context of the times – helps to understand a piece of art and leads to its appreciation by a young viewer. Artistic heritage is extremely rich in our regions, unfortunately not many people are interested in, and pupils don’t even try to develop their knowledge about this subject. This project was perfect occasion to discover our local artists and make them known abroad.