After a long period of pandemic that caused a lockdown never seen before and little expected by the generation of our students, and upon their returning to school, we were able to perceive the great emotional and social impact that this event had in them. The young people were very affected, and their feelings were difficult to bring out. On the other hand, we also realized that a sector equally affected was the cultural one, since it enormously depends on social interaction and this had been broken down during months of lockdown and restrictions on physical encounters. With the intention of helping both our youth and the cultural sector, the need for this project arose. After a traumatic situation of this scope caliber, it is difficult to be able to express feelings through language, especially for adolescents. Hence, we came up with the idea of providing them other ways of expression through art. Going over other traumatic periods in European history where young people lost their capacity for social interaction and suffered for their physical integrity, we met ourselves with the VANGUARDS. Through this artistic movement people had been able to express all the malaise of the war but also project a better future. Those were the same intentions of the project. The objectives of the project were: -To bring the living and static arts closer to the students so that they were perceived as something useful, helpful and close -To promote a taste for art -To give tools for the expression of emotions in a non-linguistic code so that students in the future may start their creative processes regardless of their social context -To provide tools to find creative solutions to face future crises -To experiment with different modes of expression and artistic creation -To establish cooperation with the cultural sector and promote its recovery through the collaboration of artists in classrooms and the students’ attending cultural events -To identify the different avant-garde artistic currents -To establish an intercultural dialogue between partners -To promote social inclusion through artistic language -To take advantage of social networks to disseminate and create art The 24 months of the project have been divided into 6 work periods. Each period has been given a title, combining a particular artistic language with a positive or negative feeling alternately. Each school has been in charge of being the leader of two periods, its task being the search for information on the artistic language and feeling in the avant-garde period and developing didactic material for all schools. Based on this didactic material, some of the students' work has been done with external artists with whom we have collaborated for the manifestation of the feeling through the proposed artistic expression. For a few weeks, each school has worked on its own and then a joint artwork has been produced. These have been the blocks: FEAR-VISUAL ARTS, LONELINESS-LITERATURE, HOPE-DANCE, CONFUSION-PERFORMING ARTS, VULNERABILITY-FASHION AND ENTHUSIASM-SCULPTURE. The results of each period have been disseminated through virtual and physical exhibitions and social networks. In addition, students have attended museums, exhibitions, theater, music or dance shows with the aim to draw students towards culture and, incidentally, contribute to the reactivation of the cultural sector so depleted by the pandemic. The specific tangible results are the artistic productions created by the students alongside with the collaborating artists from the local domain of each school and their dissemination through physical or virtual exhibitions. Working together, a teacher with an artist in the classroom, has made it possible to give a radical change to the classes. We believe that this fact has allowed our students to now have more tools to express their emotions through contemporary artistic languages. During the project, they have attended exhibitions, conferences and shows, which has enhanced the artistic critical spirit of the students and forged a habit of active consumption of art; this, in turn, has on many occasions been transferred to their family environment. This practice has made it possible to reduce differences among the students socially, since those less favored are not usually active spectators due to the economic cost and lack of artistic interest on the part of the families. With these activities, we have done our bit to reactivate the local cultural sector so affected by the pandemic. Through the guiding thread of the VANGUARDS, students have been able to immerse themselves in the common European past. 3 schools in Southern Europe (Italy, Portugal Spain) very affected by the lockdown participated in the project. Since the 3 countries taking part in the project speak Romance languages, we had the possibility to work in an environment of intercomprehension. In each school, a promoter and diffuser group of students and teachers were created, but the impact of the project reached the whole educational community. Teachers have been working for 2 years in a new methodological environment hand in hand with experts, so it has shaped the daily routine of schools and has helped to PROMOTE THE STUDENTS’ ACQUISITION OF CREATIVE & ARTISTIC SKILLS.
The objectives: -To bring the living and static arts closer to the students so that they were perceived as something useful, helpful and close -To promote a taste for art -To give tools for the expression of emotions in a non-linguistic code so that students in the future may start their creative processes regardless of their social context -To provide tools to find creative solutions to face future crises -To experiment with different modes of expression and artistic creation -To establish cooperation with the cultural sector and promote its recovery through the collaboration of artists in classrooms and the students’ attending cultural events -To identify the different avant-garde artistic currents -To establish an intercultural dialogue between partners -To promote social inclusion through artistic language -Take advantage of social networks to disseminate and create art
After a long period of pandemic that caused a confinement never seen before and much less expected by the generation of our students, and upon their returning to school, we were able to perceive the great emotional and social impact that this event resulted in. The young people were very affected and with feelings that were difficult to bring out. On the other hand, we also realized that a sector equally affected was the cultural one, since it depends on social interaction that broke down during months of confinement and restrictions on physical encounters. With the intention of helping both our youth and the cultural sector, the need for this project arose. After a traumatic situation of this caliber, it is difficult to be able to express feelings through language, especially for adolescents. Hence, we came up with the idea of providing other modes of expression through art. Going over other traumatic periods in European history where young people lost the capacity for social interaction and suffered for their physical integrity, we met ourselves with the avant-garde. Through them it was possible to express all the malaise of the war but also project a better future. Those were the intentions of the project.