The present project is the result of the co-production created by the four partners from the European Union. It was evoked for the desires of the involved members. The centre theme of the programme is the exploration of arts in our own culture and in the culture of the partners. The participants will examine different branches of art in the past and in the present. In our present days pupils pay less attention towards arts. They do not deal with the importance of being aware of cultural values, their attitude to visit places of showing arts and learning music, singing, dancing receive minor motivation by them. To make steps to prevent these tendencies become stronger we created a programme in which we would like to receive information about new teaching methods and best practices from each other so that as result we could redeem the pupils’ enthusiasm and inspiration. The partners of the cooperation agreed in the topic and they are urged to do and endeavour to reach the aims of the project. All the partners could offer their best practices in teaching arts, dancing, music and singing and are eager to share these information within the cooperation on a European level. They also intend to get familiar with the initiatives of the other partners to enrich their teaching culture and making alterations to the techniques they can implement them at home. We split up the project into two years: the past and the present. We planned to discover our past by searching for folk songs which will be sent to each other to be learnt or the pupils will visit an artist who creates masterpieces of the folklore. But they will also experience the life of a sculptor as they will create salt plasticine sculptures. In a close cooperation with the local museums we will visit them where the museologists will keep presentations about ancient art genres. The pupils taking part in these activities can experience the past on their own skins. We also join past and present as the children will learn folk dances with the help of modern technology via Skype conference. The second year will mean something new for the students. In our present days children - being the members of generation Z - they are masters of using the latest technologies. We will show them how this modern technology can be combined with arts. They will have to use their own devices to create musical board games but they also will have the chance to present their favourite style of music. There will be activities which are popular amongst the youth, like Just Dance competition. The last few months belong to the photo and film arts when the children can be familiar with creative photo taking and film shooting like TikTok videos. We hope the planned activities will raise their motivation. During the mutual work their skills in mother tongue and in the target language will increase. They will make good friendships with their pals abroad during the mobilities and they will use web2.0 which help them to do so. Their creativity and self-confidence will develop thanks to the innovative tasks. We try to make efforts to have involved host families into the project because during the mobilities the children could see the everyday life of their foreign hosts. Pupils will have to speak the target language to share their thoughts make themselves understood and express their feelings. The students can be part of another culture which enriches their inner world. Teachers will also play an important role in the project as they are the facilitators of the pupils who will help them in the implementations of the planned activities. Our colleagues will get familiar with the new ways of teaching which they can adopt and put into their everyday work to enrich their methodological culture.This kind of renewal is assured by observing the best practices of the partners. We hope that taking part in an international project all those members who are involed in the implementation of the project (students, teachers and parents) will all benefit from it, make use of the received results, will be open minded, rich in emotions and active citizens of the European Union. Ars una, species mille. Art is one, its form is thousand.
The project Culture is Our Common Treasure was the common idea of four European countries Greece, Portugal, Italy and Hungary. The sparkle was a recognition that the young generation of present days pay less attention towards arts and spend less time with activities when they can be touched by arts. This theory was proved by the first activity when in a survey we asked our pupils about their habits in connection with arts. That is why we organized a 2-year project in which we tried to plan such activities in which the students can feel comfortable, they won’t feel the necessity of taking part, and at the same time they can learn about arts and implementing the activities would be fun for them. Unfortunately the beginning and the first year of the programme was difficult because of the Covid-19 crisis but then all the planned activities were realized and even more were made up connected to the planned ones. As a result of the disease it was clear that we cannot count on host parents which would have been better for the pupils so that they could be involved in the life of a foreign family but despite this fact our children could experience in many other ways. The first year was about the past when the participants got familiar with folklore, folk dances and folk songs. The children enjoyed this task and they actively took part in choosing their favourite songs and they were curious about the songs from other countries. Despite of language barriers they realized the task successfully. The same happened by showing and learning folk dances. It could be seen during the last project meeting in Hungary when more than 200 children danced these dances in the school yard. There were tasks in connection with holidays when the pupils created messages, sang to their pals abroad. They came up with many ideas how they could make a wish to the partners. We were happy to see that not only talented children took part in the implementation but also those who do not excel in their studies. Children with difficult background, SEN planned beautiful project logos, made salt dough figures and they felt good during these activities even during dancing or making batique clothes. We were amazed by their work in the second year, too, which was about modern arts. Maybe this period is closer to them which can be seen in their presentations about favourite music, singer, films, series and actors. Their creativity was also shown in the photo taking and planning musical board games. Their creativity definitely developed and their motivation, interest towards arts was well established as a result of the programme. As they could use their own devices they confidently realized these tasks. They also watched short films from abroad which was a new activity in our project and it was very popular amongst the pupils. Those children who took part in the mobilities made good friendships with each other, used the target language to communicate and when they had difficulties they helped each other or used their mobiles to come over these difficulties. Even those children benefit from the programme who did not take part of the programmes during the meetings because they weren’t afraid of going closer to the groups and started talking to them. They were curious and asked questions. And when they received answers and they realized they understood what the guests had said they were happy. We teachers were glad at the same time that our work was successful. We also have to mention our enthusiastic teachers who were the facilitators in the different activities. They chose the most suitable task and gave their best to help the students and prosper the programme. Those who took part in the mobilities could see the best practices of the partners. During the travelogues they shared their experiences with their colleagues at home and they built in their lessons some of the ideas. There were also partners in the programme who helped the successful outcome of the chosen activity. The children searched for artists (singers, musicians) who gladly made an interview with them, and we also visited museums where the members of the museums kept museum educational lessons. This helped the schools develop their connections with outer organizations and people and made the contact stronger with them. As a result of the joint work all the part taking schools could see how fruitful this cooperation was and in the future it is assured that they will go on working in international projects so that the children, the colleagues could make use of the seen which enriched their soul and brought good memories to the participants.