Don’t you think that involving students into art is becoming more difficult nowadays? In the era of a digital world teenagers and even younger children stop developing their creativity, natural tendency to discover a beautiful world of imagination, handiwork, arts and therefore their manual skills decrease at an alarming rate. After small research in our schools this is a big challenge for us to convince our students that art can influence their future choices and develop many useful skills like creativity and imagination, improves memory and concentration. Students tend to be reluctant to use their hands to create work of arts or write carefully and beautifully- instead of that they prefer to buy ready made things and text or use the computer keyboards. First of all we would like to remind and teach in our schools the difficult art of calligraphy and embroidery, arts which start to be forgotten. Additionally each partner will contribute with a unique piece of art characteristic for its region or a country. We wish to awake in our students the spirit of creativity and willingness for creating their own masterpieces. We would like to develop their knowledge about history of art through medieval to the modern times. That is why our project is unique and innovative - students and teachers will have a chance to collaborate in international teams, learn a difficult art of calligraphy and embroidery, share their experience, learn form each other and create beautiful objects with their hands. Our ambition is to prepare exhibitions with all works of art prepared by our students themselves during workshops. We want to produce very useful materials that can be distributed and used by teachers, students and any people interested in art: a handy booklet with a technique Do It Yourself (DIY), lesson plans and brochures with common and unique arts. We are going to engage directly in the project 120 students aged 11-14 and 60 teachers, indirectly over 1000 students and 100 teachers from the whole partnership. In our project will take part students with fewer opportunities (100) and we will try to help those disadvantaged students develop both their basic, transversal and manual skills. The required profile of our participant is a good background in ICT, basic knowledge of the English language, eagerness to participate in the project and readiness to develop manual skills. This project aims to build relationships and tolerance between nations and intercultural integration. It also teaches how important it is to turn to forgotten crafts that have become part of the European art of the Middle Ages from the 5th to the 15th century through the Renaissance until the 18th century. Medieval art is a wealth of architecture, sculpture and painting, as well as artistic craftsmanship. We mean ornament, calligraphy and embroidery ubiquitous in every country inscribed in the history of art. It was embroidery that experienced its "golden age" in medieval Europe. Embroidery next to illuminated manuscripts, jewelry and wall painting was a symbol of wealth and status. In the Middle Ages, great embroidery was an important part of diplomacy against high-profile personalities. In addition to embroidery, the ornament presence in art but also in craft was important. At that time, richly decorated dishes, books, precious metal ornaments and tapestry weaving were created. We should also pay attention to the fact that people creating artistic crafts made objects from natural materials, which means that our discovery of art is combined with ecological education. In this way, getting to know the art related to the promotion and understanding of the importance of art and artistic craftsmanship in human life, as well as the fact of integration of all nations, means that children and young people can care for the cultural heritage of our common Europe. These objectives will be achieved by: - collaborative work on eTwinning - attendance in professional workshops about art, craft, folklore, music, dance during students' exchanges - creating PPT presentations about art and folk clothing - organizing Open Days of Erasmus+ and dissemination activities - organizing art exhibitions at schools - producing lesson plans - ecological awareness - getting knowledge about history of art, medieval times, common and unique arts of a partnership - communication activities - developing manual skills of creating things and beautiful writing - cultural trips and meetings with artists - evaluation of the project. Concrete results: -TwinSpace on eTwinnning platform - Erasmus corners at schools -12 lesson plans about European art in a handy booklet - 1 common instruction booklet with all techniques Do It Yourself - 6 brochures with common and unique arts - school exhibitions with all artistic creations - PPT presentations about school activities. Summarizing, medieval history of art, calligraphy and embroidery join us together and that is why we will focus on that topic.
In the age of the digital world, teenagers and even younger children have stopped developing their creativity, their natural inclination to explore the beautiful world of imagination, handwork, artwork, and thus their manual skills have been declining at an alarming rate. After conducting interviews in our schools, it was a big challenge for us to convince our students that art can influence their future choices and develop many useful skills such as creativity and imagination, improve memory and concentration. Pupils were increasingly reluctant to use their hands to create artwork or to write carefully and beautifully - instead they preferred to buy ready-made items and texts or use the computer keyboard. Above all, we wanted to remind and teach the difficult art of calligraphy and embroidery in our schools; arts that are beginning to fade into oblivion. In addition, each partner contributed a unique piece of applied art specific to their region or country. We wanted to awaken in our students the spirit of creativity and the desire to create their own works. We also aimed to develop their knowledge of art history from the Middle Ages to the present day and to learn about elements of dance, music and art culture. In addition, the students worked on the collaborative art of embroidering logos using various techniques, promoting the culture and art of their country and improving their communication skills. A very important element was to prepare the students to work in a team during various workshops, to develop creative thinking and manual skills when implementing new ideas and to use modern information technologies. We managed to plan and carry out 1 virtual mobility to Poland during the Coronavirus pandemic and 4 physical mobilities to the countries involved in the project: Bulgaria, North Macedonia, Portugal and Poland. We directly involved 120 students aged 11-14 and 60 teachers in the project, indirectly more than 1,000 students and 100 teachers across the partnership. Pupils with fewer educational opportunities and in a difficult material situation (100) were also directly involved in the project activities. The objectives of getting to know the culture of Turkey and Italy on site by participants in the form of physical mobility were not achieved, due to the cancellation of these countries; instead, an increase in the number of participants to the remaining countries was planned after the project duration was extended. Activities planned for the partners from Turkey and Italy and feasible were distributed for implementation by the other partners. Instead, an increase in the number of participants to the remaining countries was planned following an extension of the project duration from 24 to 36 months. Activities planned for the Turkish and Italian partners and feasible were distributed for implementation by the other partners.As part of the planned activities, the participation of external stakeholders such as academics from art schools, visiting studios of contemporary artists played a key role in the project. Project results: - Image of a logo embroidered together using various techniques by students of 4 countries; - 12 lesson plans for artistic activities; - composed project anthem in 5 languages with original music and lyrics, performed by pupils of 4 countries; - newsletters with project activities, - 6 brochures with the applied art of the country, - 1 DIY activity manual; - project blog in English, - the results of a study carried out on the impact of nice writing and embroidery skills on the psyche of the pupils taking part in these activities; - the project's TwinSpace on the eTwinning platform (first 2 years of the project) - project calendar for 2024, - collage from photos of the murals; - multimedia presentations on medieval art history, folk costumes, art activities in schools and the influence of a country's art on the other partner countries; - photo reports of artistic and project activities in the partner schools; - Erasmus+ corners in the partner schools. Throughout the project, evaluations of the activities after the mobilities were carried out regularly in order to improve the quality of subsequent activities. Pupils were transparently selected to participate in the project and specific mobilities through school-wide competitions, and upon their return they wrote articles for the local press and school websites and shared their insights and knowledge gained with the school community. Long-term benefits: School and cultural organisations can make use of lesson plans on European art, a booklet on DIY techniques, presentations on the history of medieval art, instructions on how to create art decoration and guidance on running workshops on embroidery, calligraphy, Turkish Ebru art and the Sicilian hat. The results will be posted on the partnership's results dissemination platform, blog and sent to Teacher Training Centres and educational portals for teachers and parents.