COVID19's socio-economic impact on the cultural and artistic sectors has been unprecedented, as social distancing measures meant that they could not remain open. In addition to the devastating financial consequences, the promotion of culture and the use of art as tools for cohesion and education almost disappeared staying only at the core family level. In this context, steps should be taken to initiate real change in the way we protect and develop our common cultural heritage from an early age.In today's conditions, digital approaches to culture that promote active citizenship and social inclusion related to people's participation in culture are gaining importance. "Our Cultures" brings together 7 cross-sector institutions from 6 different culturally diverse countries ( UK, Spain ,Turkey ,Portugal ,Italy and Greece) including schools, cultural and civil society NGOs. Our project focuses on providing art-based learning, creating digital concrete content and making the created content easily accessible open source in order to live, sustain and promote our common cultural heritage.Our project aims to create learning tools, resources, materials and training modules in order to encourage creativity and multiculturalism.Our main goal is to create active learning opportunities in formal and non-formal education institutions, through the use of technology in arts and education. Our project's intellectual outputs are: O1; Virtual Culture Travel (Time and Space Travel) (Mobile application) 02; Experiential Learning Activity Books (Primary / Secondary School) O3; Cultural Heritage Awareness Materials (Digital Arts) We will also organise: 6 national multipliers 1 international multiplier 2 LTTs KEY OBJECTIVES: * To grow a sense of curiosity and tolerance among students and educators for living in a global and interconnected world with digital cultural data tools by placing our cultural heritage at the very centre of our lives, * To obtain concrete inputs that will increase the intercultural interaction between cultural, artistic and equational institutions in a sustainable way and carry our cultural heritage to the future, * For children and young people to discover and experience our common cultural heritage inside and outside the classroom; to enable them to develop and strengthen their different identities within an interactive, democratic, and multicultural conscious citizenship perspective, * To ensure that children and young people have direct experience with the original heritage phenomenon (Experiential learning), be actively involved in the process, gaining commitment to the idea of protecting cultural heritage, interpreting cultural heritage and seeking their own meaningful context behind the facts, * To make our students realize the local / universal dimension of culture through digital tools and arts: Students will reveal their feelings, thoughts and perceptions freely and sincerely through artistic activities, they will offer creative products for our cultural heritage.Students will be able to transfer their creative abilities to every aspect of their lives with the different perspectives they have gained on our cultural heritage, and they will be able to beautify their environment by gaining an aesthetic consciousness. * Developing digital literacy, collaboration and critical thinking skills of our participants through digital data tool (Web 2.0 tools, augmented reality) studies:Our participants will be able to use these competencies they have acquired on different platforms. * To make an impressive presentation of the cultural structures and areas in the region where our partners live, using the augmented reality method and 3D design technique:This tool will have interactive content that students can easily use in lessons and outside the classroom.Our Virtual Culture Travel Tool will make a tangible contribution to cultural tourism by making the regions where partners live a center of attraction. TARGET GROUPS Students (7-15 years old), teachers and other educators and professionals working in formal (e.g. schools) and informal (e.g. in the community) settings. Secondary target groups include policy makers, decision makers, the media and general public as well as parents and carers. AMBITION During times of despair, using the underlying values of restorative justice (e.g. power sharing, equality, dignity and respect) "Our Cultures" will create a sense of belonging and awareness about the common cultural and artistic heritage of Europe.The necessity of discovering different cultures through intercultural interactions and of course the dimension of the culture extending from local to universal make the transnational implementation of the project important and necessary in order to gain European awareness.
By proposing this project, we were hoping to address Erasmus KA227 priorities by growing a sense of curiosity and tolerance amongst not only students but also school professionals (teachers, teaching assistants and any other educational role within the school setting) and with the development of digital cultural data tool enable to place cultural heritage at the centre of our lives. We also wanted to achieve these concrete outputs listed above to increase the cultural interaction between cultural, artistic and equational institutions in a sustainable way to carry cultural heritage for the future generations. For those still in education, we wanted to encourage a need of discovery and a need of experience the original heritage phenomenon (experimental learning), by actively inviting to participate in the process, gaining commitment to the idea of cultural heritage importance and protection, interpretation of cultural heritage and seeking own meaningful context behind the given data and facts. We wanted students to learn and realize the local and in fact, universal dimension of culture through digital tools and arts. We wanted students to experience cultural heritage and ability to express feelings, thoughts and perceptions freely through artistic activities. We were hoping for students to be able to transfer their creative abilities to every aspect of their lives with a variety of perspectives they’ve gained on cultural heritage. We were also wanted for our participants to develop a series of skills needed in today’s world: digital literacy, ability to collaborate on a national and international level and critical thinking and implementation of these skills through digital data. Finally, we were hoping to increase the awareness of culture in partner’s region which are usually not considered as top touristic attractions. We wanted to widen the broaden their knowledge and awareness of a number of other cultural sites with an enormous cultural history which are usually outshined by more popular sites.By doing so, we were hoping to increase the importance of those tourist spot and promote locations of cultural heritage meaning thus attracting travelers and tourist wanting to learn more about these sites . The whole overarching ethos of this project lies within the values of restorative justice, widely incorporated by RJ4All. As an organisation, RJ4All advances community cohesion, equality and human rights as they redistribute power in a more equal way by supporting civil society and delivering social justice and poverty relief projects, educational programmes and high quality volunteering opportunities to marginalises groups.
COVID19's socio-economic impact on the cultural and artistic sectors has been unprecedented, as social distancing measures meant that they could not remain open. In addition to the devastating financial consequences, the promotion of culture and the use of art as tools for cohesion and education almost disappeared staying only at the core family level. In this context, steps should be taken to initiate real change in the way we protect and develop our common cultural heritage from an early age.In today's conditions, digital approaches to culture that promote active citizenship and social inclusion related to people's participation in culture are gaining importance. That’s why we developed "Our Cultures" project – through the delivery of the KA225 priorities to enable a creative and innovative ways to uphold cultural tradition in each parter country and to enable students from other countries to experience and learn more about the importance of cultural heritage.