In Belgium, art education is an integral part of the curriculum in most of the country’s secondary schools. It is not just about finger-painting, or using India ink for the first time, but about developing, learning, and discovering soft-skills that are elementary. Indeed, to quote the Ministry of the French-speaking Community:
Arts education enables people to perceive and respond to the world in different ways, primarily through the senses.
Through the awakening of sensitivity and its exercise, it teaches adolescents to express and release their feelings and emotions.
By approaching works of art, it provokes curiosity, reveals the diversity of cultures and teaches them to respect them.
Through the understanding and appropriation of elements of artistic languages and techniques, it engages in personal creation. “
With the Team of Art Erasmus+ project, several of these elements are addressed, not only for secondary school students, but for any type of public, whether it be a group with little or no qualifications, people with learning disabilities or people with little contact with the world of visual art. Indeed, this project wishes to question the accessibility of images, as well as the accessibility of text and presentation, by proposing a narrative and visual experimentation in the presentation of artworks.
In the first stage, learners will be able to open up to art in a space created for them, which excludes the superfluous and induces inclusion naturally through the narrative platform. Secondly, the Team of Art project library will contain over 120 artworks, covering different movements, styles and periods. This key element will allow students to learn more about their own heritage, but also about the European heritage, as well as the culture of the artist and his or her country, the political or ideological messages behind the work, or even the story and myth depicted. In a third and final stage, the learner will be able to develop technical skills with regard to the language and tools of the visual art field through the glossary created for the project, but also through the different pedagogical files and practical sheets, where they will be able to familiarize themselves with different techniques and practices in the visual art world.
This kind of learning and opening up to arts education is not a new concept. For decades, museums, university programmes, social organisations and others have seen arts education as a springboard to the development of critical thinking, argumentative skills, understanding of symbols, language, culture and more.
In this sense, the Team of Art Project covers all aspects of comprehensive art learning, while focusing on the inclusion and accessibility of these contents to audiences with learning disabilities, poor or undeveloped reading skills, and others.
And because of this, Team of Art promotes inclusive and interactive arts education for all!
To give you a little taste of what’s to come, the first work we’ll be presenting in the library will be… *Drum roll*
George Seurat’s ‘Le Cirque’!
This 1890 pointillist masterpiece exhibited at the Musée d’Orsay is one of Seurat’s key works in the circus series.
Stay up to date with our project via social media to learn more about its history, method and style, all in an immersive storytelling experience from the comfort of your home!
Project website : team-of-art.eu
Follow the project on Facebook: @Logopsycom
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Our partners are Les Apprimeurs (France), My Artists (Greece), Associacio Programes Educatius Open Europe (Spain), “Microkosmos” Associazione Culturale Italo-Ellenica per la Formazione – (Italy) and European Development Foundation (Bulgaria)