Literacy in Art Language of Art Erasmus Project

Project Title

Literacy in Art Language of Art

Project Key Action

This project related with these key action: Cooperation for innovation and the exchange of good practices

Project Action Type

This project related with this action type : Strategic Partnerships for Schools Only

Project Call Year

This project’s Call Year is 2017

Project Topics

This project is related with these Project Topics: Access for disadvantaged; Enterprise, industry and SMEs (incl. entrepreneurship); Creativity and culture

Project Summary

Our project offered the students students in both of our schools a unique and personal learning opportunity through the application of Art and Modern Foreign Language to open minds, broaden knowledge, expand possibilities and challenge prejudices. During the course of the project art was employed as the tool for communication.

During the preparatory phase it became clear the coordinators of both school believed in the power of contemporary art to provide an alternative lens through which our students could view the world. This was the vehicle we employed to allow our young people to develop visual literacy skills as well enhancing their ability to interpret, negotiate and extract meaning from information presented visually.

NCEA worked closely with resident artists and community outreach workers from the Baltic Contemporary Art Gallery in Gateshead and of course our students with Spanish guests visited the gallery to participate in challenging artistic activities. Conversely our Spanish partners worked closely with the “Joan Miró “ Foundation in Spain and students from Ashington and Spain collaborated with local artists in Mallorca to develop artistic voices which offered alternatives through which they could reflect upon the diversity of our students and their citizenship.

We aimed to be collaborative in communication before, during and after our visits. To this goal teachers at both schools looked at sharing our knowledge of virtual platforms such as http://www.thinglink.com/ and https://www.smore.com/ To achieve this our students annotated films and images which recorded their work with each other in preparation for and during the course of the exchanges.

The project was intended to develop linguistic skills in an innovative way by using visual art from both countries to inspire ouur creative writing. Students explored narrative in visual imagery by ‘reading’ art piece and using it to inspire poetry or short stories. This was intended to challenge our students to move out of their comfort zones and move towards acquiring adeeper understanding of the modern languages being studied.

During the exchanges, students attended classes in a variety of subjects and collaborated with students from all year groups in lessons and socially at break and lunch times.

The overarching aims of the project were to encourage students from both schools to improve their skills in modern foreign language via the medium of art and through direct contact with their partners.

When we were deciding upon the project, we expected the long term benefits to include powerful and lasting partnerships between our schools.
Although to some extent this goal has been achieved an students from both schools will continue to communicate with their partners, the longer term aim has been hindered by significant staffing changes in NCEA, since the project application, the head has changed on two occasions and there is not one single member of the MFL team in NCEA who was still involved in the project at the conclusion, only one member of the Art team remained in situ and the legal characteristic of the school has changed. Instead of being NCEA Academy, we are now “Dukes Academy.”

However notwithstanding this, there are plans for the Mallorcan school to visit the region and the school in March 2020.

We hoped that this project would enhance literacy in Art resources and develop a languages awareness that was to ignite creativity and inspiration for students to consider working abroad within the creative and tourism industries.

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 18000 Eur

Project Coordinator

The Northumberland Church of England Academy Trust & Country: UK

Project Partners

• IES SINEU