Art and Culture : Citizenship factors Erasmus Project

Project Title

Art and Culture : Citizenship factors

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 : School Exchange Partnerships

Project Call Year

This project’s Call Year is 2018

Project Topics

This project is related with these Project Topics: Creativity and culture; ICT – new technologies – digital competences; Teaching and learning of foreign languages

Project Summary

In order to make a well-established partnership last, Julien Wittmer high school in Charolles and El Pilar Maristas high school in Zaragoza decided to start an Erasmus + project in 2018. Thanks to a long-lasting tie that binds the schools and their teaching communities together and inspired by the strong friendships built among our students during our previous exchanges, our aim was to give our partnership a European dimension, enabling our students to gather around a common project : European citizenship.

We wanted to understand to what extent the culturally and artistically rich heritage of Spain and France at the turn of the XXth century was a meaningful representation of a new European citizenship. The stark contrast between a rural high school, far from important cultural sites, and a city centre high school made the project all the more interesting and enriching.

That is how we discovered and studied Dalí’s, Picasso’s and Buñuel’s artistic lives. We followed the tracks of these avant-garde French-Spanish artists that made cultural exchange the centre point of their creation.
To make the process clearer, each trip led us to the partner school after a stop at a cultural site relevant to the period we were studying. We first went to Paris, then Barcelona and finally Marseilles. We were supposed to visit Madrid as well but unfortunately this final trip was cancelled due the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.

The project allowed to make our group more aware of European citizenship. Indeed, thanks to the project, we tried to define European identity and realized it went beyond the mere idea of geographical national borders. The research was all the more fascinating as art was our prism : not only was it an opportunity for the group to learn more about art history but it also allowed us to understand how essential art is in the building of a culture.

The website, the various magazine issues, the Youtube channel and the use of social networks show how our students’ control of cultural, social and pragmatic skills improved thanks to our specific project. Besides, the use of digital skills was paramount to spread the result of our work. The difficult lockdown period proved how strong the link was between our schools : our students were never short of ideas to keep in touch and find solutions to keep the project going outside the planned trips and real-life gatherings.

Not only did we witness our student’s academic, personal and civic evolution and commitment, but we also became aware of the impact on our schools. What we discovered was used during lessons, in language class particularly and we learnt a lot about each other’s teaching methods. We can even say that the project triggered a renewed interest and dynamic around European partnerships and exchanges in our schools. As a matter of fact, European citizenship was brought back to center stage and prompted other members of the teaching communities to get involved in Erasmus+ projects, especially through the application process for a potential future Erasmus+ accreditation in the years to come.

In this regard, the success of our project is clearly a stepping stone to the building of a renewed European commitment between our schools for the future.

Project Website

http://www.wittmeristasplus.com/fr

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 57225,75 Eur

Project Coordinator

LEGT JULIEN WITTMER & Country: FR

Project Partners

• Colegio El Pilar HH. Maristas