Art Attack Across Europe-Making A Difference By Sharing Art Erasmus Project

Project Title

Art Attack Across Europe-Making A Difference By Sharing 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 2016

Project Topics

This project is related with these Project Topics: EU Citizenship, EU awareness and Democracy; Teaching and learning of foreign languages; Creativity and culture

Project Summary

Involving approximately 300 students of mixed abilities, diverse national, cultural ,social and religious backgrounds this project has engaged young Europeans in artistic activities, enabling them to learn about contemporary art in Europe, to explore and exchange ideas and concepts and work together,sharing views, tastes and artworks , promoting intercultural dialogue and active citizenship, and thus learning to appreciate cultural diversity in Europe and the common cultural wealth shared in Europe.
This project has been carried out by four partner schools , the first one is Modellschule Graz, a small private secondary school with around 200 students aged between 10 and 18 years old, which serves as the coordinating school. The curriculum of the Modellschule has a special focus on Art and Crafts. Every year students have six to eight “Art and Crafts” lessons a week and Art is a compulsory subject for the “Matura”, the final exams in Austria, taken at the age of eighteen.
The second school involved is College Aristide Briand, a middle school located to the north of Paris. The school has quite a large number of immigrants coming from Africa (North Africa and Central Africa). They mainly live in council housing and represent a higher rate of unemployment than the rest of the population. The school has taken part in several Comenius and Erasmus+ projects since 2007 and has acquired a huge amount of expertise in carrying out international exchanges and projects.
The third school is Thomas More Catholic school which is located in Purley, a suburb of London, but most of its pupils live in the more urban areas of Croydon and commute to school every day. It has been awarded the International School Award since 2008. Many children come from single parent families and some parents are struggling economically and hold more than one job. Many do not have the means for European travel. The school has a higher than average number of pupils from different ethnicities. In fact more than 300 languages are spoken in this school. There is a high number of pupils with special needs and the number of pupils who have school meals is more than 30 %. A high number of students leave school early. The fourth project partner , Agrupamento de Escolas de Josefa de Óbidos, is a secondary school in Obidos, north of Lisbon in Portugal. The Creative Factory launched by the Óbidos Criativa Approach, is an educational program where students are invited to combine imagination and creativity, to create and develop ideas. Projects such as the Atelier, Animation Movie, MyMachine, StoryCentre, appeared in the schools as an integral part of the curriculum.
The project has involved innovative methods such as peer learning, practical workshops, designing a logo for the project , group work and group discussions, using apps , the eTwinning site and making videos. Activities include a range of learning activities such as Street Art tours and workshops, guided tours through museums and art galleries, painting, designing Tshirts , body painting, photography, Hip-hop dance and drama workshops. Other activities were: making videos, planning and designing presentations and exhibitions, sharing a message from young Europeans to Europe. By engaging in and sharing art, we succeeded in fostering intellectual curiosity , tolerance , team spirit and common values. Promoting creativity, entrepreneurship, language skills, communicative skills and teamwork at a European level has helped our students to acquire skills they will need to be able to compete both in our economic area of Europe and in our globalised world. Working in groups and during peer-learning they have become efficient users of English as a foreign language and have acquired other second language skills , such as French, German and Portuguese. During presentations and exhibitions they have learned presentational skills and while being involved during the organisation of the project and planning exhibitions our pupils have improved and learned management skills. By discussing contemporary artworks , pupils and teachers alike have been able to learn about cultural differences and common values shared by all participants. This has lead to more cultural awareness and tolerance.
By taking part in this project, it has helped both very talented and also weaker students to achieve their full potential and motivate them to engage themselves more in school work., such as learning more IT skills and language skills and working together with fellow Europeans .As a school with a special focus on Art and Crafts in our curriculum the Modellschule Graz , but also our partner institutions which all have very strong Art Departments, have long term benefits with activities being able to be repeated with other students in the future. Teachers, students and families will continue having contact with their colleagues and friends from other European countries .

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 79245 Eur

Project Coordinator

RG Modellschule Graz & Country: AT

Project Partners

• Agrupamento de Escolas de Josefa de Óbidos
• Collège Aristide Briand
• Thomas More Catholic School