Cultural heritage in adult education – exchange of good practice in historical European monasteries. Erasmus Project

Project Title

Cultural heritage in adult education – exchange of good practice in historical European monasteries.

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 adult education

Project Call Year

This project’s Call Year is 2019

Project Topics

This project is related with these Project Topics: Creativity and culture; Cultural heritage/European Year of Cultural Heritage

Project Summary

The project “Cultural heritage in adult education – exchange of good practice in historical European monasteries” aims to exchange good practice between historic monasteries that deliver informal adult education. Tyniec Monastery is the oldest monastery in Poland that is still active. The monastery in Batalha is a very important site on the UNESCO list, is very well preserved, but no longer fulfils its original function. In Lewes only the ruins of the monastery have survived, so the association works partly with preserved relics and partly with activities to explain its history and original purpose. What connects all of these places is their social and cultural role as cultural heritage sites, which contributes to the tourism offer for each place. Historically, monasteries were important centres of learning where knowledge was both preserved and imparted. Nowadays they have lost their former role, but as tourist attractions and places of cultural heritage they attract eager visitors and so have a further opportunity to influence and educate society.
Each project partner delivers educational activities for adults using the character of their place and its history. Tyniec Abbey has run calligraphy and medieval illumination workshops for 11 years; Batalha monastery specialises in stained-glass workshops; and Lewes Priory has reconstructed monastic medieval gardens where they run workshops on herbal medicine and medieval cooking. The aim of the project is to exchange good practice in delivering educational activities for adults, to raise the competences of the staff working in this adult education through cooperation and, at the end of the project, to develop an educational offer for adults to be delivered by participating organisations. The exchange of good practice will take place through short training visits to each participating site, involving three representatives from each site. Visits will provide an opportunity to learn about the methods of working with adults by each host organisation, and project participants will develop new skills.
We want the adult learners at each site to benefit directly from the project, so during each training visit, open workshops for adult learners will be held, conducted by the experts from the visiting organisations. These will be workshops in addition to the host organisation’s offer.
The project will involve adult education staff, three people from each organisation. These will be a project coordinator in each group – the person responsible for adult education; an expert educator who runs workshops and who will share experience with partners (from Tyniec – a master of calligraphy, from Lewes – a herbalism expert, from Batalha – a stained glass expert) and a second educator who will potentially lead new workshops after the project has ended (educators interested in calligraphy workshops will come to Tyniec, those interested in stained glass will come to Batalha, and those interested in monastic gardens and herbalism will come to Lewes).
During the project there will be one international meeting of coordinators and three training meetings – one at each participant’s site: at Batalha, Tyniec and Lewes.
The main outcome of the project will be that participants will improve their qualifications and gain new inspiration for educational activities. This will have a positive impact on the participating organisations. By improving staff competencies, the organisations will strengthen their potential and enrich their educational offer for adults. The project will also benefit adult learners who will be able to acquire new skills while visiting an interesting cultural heritage site. In the long term, the project will enhance the potential of cultural heritage education, which is not limited to understanding the past but has an active role to play in shaping attitudes and skills today.

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 34596 Eur

Project Coordinator

Fundacja Chronic Dobro & Country: PL

Project Partners

• DIRECAO GERAL DO PATRIMONIO CULTURAL
• Lewes Priory Trust