CREARTE

Teaching and learning in and through visual arts tend to simulate everyday life, connect school life to real-world issues, engage children in meaningful learning processes and provide in-depth experiences. The involvement of students with the processes of contemporary artists could allow the development of meaningful relationships and alternative learning that could inspire their adult lives. Furthermore, students’ interactions with artists’ processes offer a creative space for exploration with media and techniques, ideas, concepts and issues. The proposed CREARTE project focuses on the establishment of creative partnerships between primary schools and visual artists in the framework of visual arts education. It draws upon the priority areas of the ET 2020 process and the target for reducing school drop-out rates, offering an alternative literacy for children of the age of 6-12 to get involved in experiential and cooperative learning by working with visual artists that could act, in this way, as significant role models to inspire creativity. Children’s experiences from such cooperations could be transformative, leading also to the ET 2020 objectives for “improving the quality and efficiency of education and training” and “enhancing creativity and innovation”. CREARTE also aims to meet the priority of strengthening the profile, leadership and research role of the teaching professions by providing teachers with new methods, tools and resources so as to design collaborative projects that meet the needs of their students. Additionally the project aims to strengthen education and training paths of educators by delivering high quality training to in-service teachers and build effective partnerships between training providers (advisors, academics, trainers), educational institutions (pedagogical institutes, universities) and policy makers (inspectors at the Ministry, European Chapter of an international association). The project’s direct participants consist of 28 experienced educators from 5 countries (Portugal, Spain, UK, Cyprus, Sweden) that are professionally involved with visual arts education for many years. They teach at various levels (universities, in-service professional development, primary schools) or are policy makers. Most of them have participated in EU projects in the past, are involved in academic writing and curriculum development, and belong to visual arts organisations. A number of them hold doctorate degrees and some are visual artists as well. As a number of EU visual arts curricula encourage cooperations with visual artists, CREARTE suggests the development of a European network of professionals that will facilitate the construction of partnerships between primary schools and visual artists’ communities. To achieve this, it is proposed to establish a network that will: – develop communication channels and foster professional enhancement for the design and exchange of good practices that involve primary school partnerships with visual artists – establish cooperation between educators, students and visual artists through the development and implementation of school programmes in the framework of visual arts education – develop OER produced during and after the conclusion of the project – design an online artists’ database that will serve as a resource and contact point for schools and artists seeking cooperation across Europe – design a professional development course that will be offered through Key Action 1. CREARTE targets to primary school teachers of the involved countries, as well as teachers of the rest of Europe and the world. The project initiates with the review of existing practices regarding school partnerships with visual artists, and utilise staff expertise for the development of the training events for the 28 participants; it evolves with the training of 120 primary educators at the partner countries as well as the development of the OER platform that will incorporate educational materials; it continues with local school implementations by the trained educators with the involvement of visual artists; it progresses with 3 multiplier events for 240 primary educators at the partner countries; it parallel develops an online artists’ database as a tool for bringing together artists and primary schools; it develops an online academic publication; it fosters the design of a short course that will carry on the project outcomes; it ensures quality control by several assessment strategies and milestone check-ups. The activities that are planned to be maintained after the end of the EU funding include the implementation of new local training activities; the maintenance and dissemination of the OER platform and artists’ database; the dissemination of the online academic publication; the offering of a KA1 short course. The artists’ database will serve as a contact point where artists and educators will exchange knowledge and experiences, and develop cooperative projects.

Palavras-chave: New innovative curricula; educational methods; development of training courses; creativity and culture.