Name of the institution
Espai C, Barcelona (Spain)
Official e.mail address
gemma.paris@uab.cat
Year of the project
2015 ongoing
Project coordinator(s)
Carles Giner (ICUB), Carme Hoyas (Consorci Educació), Gemma Paris (UAB), Mar Morón (UAB)
Partnerships with other institutions
Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (UAB), Fabra i Coats, Center d'Art Contemporani i Experimentem amb l'Art, HANGAR, the Antoni Tàpies Foundation, the Suñol Foundation
Duration of the project
year(s)
Category of participants
pre-school (3 - 5/6 yrs)
from primary to middle school (5/6 - 12/13 yrs)
Number of participants
80
Fields of experience
art
interculturality
Type(s) of experience
visit/tour
didactic activity/atelier
exhibition
Location
school
cultural institution (museum, theatre...)
Aims of the project (3 max)

1. Promote children’s creativity by getting them in contact with young creators and their artistic projects.

2. Facilitate the relationship between education and culture.

3. Establish spaces for reflection through art.

4. Improve the methodologies, organizations and equipment of educational centers to improve the inclusion of centers and academic success.

Basic knowledge
Resident artist: the ability to see their own creative processes from different perspectives.
Children: ability to express themselves without being judged; learning of new artistic references; sharing of the creative processes with the peers; getting to know a different way of working from the side of the artist by providing a diverse vision of the world.
School: get to know and understand other learning spaces outside the classroom; the school changes and adapts to a new reality, becomes more creative and inclusive, respects the individual rhythms of children.
Elaboration process
Creative processes and educational transformation have been shared between the students and the resident artist; the cultural dimension of educators and educational centers has been highlighted; the presence of the artist in educational centers has been normalized; responsible participation in decision-making process.
Autonomy
The children have been able to advance in their works starting from their creative processes based on their own knowledge and concerns. No prior guidelines have been given on what they had to do. Students have developed the freedom of expression, the autonomy at work, the autonomous and collective decision-making process and the creativity.
Cooperation
The workshop becomes a shared space and is transformed according to the needs that arise during the course.
The artist invites the children to start an experience without receiving any judgment or evaluation.

The artist has shared the works made in exhibitions in educational centers (La Llotja) and in cultural centers (Fabrica Fabra i Coats and civic centers)
Use of different sensory channels
In the workshop materials and techniques different from those used at school have been employed, such as iron, textiles, ceramics, photocollage, etc.
The artists provide visual references that are not worked on in the classroom.
Conversations about the analysis of the artist and students’ creative processes
Use of the body
The experience is not physical but is presented as an activity of free movement where mental and manual activities take place.

One year the project was developed in a school with three performing artists in residence, in collaboration with the Institut del Teatre (Barcelona).
Use of the language (oral expression)
Through an assembly system, decisions are made collaboratively and this assembly manages the needs of the workshop: its organization, the material, documentation processes or the relationship with the educational community.
Students share their processes with the resident artist and with their peers too.
Use of written artistic resources (graphic expression)
The students themselves, the artists and the mediators collect the graphic resources to document the creative processes carried out during the workshop.
Performative approach

The learning process of the students, artists and school develops throughout the course and adapts to new circumstances and suggestions. The focus is supposed to be on the learning processes of these participants. This process occurs through the art, where the scenarios are transformed and the interaction of knowledge is fundamental.

 

Narrative approach

Visual narrative is important for different areas:

  • Annual documentation  made by artists and mediators and including the documents made with children.
  • Articles
  • Blog, social networks (instagram and websites of the participant schools)
Playful approach
The workshop allows the freedom of expression and, consequently, the fruition of a creative space where it’s possible to make different experiences. Spaces for reflection are also created to share impressions and opinions, foster thinking processes and enjoy this new evidence.
Observation/reading/production
The importance of:
-The process instead of the result
-childhood empowerment
-Creative learning in creative environments
-Bidirectional learning relationships between artists and the children
-Impact and change in the pedagogical strategies of the educational center
-Involvement of cultural institutions in the educational field and vice versa
Soft skills
creative thinking
Brief description of the project
Space C is a program addressed to public Primary Education schools in Barcelona. It is about the link between artists or groups and the school. The artists develop a one-year residency at the school that makes a space available also to the creators (preferably a studio or workshop), where their residency is linked. This space can be available to the artist for an additional year.
Description of the activity

The resident artist sets up their works in the creation space. Children are invited for a few hours a week so that they can watch the creation processes and think about what projects they would like to start accompanied by the artist. The artist and the students decide together what materials, techniques, and tools are needed to start developing the artistic projects.

Duration of the activity

During the school year. Espai C is available for primary school children for 4 hours a week. The artist can use Espai C any day of the week at any time.

How to involve children/teachers/educators/artists

The workshop is a space shared by the artist and children. In its initial phase, the assembly is created to decide about the management of the needs and its organization. The artist does not hold classes or workshops at school but uses the space assigned as a workshop for a year. The artist is always there and shares the space with the students, who develop their projects. The artist and the children work together and share strategies and knowledge mutually. The participation of the students in this workshop is always voluntary and linked to a personal or group project. Working in space C must not compromise the development of other school tasks. Teachers can ask the artist or the group for advice, in order to develop the projects of the group.

Description of the activity

The boys and girls develop the project they have chosen and begin to carry it out. They use the materials that they find in the workshop and learn to use the proper vocabulary of the tools and the languages of artists.

Duration of the activity

During the school year, Espai C is available for primary school children for 4 hours a week. The artist can use Espai C any day of the week at any time.

How to involve children/teachers/educators/artists

In this phase, the children talk with the artist, share concerns, opinions, questions about how to sort out the doubts that arise during the activities. On the other hand, the artist shares their creative process with them, their way of working and references that are helping them throughout their work.

Description of the activity

Carry out the works without the goal of finalising it but with the aim of going through the experimentations in their creative processes.

Duration of the activity

During the school year, Espai C is available for primary school children for 4 hours a week. The artist can use Espai C any day of the week at any time.

How to involve children/teachers/educators/artists

The creative processes carried out in Espacio C both by the resident or collective artist and the participating students must be visible in the educational center itself and also in the artistic and cultural area of Barcelona. Some of these processes have been shown in those educational and/or cultural institutions of the city linked to the project.

Results of the project (3 max)
-It introduces and fosters the artistic sensibility in the educational center and brings changes in the educational community.
-It provides autonomy and spaces for the students’ reflection, improves entrepreneurship and encourages the personal contribution in the autonomous learning.
-Promotion of creativity, divergent and critical thinking, imagination as aptitudes to grow up as individuals.
critical thinking
Continuity of the project over the years
Yes
Techniques

Painting, drawing, illustration, engraving, jewellery, sculpture, stop-motion, textile art, photocollage, etc.

 

Materials used

Pencils, tempera, markers, watercolour, cardboard, iron, wood, photographs, computers, plasticine, clay, pigments, artist catalogues, brass, fabrics, threads, etc.

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