Booklet 3: Guideline for Art-Educational Activities

Guideline fo Art-Educatior n

al Activities

1. Introduction We want to increase, in an alternative way, youth motivation in the non-formal education field. The role of the trainer in this is crucial. Therefore, we intend to use art-educational tools, through creativity and culture, to boost our trainers/ teachers/coaches who do not have training in the artistic field. We provide them with alternative and innovative strategies to develop the vulnerable youngsters’ competencies: Critical thinking, Creativity, Communication and Collaboration (the four Cs). We want to clarify that the guideline’s content does not give a magical recipe to solve all problems with youth. It provides, nonetheless, creative suggestions on how trainers can involve youngsters and make them think so that they can develop projects through their self-expression. We do not want to prepare specialists in Art nor turn people into artists. That is why we base the

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theoretical guideline for a training programme in Art on Social Reconstructionist and Formalist approaches. All activities are related to social or individual issues, using Project-Based Learning (PBL) through Art Form in a conceptual, critical, playful, and expressionist way. As a strategy in education, Expressionism cares less about formal results (artistic qualities) and more about the process or the experience.

2. Project-Based Learning (PBL) Project-Based Learning (PBL) or project-based instruction is an instructional approach designed to allow learners to develop knowledge and skills through engaging projects around challenges and problems they may face in the real world. As a result, students develop deep content knowledge, critical thinking, collaboration, creativity, and communication skills. Project-Based Learning (PBL) projects serve as an infrastructure to shape and direct learning. The end product is less important.

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3. Art-Educational activities The guideline in the field of Arts will not give trainers a certification in Arts.

Still, it does offer the trainer several opportunities to try out activities with their youngsters without being an artist or a teacher of Arts. We should not forget that artistic expression belongs to human nature, so if we can learn to speak or write a language, why not learn to express ourselves using other languages, such as visual or physical ones?

Although we needed the collaboration of specialists in Art Education to build this handbook, it contains a selection of activities technically easy to put into practice.

On the other hand, one trainer may feel more comfortable exploring some and not all activities, which is understandable. That is why you can find a variety of strategies just by reading the list in this booklet.

Those activities are presented separately but should be used under a larger plan, a project connected logically with other activities. In this sense, we should ask ourselves ‘Why do I want to use this activity?’ It is essential to conceptualise the work – doing without meaning is an empty experience.

Another important criterion is that the trainer/teacher/coach has to experiment before implementing because surprises always happen, some issues may have to be solved, and the trainer has to be aware of that in advance.

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4. Division of cultural skills across four sectors The best way to integrate vulnerable youngsters is to increase inner motivation by awakening their curiosity and pleasure in learning. And the best way to achieve this is to develop competencies, a cluster of skills, attitudes and knowledge, especially the cultural awareness and expression competency, just as the personal, the social, the learn to learn and the citizenship competencies.

The approach of the MOVE Beyond project is to use artistic/cultural tools to develop the four Cs that, among those above, were previously identified as key competencies. Therefore, it is logical to organise the proposal of activities in four sectors: 1. Warm-up (Collaboration) 2. Dive into the ocean (Critical thinking/problem solving) 3. Just do it (Creativity and innovation) 4. Party time (Communication) We must clarify that this is just a structure to help trainers choose activities for their practices with youngsters because those competencies are often explored together or in connection with one another. Nevertheless, we can identify the primary competency that each activity aims to develop.

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5. Examples of cultural activities related to the four skills and sectors across four sectors In this booklet, we present several activities from the handbook. Please refer to the website of MOVE BEYOND for more details and examples for your training sessions.

5.1 Collaboration No one can do everything alone. Through collaboration, individuals develop complex networks of interaction that promote the development of societies.

It is without saying how important it is to build confidence between people. Trust and accomplishing shared goals have taken humanity to levels of development that no one could have achieved being isolated. We intend to explore collaboration for constructive purposes. Artistic team experiences allow us to take risks without judgements or serious consequences, to connect and expose ourselves by sharing and learning from different

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perspectives in a safe environment. It is mainly about games and teamwork, using movement and the body.

5.1.1 Outside Is More Than Exercise This activity consists of young people taking outdoor pictures based on specific themes/topics they find interesting. It aims to create a chance for young people to talk about their lives in an informal setting, to provide youngsters with an opportunity to represent themselves and express their feelings to others, to lower the threshold of physical exercise, and to make going outdoors a positive experience.

5.1.2 All Humans Youngsters step into a circle drawn on the floor every time a question or request from the trainer relates to them. Then they step back to the circle line after a sign from the trainer. The questions start very general but get more and more personal.

The intention is to explore our perceptions of others and ourselves. So it is an activity for opening a group discussion about social stereotypes, racism or gender issues, or individual issues.

5.1.3 Tiny Escape Young people are split into two groups to make a Tiny Escape for the other group.

It is done based on a specific storyline by puzzles and riddles. Afterwards, each group solves the Tiny Escape of the other group. This collaboration challenge

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is characterised by experiencing the power of working as a team. In addition, youngsters get to know their skills, as well their shortcomings, concerning collaboration. Moreover, this method reveals the strengths of others and inspires youngsters to learn from them. It is an approach using strength and increasing power by collaboration.

5.2 Critical thinking In an unusual situation, we have to analyse, and regard the problem as a challenge and focus on the solution. Critical thinking is the intellectually disciplined process of actively and skilfully conceptualising, applying, questioning, hypothesising, analysing, synthesising, and evaluating information gathered from, or generated by, observation, experience, reflection, reasoning, or communication, as a guide to belief and action.

5.2.1 The Innovation Method The Innovation Method is characterised by letting people reflect on solving bottlenecks through associative thinking (diverge and converge) and jointly develop innovative solutions and a new approach. For this, we use many creative techniques that lead to a lot of energy and pleasure, and a quick and good result. Moreover, it is an approach that enables

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us to think and act ‘out of the box’ when facing challenges, complex assignments or tough problems that need to be solved.

5.2.2 Values as a Stepping Stone Youngsters discover five main personal values by choosing out of those in a given set of cards. They verify the weight of each value in their daily life for a week by exploring pictures, films or drawings of situations, places, areas, or people that mean a lot to them. They share and exchange the results of their research. Then, with help from the trainers, they check in a group if their ‘working’ values in daily life are sufficient for making their life meaningful and worthwhile. This activity is made for youngsters to check what is truly important to them, make plans or set priorities.

5.2.3 3D Conceptual Map Youngsters reply to challenging questions/requests by writing down three words for each question. Examples of such questions/requests are: ‘What are your characteristics?’ ‘What do you like to do most?’ ‘Moments of happiness.’ ‘Moments of fear.’ ‘Things you want to do in the next ten years.’

They then identify the five most essential aspects from the list and create a 3D assemblage with objects/pictures that represent those words. This activity is to reveal the dreams, needs, difficulties or other individual aspects that youngsters are not fully aware of. Another purpose is to achieve more self-knowledge.

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5.3 Creativity Several theories have been written about creativity, especially in the Psychology field. We can describe creativity as the capacity to use imagination and find ways to do something new. When it comes to defining creativity, there are several theories. We may identify two of them: creativity as a capacity to solve problems and creativity as a capacity to create artistic productions.

We may also see creativity either from the perspective of the process or concerning the production/result. A creative product has three criteria: 1. to be new and different; 2. to surprise and provoke; 3. to be meaningful for others.

5.3.1 Good Vibes Youngsters express their emotions through different assignments such as drawing, making meditative paintings, and using line art. They can be abstract in their pictures, use symbolism or be realistic. Good Vibes are a series of Art Therapy activities. They deal with emotions like anger and sadness through helpful exercises, in which youngsters think about their feelings by using colours, shapes and symbols. Good Vibes help to focus on good thoughts and make young people happy. These activities are directed to develop youngsters’ positive thinking.

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5.3.2 Art, the Source of Happiness We achieve happiness through various artistic pursuits. Youngsters may not be able to draw happiness, but they can be happy with Art. These activities help provide ways to deal with sorrow and sadness and transform negative feelings into happiness. They include assignments to create a collage about your vision of a perfect day, photograph things you think are beautiful, or make a stuffed animal.

5.3.3 Release the Monster Release the Monster is about representing fear, one of our strongest emotions, with a 3D creature. For this, youngsters use objects from garbage, reusable materials like bottles, packages, paper plates, and such. This activity helps people explore complex emotions using artistic expression to build a creature.

5.4 Communication Communication competence may be described as knowing how we should speak to others in different situations or settings. Learning how to convey ideas effectively to different personality types is crucial. That has the potential to eliminate confusion when people communicate poorly and whole projects fall apart. Related communication skills include active listening,

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confidence, conflict resolution, organisation, and social/cultural skills.

From the perspective of Art Education, primarily through visual arts strategies, communication is the way of sharing and making artistic creation visible. For example, without an exhibition open to the public, it is as if an artist’s work did not exist. Art lives by sharing and has a social role. Therefore, in Art Education, the idea of communication is similar: the feedback created by the visibility of the process and the work made by youngsters (expressed by them) is decisive for the learning process.

5.4.1 Never-Rarely-Often-Always Four sheets of paper are laid on the floor with the words ‘Never’, ‘Rarely’, ‘Often’, and ‘Always’. Then, in reply to person-oriented statements, the young people place themselves on one of the papers on the ground. In the next step, cultural stereotyping is added to the statement. The intention is to discuss different cultures, discrimination, stereotypes, and prejudices without judging or discriminating. The goal is to motivate youngsters to be open to newness and otherness, as well as to other people’s opinions.

5.4.2 Urban Sketch Drawing what we see in a small sketchbook while we visit the city is an excellent way to know the place, improve visual perception and collect graphic memories.

It can be done based on specific assignments such as drawing a striking building, tree or person, and writing down what you feel or experience looking at a specific

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place. These activities can be useful for creative work, to reveal hidden aspects, or for youngsters to share their points of view.

5.4.3 Prepare an Exhibition An exhibition is a great way to share and communicate youngsters’ points of view about some subject, using artistic tools such as posters, photos, paintings, lettering, flyers, videos, music, and so on. Often, it is the final step of a project, and it helps to synthesise all processes. It also allows the youngsters to understand and validate what they learned, revealing the main concepts that should be shown to the community.

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NOTES

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NOTES

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NOTES

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The European Commission support for the production of this publication does not constitute an endorsement of the contents which reflects the views only of the authors, and the Commission cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained therein.

english language revision by: Rita Brito – escritabrito@gmail.com illustrations by: Federica De Leonardo graphic design and print: tipografialapiazza.it last update: september 2022

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