AREFS taide ja kulttuuri ry
AREFS art and culture association
  • Savon Radan ryhmä organizes activities along the historical Savo line

THIS IS MY BACKYARD - 2013-2014 - REPORT

Children from rural schools painted THIS IS ME

GRANT ETELÄ SAVON KULTTUURIRAHASTO
TÄMÄ ON MINUN "TAKAPIHANI" - challenging art and poetry program for children and parents, to explore and express their nature and environment
artistic work in the field of children’s culture

AREFS develops innovative art programs to contribute to nature awareness and its meaning for children growing up in isolated rural regions. It will increase awareness of historical and cultural knowledge as well as the emergence of new traditions and contemporary cultural heritage and strengthen the cultural awareness of the youth in small rural societies.
start program: May 2013
end program: May 2014

The grant covers the costs for the material and equipments and the additional staff.
On all publications AREFS has add the logo of Etelä-Savon Kulttuurirahasto.

The challenging art education project started in May 2013 with meetings at the schools to plan the schedule and groups.
At all three locations we initiate workshops to explore the scope of the content and groups concerning.
In school year 2013-2014 all the classes in Hiirola and Rämälä and class 5 and 1 of Haukivuori have been part of the program.

We planned and executed 4 art sessions per series in each group in autumn, and in winter.
In spring we planned and executed 3 sessions per series in each group.
Finally we organized a final workshop in Hiirola and Rämälä with all the classes together.
Even the program has officially ended we are planning different community art activities in Hiirola.

The main idea of the art program is to intensify the artistic attitude of the children and to increase their involvement with the specific expression about their environment.
During the series children were painting, printing and drawing, they have been writing essays and poetry about their habitat.
The process of the art workshops has given interesting information about the way how children can visualize their relation with their environment. It is not the intention to develop false sentiments but just to make clear how a child reflects on the unique place it grows up.
Using different basic materials and collect information about their habitat it creates step by step a personal view. Even one year is too short the results can be used for new experiences and AREFS will try to continue with new program parts.

As part of the introduction it was useful to make connection with the way how landscape and society were developing and changing and how people interact with the environment.
Children were writing about the history of the village and they made interviews with older people to get informed about the way of living in the past.

The results are remarkable and waiting for research and publication.

The whole process is published at the website of AREFS
http://www.arefs.org/projects/this-is-my-backyard-2013-2014-index.html
In over 30 pages the process of all the workshops, museum visits and community activities are archived.
AREFS is planning to research, document and publish the results and outcome of the project I the book TÄMÄ ON MINUN "TAKAPIHANI" – THIS IS MY BACKYARD. As soon as is a budget AREFS will start with collecting articles, editing the content, and translating the text into Finnish and English.

visit the museum

The project in numbers

In total we organized during the program 2013-2014 60 workshops (including the final workshops in Hiirola and Rämälä and the museum visits)
We published 31 web pages about the project to inform a wider audience about the content and the results.
Three schools were involved in the project, Haukivuori, Hiirola and Rämälä with in total 163 children.
AREFS got a grant from Etelä-Savo Kulttuurirahasto which has covered 70% of the budget.

PDF file with the report of the program

all children are painting the final art work

 

project funding 2013-2014:

 

 

 
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