Art as tool professor to promote learning, peaceful coexistence and sustainability. This is one of the driving forces behind the University of Navarra Museum 's school programs at partnership, presented last Wednesday at the center's workshops. 

The partnership and the support of the General Administration of Peace, Coexistence and Human Rights of the Government of Navarra and the Environmental Education Program Mancoeduca (Mancomunidad de la Comarca de Pamplona), expression of the work in network between the institutions, allows a greater diffusion and depth of the initiatives. 

The proposals for this academic year 2020-21 are inspired by the exhibition of the Brazilian artist Vik Muniz, which can be visited at the Museum until March, and are based on the multidisciplinarity, the promotion of creativity and the skill learning to think. In the presentation, Jaime García del Barrio, director general of the Museum, has valued the potential of Vik Muniz's work to develop these proposals: "He deals with very diverse and current issues, although when he began to reflect on them they were not so much, such as inequality, the environment, the Economics circular, the recognition of difference or recycling".

In this sense, he stressed that the Museum's educational and family programs are a commitment so that "through art, we are able to work with future generations and the audiences of the future, while supporting teachers and educators with innovative tools at this time when the pedagogical environment and professor is more complex".

Also participating in the meeting were José María González, director of the Coexistence and Human Rights Service of the Government of Navarra's General Administration for Peace, Coexistence and Human Rights; Mar García, coordinator of the Education Environmental Mancoeduca Program; and Fernando Echarri, manager of area Educativa del Museo Universidad de Navarra. 

"In this atypical year due to Covid-19, the Museum has evaluated the risks and has proposed not only the on-site scenario, in which the schools come to the Museum, but also the online scenario. In this way, if the students could not come, the Museum would safely bring disinfected materials to the schools so that they can develop our programs," explained Echarri. 

In addition, online guided tours have been designed, which allow "real time visits from the Museum to educational centers. In a class, the student body can enjoy in an interactive way a visit to the exhibition of Vik Muniz, ask questions and make observations". The center has also contemplated a third scenario, to develop the proposals from home if the teaching cannot be carried out from the schools. The manager of the educational area has also highlighted the importance of "building bridges to society" and continuing with the line undertaken by the "work at network".

In this line, José María González has pointed out that the program Schools with report, for peace and coexistence that since 2016 develops the General Administration of Peace, Coexistence and Human Resources connects with the objectives of the Museum's programs: "It is a program aimed at young generations, based on the action through schools. This program aims to train for coexistence underlining values, attitudes and human skills that allow everyone to prepare for a life in society based on dialogic attitudes to resolve conflicts, delegitimizing violence as tool to achieve ends of any kind, and develop critical thinking". He also highlighted the "experiential nature of the activities", which connect with emotions. 

Mar García also coincided in highlighting the objectives shared by the three institutions: "We work on environmental awareness, and it was curious to receive a proposal focused on the Museum's activity. We all talk in our daily lives about how to be responsible citizens in this society in which we live. And we saw that this exhibition can work very well on many issues. It has a very powerful social background". In addition, the coordinator of Mancoeduca has valued the importance of "learning from others and with others, which in this case will be in a network formed by all, schools, the Museum and other institutions".