May 24, 2006

Global Seminars & Invited Speaker Series

BRINGING ART AND HERITAGE CLOSER

Heritage and school: a didactic proposal

Dr. Román Felones Morrás

Church of San Juan del Ramo. Estella Land.
 

After the lecturer's address presentation by the director of the Chair, Mrs. Mª Concepción García Gainza, the author started from a conviction staff: that heritage will only be saved if those closest to it become aware of its value and become its best guarantors.

After this starting point, he went on to present a practical example of bringing art and heritage closer to the public, specifically, the project "Tierra Estella, a look at our environment", developed in the I.E.S. Tierra Estella for three consecutive courses with the student body of the center itself.

After making a brief note of the consideration of the history of art in the curriculum of the secondary teaching , he went on to present the context of the development experience: the student body, basically rural in character; the physical center in which the activity takes place professor; the support of the Center of programs of study Tierra Estella, collaborating entity in the project; and the merindad of Estella, a region in demographic and economic regression, with an extraordinary artistic heritage, magnificently studied in the corresponding volumes of the Monumental Catalog of Navarre.

After the conventional outings carried out from the 96-97 academic year, with a pedagogical model where the student body has a significant presence before, during and after the visits, we continued with the recording of a video of one of them in the 97-98 academic year, and an interdisciplinary work on the 98 in the following academic year.

In the year 99-2000 a specific program of approach to the artistic heritage of the merindad was undertaken with two actions: the elaboration of a series of exhibition panels, complemented with a series of cultural outings to get to know the heritage shown on the panels. All this with the help of a number of people, basically three teachers, and the financing of a bank to make the initiative possible.

The author explained the process of development of the panels, listing the steps taken: selection of contents, material elaboration, and presentation of the same in the center itself and in the bank, one per month throughout the entire academic year.

He then went on to explain the methodology and content of the four visits made throughout the course: the Roman villa of Arellano, a section of the Camino de Santiago, the monumental sites of Viana and Los Arcos, and the artistic manifestations of the twentieth century in Estella. All this was carried out on Saturday mornings, with the presence of students up to a maximum of 50, teachers, staff administration and services and board directive of the APYMA.
The success of the initiative motivated a second phase in the course 2000-2001 initially not foreseen: the exhibitions and conferences in all the educational centers of Secondary of the merindad of Estella, of which its development and methodology was explained.

A third phase was added to project in the 2001-2002 academic year: a exhibition at the service of the merindad that toured a good part of the houses of culture in the area, exhibition that at the time of the lecture was exhibited in the cloister of the department of Education in Pamplona.

Among the 11 final considerations made by the speaker, the first two stand out:
1º.- That the project is the result of the direct experience of the classroom and, consequently, it constitutes an example of educational planning in which a good part of the activities have been programmed, carried out, evaluated and collected.
2º.- That the project has the pretension of being a model susceptible of being applied to other zones or areas of our Community.

Finally, a brief summary was made of the projection of the experience in the following years: presentation of the project to the award Giner de los Ríos de innovation in education 2002, where it was a finalist; its expression in the book published by the department of Education of the Government of Navarra in 2006 with the degree scroll "Tierra Estella, a look at our environment"; and the realization of a a course focusing on a single topic for the academic staff of Secondary School in the course 2006-2007 under the degree scroll "Heritage and school: strategies for their interaction".

A lively colloquium ended the dissertation.