juniorarts - art for and with kids

Art is the way children can express their feelings and ideas without fear.
Art is an international language that any child or grown-up can understand,
no matter what their mother language is.
Art is not the subject I was trained to teach at school, but I teach my pupils art
using different methods.
Art is something I can't live without.
Art can be something my children draw or paint. It can be the way I dress
and teach the kids how to dress. It can be the way I organise my office
and teach the kids to organise their work space or home.
Art can be the way we play during the English classes and find interesting ways of
teaching-learning.
Art can be the way my colleagues teach their pupils how to behave each day. Also the way they decorate their classrooms to make them fun and pleasant to work in.
Art can be the way the children learn how to accept their peers, no matter their skin colour, their ethnic group, their religion, their social group, etc.
So
We decided to use art as a tool for intercultural education.
This project idea came to us after we organized the exhibitions with the toys made by the pupils for the Comenius 1 school project "Junior inventors".
We have challenged children and their teachers to participate in a national art exhibition for Easter and the International day of the Rroma people.
This year the two events were supposed to happen on the 8th of April.
But then the children were on holiday, so we organised the exhibtion a week earlier, on March 30.
The exhibition was very successful: more than 600 art works were present in the Easter section and more then 100 were present in the Rroma section. The works were made by children aged 5-12 from different parts of Romania, including our school.
For the grand opening of the event, some children from our school presented a short song and dance show, with Romanian and Rromani (Gypsy) songs and dances.
The public present there were very much impressed by their talent in this type of art: song and dance.
The mass media presented our activity as an important intercultural event in our city.
You can see some images from this event using the following link: http://s172.photobucket.com/albums/w13/DanielaB_album/Easter%20expo%202007/?action=view&current=ed95d9f3.pbw
http://s172.photobucket.com/albums/w13/DanielaB_album/Easter%20expo%202007/?action=view&current=bbfe8fa8.pbw
So
We are happy one project is successful.
Now
We are preparing for two other art exhibitions: One in May 2007, within the International Conference on Key Competencies that is being held in Baia Mare in the period May25- 27, 2007, and we'll demonstrate the artistic competences and the intercultural dialogue. Here, the children from our school will present an art exhibition and a song and dance show.
Then
We are organising an international art exhibition for the International Children's Day, June 1st 2007.