THE FINAL CONFERENCE OF HEARME PROJECT
The Final Conference of HearMe Project took place on the 29th and 30th of September in Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna. Two days of conference gathered museum educators, experts and teachers from Austria, Germany, Hungary, Slovenia and Serbia and introduced participants to a new approach in museum education for bringing youth and museums together. After the introductory part of the conference, participants were involved in HearMe workshop with two paintings from the collection of the Kunsthistorisches Museum. The Project coordinators from the National Gallery of Slovenia, the Gallery of Matica srpska, the Kunsthistorisches Museum and the SISE organization presented the Project, its aims and structure, as well as the BRICKme methodology used in the workshops. The last part of the conference was reserved for creative work of participants where they designed a workshop for their museum using the new approach presented at the conference.
TEAM GATHERING IN NOVI SAD
23‒25 JUNE 2017
From 23‒25 June, all team members from Vienna, Ljubljana and Barcelona gathered at the Gallery of Matica srpska in Novi Sad. During this time, we discussed the organization of the final conference in Vienna, which will be held in September. The conference will last for two days and will be open to the general public, but is primarily intended for museum educators, secondary school teachers and news media. Apart from that, we planned the main structure and content of The HearMe Manual which will be published in English and available online for free. Additionally, hard copy versions in the Slovene, German and Serbian language will be available in partner museums.
PARTICIPATION IN CREATIVE EUROPE FORUM 2017
20 APRIL 2017
The Gallery of Matica srpska participated in the discussion “Visual Arts and Audience Development” with the HearMe project together with other cultural professionals from art field on the 20th of April withinthe Creative Europe Forum 2017 – (Re)positioning of the (South Eastern) European region through culture, at the European centre for culture and debate “GRAD” (Belgrade).
PRESENTATION OF THE HEARME WORKSHOPS AT THE FACULTY OF EDUCATION IN LJUBLJANA
11 AND 14 APRIL 2017
In April, we presented the HearMe workshops at the National Gallery of Slovenia to two groups of students from the Faculty of Education. The first group consisted of art teachers in the making. Current and future cooperation with the department is of great importance for development of new museum programmes, relevant also to art education in schools. Second group consisted of international students from the museum education department, who were particularly interested in new and innovative methods of art interpretation. We presented the new teaching methods to both groups and explained the introduction and adaptation of the BrickMe methodology to museum environment. The overall experience and knowledge exchange was important for open and successful future collaboration between museums and educational institutions.
WORKSHOP "PROGRAM CREATIVE EUROPE: FROM IDEA TO APPLICATION"
On the 8th of March at Novi Sad Fair, the Desk of Creative Europe Serbia organized a workshop "Program Creative Europe: from idea to application" and invited the Gallery of Matica srpska to present the successful story about the HearMe project. We shared our experience on the application and realization of the project with the desire to encourage other cultural professionals to apply for the Creative Europe program.
TRANSFER OF KNOWLEDGE AND EXPERIENCES IN THE KUNSTHISTORISCHES MUSEUM IN VIENNA
From 21 ˗24 February, museum educators from the National Gallery of Slovenia, Gallery of Matica srpska and Kunsthistorisches museum gathered at the Kunsthistorisches museum in Vienna for transfer of knowledge and exchange of experience. The education staff from the NGS and the GMS observed more experienced education curators and trainers at the KHM, while they were conducting different workshops. This was also a good opportunity for the Project's team to analyze current practice within HearMe workshops and summarize previous experiences. As a result, the teams gained new ideas and solutions for possible difficulties as well as new examples of good practice.
SHADOWING AND WORKSHOPS AT THE NATIONAL GALLERY OF SLOVENIA, 24-26 JANUARY 2017
Indefatigable Daniel Weiss and David G. Gonzales came to the National Gallery of Slovenia in January 2017 to observe the HearMe trainers.Together with the Gallery team, they filmed one youth workshop. Since the SISE team observed the workshops in all participant countries, they were able to comment on the flow, atmosphere and circumstances of the workshops.
In the two days that followed, Daniel Weiss lead a HearMe training workshop with sixteen participants from Slovenia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Croatia. All participants praised the practicality of the training, with few institutions agreeing to join the project as associate partners.
TEST RUN OF THE HEARME/PRISLUHNIMI WORKSHOP
30 NOVEMBER 2016
Before actually starting the workshops in the National Gallery of Slovenia, we invited students of the St. Stanislav’s Institution – Diocesan Classical Gymnasium to participate in the test run. We tested the complete 3,5 hour-long workshop and asked them not only to voice their opinions about the length of the workshop, but also to comment the topics we addressed and tasks we asked them to do. In general, youngsters were excited and well pleased with the entire course of the workshop, and gave us some meaningful insights, which we incorporated into the overall structure. The answer to one of the survey questions of one of the girls who took part in the test run: "The workshops do not drag on and are highly interesting! The Gallery is wonderful and it is indeeda great pleasure to look at the beautiful works of art.«
TEST RUN IN THE GALLERY OF MATICA SRPSKA
The Gallery of Matica srpska organized a test run of the HearMe workshop with a high-school class in order to predict and adapt to possible thematic issues and communication problems. Curators from the Gallery tested two different workshops – one related to migrations and the history of migrations in Serbia and one based on the topic of brain drain and migration of professionals. Students made Lego models of their homes, superheroes, and feelings in different and observed artworks from two famous Serbian artists, Paja Jovanović and Bogdan Šuput. The method of the workshop “forced” students to start talking about their perspectives on the topic of migration and ended with a great discussion among themselves. Students gave us positive reflection on the method and way the workshop was realized, but also made suggestions on duration of the workshop and usage of social networks.
TEACHER-MUSEUM EDUCATOR WORKSHOPS
24 NOVEMBER 2016
On the 24th November, the National Gallery of Slovenia organized teacher-museum educator workshops. The main purpose of th e event was to present the HearMe/PrisluhniMi workshops to high-school educators, not only to promote the programme and invite them to book school groups, but also to get their opinion and much appreciated suggestions about the structure of the workshop. The event was very well attended and welcomed 17 participants, including education curators from museums and high-school teachers from all parts of the country. The workshops were very well received, and gave us an insight into what high-school teachers really expect for their students to learn. Afterwards, the NGS team slightly adjusted the course of the workshops and prepared it for its first visitors.
TEACHER-MUSEUM EDUCATOR WORKSHOP IN THE GALLERY OF MATICA SRPSKA
On 29 October 2016 in the Gallery of Matica srpska in Novi Sad was organized a Teacher-museum educator workshop where high school professors heard and learned about HearMe workshops. During the workshop, the museum educators from the Gallery presented their museum and the project itself, as well as the artworks and the concept of HearMe workshops with young students. They discussed with teachers about challenges of involvement of young people and their interest in culture and art. After the discussion, professors themselves tried out the new BrickMe methodology and focused on the main issue of „brining youth and museums together”. Workshop had a great effect on the teachers because they find that the methodology can have an influence on communication between young students and the concept of HearMe workshops can awake their critical thinking.
MEETING OF CREATIVE EUROPE IN BRUSSELS
On 11 October 2016, Bojan Kuhar, project leader of HearMe, and Michel Mohor, one of co-ordinators, attended the kick-off meeting of Creative Europe in Brussels. The goals were threefold: introduction to project management, networking with other beneficiaries, and meeting the EACEA staff. Emelie Wacker (National Theatre of Belgium) and Andrew Gerzso (IRACM) presented practical approaches they used in managing their large-scale projects, while EACEA presenters focused on the formal aspects of project management (audit, dissemination, finances, policy). The attendees were able to exchange views and good practices during breaks, sectoral workshops, and networking cocktail. On the next day, the beneficiaries also got to meet their project officer (for now, Arnaud Pasquali) in face-to-face conversation.
TRAINING OF MUSEUM EDUCATORS
From 23 - 29 September, museum educators from the National Gallery of Slovenia, Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna and the Gallery of Matica srpska gathered at the National Gallery of Slovenia in Ljubljana for the training of Daniel Weiss from the organization ISES. During 5 days museum educators learned about diverse methodologies in field of education and experienced the practical benefits of methods such as BrickMe, Design Thinking, Gamification, open art dialogue. They practice Lego model building as expressions of different ideas, they discussed about the tasks and objectives of HearMe workshops and made Business Model Canvases. As a result of the training the participants developed different HearMe workshop models for young people in the museum which combine new methodologies and fine art. Museum educators got practical experience, tools and models which they will use for creation and realization of HearMe workshops.
KICK-OFF MEETING IN LJUBLJANA
From 5 - 7 July, all partners gathered at the National Gallery of Slovenia in Ljubljana for the first project meeting. During the two days, the partners talked about and discussed their responsibilities in the realization of the project, audience insight and development strategy, project’s visual image, approaches to the main topic of workshops and training for educators in Barcelona, project documentation, building the museum-school relations and digital tool preparation. The partners from Ljubljana made a special guided tour through the permanent collection and introduced their colleagues to different educational programs of the National Gallery of Slovenia.
VISUAL IDENTITY OF THE PROJECT
We published our visual identity for the project.
It combines museum symbols with visual ideas of youth, creativity, playfulness and fun!
