But how can this be done?

        Bringing our pupils closer to art and to the thinking skills can be done in different ways depending on the ages, objectives and the context, in wich these different schools activities are carried out. This doesn't mean that a series of criteria can't be stablished to guide the focussing of the actions carried out within the project. Some of these criterias make a reference to methodological aspects wich we consider to be fundamental:

"Tribar". R. Penrose
UNIT AND INTERDEPENDENCY
We have simbolized it with the image of a triangle because the three apexes are directly interrelated in themselves:
       . we can know things about art and the artists,
       . we can ask ourselves questions and speak
         about artistic works,
       . we can participate in processes of creation.
 
Each one of these aspects has a wider meaning when it contains the other two: it is not only knowing things about the artist as in the traditional style of teaching which, from a book, explained his/her life and characteristics, but we are really concerned with here is from the point of actually knowing an artwork of the artist the children are motivated to find out more about him/her.

Painting for the school magazine...
GLOBALITY
Creative activities and reflection on all of this can be done within all the confines of the school life, from the typically curricular ones to other that, without being directly mentioned in the planning of the school timetables, they make up an important part of the life of the class and the centre: posters, celebrations, games, ... From this point of view, we belive it is important to promote the use of various languages in each of the schools activities, and to seek in each subject its very own artistic vessel so as to convey to the children that there are many ways of expressing and understanding reality, and that some of them place us in direct contact with art.
 
 

LIVING IN DIRECT WITH ARTWORKS
As we usually work the art with reproductions, photographs,                    MACBA. Nov. 1996
slides, etc., we can see how important it is for our pupils to approach art in a living form. This means using two directions: one that involves taking the children on excursions to museums, exhibitions, etc. to see artworks; and the other to bring artistic products that we have scope, to the school. It should also be pointed out that the word "see" should be understood in a much wider sense: see and live, touch, speak about, feel, draw, etc., all of these actions allow a continuity of activities that bring about a living approach to the artistic work.

 

Performing a watch...
OTHER LANGUAGES
We have worked with different languages as much in the approach to the artworks by the children as in the productions of aspects that they suggest to them. Not only have we worked with the oral and written form but also with the body, with music, with volume, colour and movement. Each one of these languages or forms of expression has its own codes, so sometimes they have used them in the conventional way and at other times as a possible means of exploring systems or ways of communication. At the ages with which we work, the emphasis is not so much on the formalizing of different languages as on the ludic use and expression of these.
 
 

 
THE ROLE OF THE PHILOSOPHY
Up to now, philosophy has been worked basically through texts, stories and situations that suggest us questions, doubts, commentaries,... in a collective effort to reach a wider understanding of the debated topic. The respectful dialogues that develop skills of thinking and socialization is the centre of philosophical activity, the final objective and method of work. We have seen that this dialogue is strengthened greatly when some artwork was used as the starting point with a significant enrichment of the sources and strategies of thinking used. To put this more concisely, besides the mind being involved directly so too were the feelings. This shows that esthetics can be treated as material for school work, as from even a very early age, it provides the possibility of reflecting on beauty at all levels.

 

 
PERFORMANCE AND PARTICIPATION
Although we haven't had these criterias (one of the apexes of     Sculpture in the playground 5th course
the triangle wich is to participate in the processes of creation), we are convinced that the strenght of the facts has been imposed them. Living artworks produces without doubt, a side that is of a particular esthetic pleasure and of reflections being in themselves more or less apropiate, a necessity to participate in the processes of creation and expression. After visiting an exhibition or working with a some artworks, many children feel the need to paint, to mould, to write... in conclusion, to do something that allows them to express some feeling or living experience, to try to express easily some idea that has come to them, to experiment with materials and new techniques or known ones.
 

If you are interested in some of these methodological aspects or you want to know about our working standards within the "PECA" Project you can contact us. Soon we will have some published materials...