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The artist is present – contemporary art residencies in schools

Programme	Local Development and Culture
Selection	Open project
Competition title	Second round of the open call “Support for the Creation of Professional Art and Cultural Products for Children and Youth”
Donorstate/international project partner	TENTHAUS, Norway (https://www.tenthaus.no/)
Project national Nr.	EEZ/2022/2/27
GrACE project Nr.	LV-LOCALDEV-0036
Contract No.	4.3.1-12-21
Contract Date	28.09.2022
Project title	The artist is present – contemporary art residencies in schools
Project promoter	NGO “Latvian Centre for Contemporary Art” (https://lcca.lv/)
Start of project eligibility	01.11.2022
Project end	30.04.2024
Total eligible costs	228 713.36€
Grant financing	194 406.36€
National co-financing	34 307.00€
Project status	In implementation
Project goal/description	Project summary: In order to restore the relationship with schools that was broken during the pandemic and to incorporate contemporary art in the daily life of schools, the Latvian Centre for Contemporary Art has approached 6 actively working Latvian artists who are interested and motivated to work with the audience of children / young people and to develop an inclusive product of contemporary culture to spend 1-3 months in residencies in 6 different Latvian schools. The themes of the works of art, their social problematics will be chosen in close collaboration with children and young people and will relate to the history of the school / locality and local studies, and the artists' working methods will involve artistic research, in-depth communication with the target audience and the creation of the works with the participation of the school's students. The end-result of the art residencies – 6 separate interdisciplinary contemporary art projects will be included in the 2023 programme of the International Contemporary Art Festival SURVIVAL KIT as a contemporary art exhibition / project presentation made by the children and young people themselves. Additionally, these works will be documented and posted on the project's online platform and will serve a source of inspiration for artists and art institutions abroad. The project foresees a support and mentoring programme for the project's artists as well as a cycle of lectures for pedagogues to get to know contemporary art, the publication of a practical teachers' guide on the use of contemporary art and methods of informal education in school curricula, and these valuable resources will be created in close collaboration with schools, students, artists and partner contemporary art organisations from Norway. While art residencies in schools are an innovative practice for Latvia, they are being realised in some places internationally. The aim of the residency programme is to turn this into a format that is sustainable in Latvia in the future and to organise such residencies in Latvia each year, inviting artists to put forward their candidacies as well as schools to apply to take advantage of this opportunity. Project objective: During the project, a model will be created for art residencies in schools of general education in Latvia, which will involve close collaboration with the artist in the selected school in one of Latvia's regions: at least 10 contact hours over 1–3 months with the class / group of interested students from different classes (10-25 participants) involved in the project and at least 2 pedagogues from the school. Before the start of their residencies, the artists will be prepared for work with the selected audience over the course of 6 lectures organised with the involvement of our Norwegian partners. It will consist of exchange visits and remote lectures, involving experienced specialists of informal education in the field of contemporary art and international artists with experience specifically in the creation of works of art for children and young people. Throughout the residencies the artists will be provided with a regular support system, meeting in mutual focus groups both with the project's curators and support from the Norwegian partner institution and experts. The progress of the residencies will be documented together with the LCCA mediators. Teachers will also take part in the creative work, participating in development of the accompanying resource – a toolkit supplementing teachers' educational work which will describe and illustrate creative methods and ideas on how to involve contemporary art in school lessons. This toolkit will be published after the completion of the residencies. And will be created with close cooperation with teachers and Skola2030, which is revolution in Latvias education system. So this toolkit will meet teachers, pupils and education standart needs. Teachers will be offered six different lectures on contemporary art, presented by the artists involved in the project as well as contemporary art experts. The cycle of lectures will be educational and will provide teachers with skills and knowledge as well as qualifications and confidence to include contemporary art in their lessons. The cycle of lectures will be free of charge and accessible to all. An international summer school – camp for children and young people will take place over five days in Valmiera municipality, with the project's artists together with Norwegian artists providing everyone with the opportunity to experience contemporary art in close cooperation. Making understanding not only about the art creation process, but details about exhibiting it in art galleries. Kids will learn 21st century skills through summer school activities - critical and creative thinking, cooperation, innovation and others. This is going to be the first contemporary summer school in Latvia. The works created during the residencies will be produced and exhibited in the international contemporary art festival SURVIVAL KIT in Riga. School students will have the unique opportunity to work on the production of a professional art exhibition and to curate its exposition as well as to participate in the exhibition as mediators. School children from all regions of Latvia will be invited to visit the festival and see the artworks. Exhibition will be complemented with art workshops for kids and their parents. In the project's conclusion, seminars will be held in each of Latvia's regions as well as online, presenting the project's results and the unique teachers' toolkit on the application of the methods of contemporary art in school curricula and providing information about the continuation of the residency programme.
Implementation place	Visa Latvija

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