Radical connection between education and culture

Research phase: October 23 - February 24

In a first phase, SOM is mapping the needs from the two sectors. They speak with Sofie Vermeiren and Peter Bary of M Leuven and with Stasha Long and Conny Feyaerts of Mater Dei Elementary School about their project De Kunstbrug. De Kunstbrug serves as an inspiration for a possible sustainable collaboration between education and culture. With this conversation, we want to learn about the experiences of both partners: what went well? What did they bump into? What were the needs and expectations?

We will then engage in conversation with other education and culture makers and try to gain an insight into the preconditions for a sustainable cooperation between education and culture.

Design phase: April 2024 - present

In April 2024 we organised a kick-off with all partners within education and culture who wanted to commit to actively participate in the lab. During our second meeting on May 30, we will look for matches between an education and culture partner. Lots of initial ideas are bubbling up. Together we will draw a framework with a (flexible) timeline and start working on it. At the start of the new school year we bring everyone together again. The enthusiasm is palpable. The fingers itch to fly in. Something is brewing in the Leuven cultural and educational world.

Radical new connections

Both sectors are joining forces for experiments that allow students to experience the value of arts and culture firsthand.

SchrijfSterren

CVO Volt and De Bib Leuven are building an innovative project with SchrijfSterren in which reading promotion, language development and graphic design are central. From September to December 2024, Dutch students from the 'Additional General Education' (AGE) course were writers in residence at Bib Tweebronnen. Guided by teachers, volunteers and expert authors Emeraude Kabeya, Diane De Keyzer and Erwin Claes they wrote stories in various genres. Trainees from the 'Design' courses are now bringing the stories to life. Save the date for their expo on May 23, 2025 in Tweebronnen.

Life thread

Ligo East Brabant's women's program in the Leuven neighborhood of Casablanca collaborates with MATRIX, center for new music, and textile artist Silke Rys. The project targets low-literate women from migrant backgrounds and combines art, culture, heritage and education to promote literacy and social participation. Together with the women, Silke Rys creates a conversation pit: an artwork that connects the women through conversations and textile work. The collaboration provides a safe space for language development and the sharing of personal stories. The soundscape the women designed together with MATRIX offers a second layer to the artwork. The whole results in a collective work that promotes communication and symbolizes the women's life stories.

Remember my name

LUCA School of Arts, production house fABULEUS and secondary school Paridaensinstituut Leuven set up a theater educational project around Remember my Name, a performance by Mitch Van Landeghem and fABULEUS about child stars and what became of them.

The third year students of the Paridaens Institute went to see the performance. It became a special experience for Iris van Lenthe, who got to play in front of her own classmates. Her classmates did not disappoint as an audience. Thanks to the preparatory lesson where the students got to play the “best” and the “worst” audience, they knew what the social code in a theater was.

LUCA students of the Educational Master Drama, supported by fABULEUS, developed a series of 4 lessons. In a co-creative interaction with Dutch teachers at the Paridaens Institute, LUCA students taught second-grade students. They first zoomed in on the idea of pose and authenticity. Afterwards, the students took paparazzi and red carpet photos themselves which brought out the actor within themselves.

Thanks to this project, LUCA students got to know fABULEUS' expertise on creative processes in a deeper way. In addition, they learn to align their goals with a concrete teaching practice and to transcend the classic 'debriefing' through artistic-creative work formats.

Verticaal verbinden

In the project 'Verticaal Verbinden' which translates to connecting vertically, Stad & Architectuur, together with Architecture students from the 5th year secondary school of De Wijnpers, explore how architecture education and 'design learning' can contribute to addressing complex educational challenges.

What happens when we design space between soil and sky instead of the more common “on” the ground? With vertical connecting as their mission statement, City & Architecture urges young people, clients, experts and supervisors to think more than ever from the connection between humans and the natural world of life. They go into depth and height, digging into the Leuven soil and the living underground that inescapably determines and nourishes our everyday spatial living environment.

Curious about the result? On Tuesday afternoon, April 1, you can try your luck at the jury moment in Tweebronnen. Sign up by sending an email to email hidden; JavaScript is required.

Yellowcake, Little Boy

The musical theater company Het nieuwstedelijk is working with the Heilig Hartinstituut on their new production Yellowcake, Little Boy. This production by Stijn Devillé is about Belgium's involvement in the development of the Hiroshima bomb.

What's next?

In March 2025, we will meet to review the status of all the projects. We will consider how the process can be developed further in the coming school year, but also in the period leading up to 2030. How can we further embed this initial introduction between educational and cultural partners? And how can we expand these kinds of projects in the wider region? We are not afraid to dream big!