Educate. Connect. Inspire

Educate. Connect. Inspire
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Showing posts with label children. Show all posts
Showing posts with label children. Show all posts

Nov 7, 2011

Embrace the Change / November Newsletter for Schools


We hope you enjoyed (and found useful) the October issue of Schools' Newsletter we shared on our website.

 Today we share the November issue, entitled Embrace the Change. A great resource to teacher, parents and pupils alike! Enjoy!



Oct 3, 2011

Every child is an artist

 

Last week we announced weekend art workshops for children we will doing from October onwards together with the Art Pavilion from Zagreb. This past weekend we held two workshops (on Saturday and Sunday) in the beautiful surroundings of the Art Pavilion interior. 

Learning about colours and different techniques and forms, children experienced the creative possibilities of making a collage, and of drawing with pastels.
Additional unique experience for them was visiting the exhibition itself, during which we asked them to depict what they see on the canvases. It is always amazing to see children describe and analyze even the most complex of paintings, giving them a new perspective and meaning.

Spending time in a museum / gallery surroundings, experiencing freedom to express their thoughts and impressions through two different techniques (collage and pastels) proved to be a great positive stimulus for the children, and most of them came back on the second day of the workshop too.

It was great to see communication between the youngest workshop participant (age 2), through those age 4 and 5, all the way to the "oldest" ones, age 8 and 10, and to experience the atmosphere and see children's works take a look at the slide show above.



Workshops, free of charge, will continue each weekend in the Art Pavilion in Zagreb, and if you'd like to reserve a spot for your child, or get weekly updates drop us an email to arts@nektarinanonprofit.com


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For Nektarina Non Profit this is a volunteer project.


Sep 26, 2011

Embracing Autumn at School



Continuing educating the children about the importance of caring about the environment,  this school we are introducing  a newsletter “My School :: My Planet” , in which we will share information about the environment and nature, about seasons and climate, about yummy food and cool crafts, and much much more:



 



Creative Expression, Creative Education


We are so very proud that the Art Pavilion in Zagreb chose Nektarina Non Profit as its delivering partner for the "Learn through creative expression" workshops.

Targeting elementary school children, workshops will be held each weekend (Saturday and Sunday) - starting this Saturday, October 1st, from 11 am till 12.30 am. All workshops are free, the materials will be provided for each child. If you live in a Zagreb area, and you'd like your child to participate in the workshop(s), please register by sending an email with the child's name, address, age and school name to arts@nektarinanonprofit.com by Friday, September 30th 2011.

Workshops embrace the principle that arts education can positively and profoundly impact a person’s life, especially when received early in life. By providing avenues for creative exploration, these workshops will expose children and youth to the tangible benefits of arts education through the joys of creating and learning.
Numerous studies indicate that people who receive arts education early in life reap many tangible, long-term, life-changing benefits. From enhanced critical thinking, improved self-esteem and ability to collaborate, to improved scores in math and science, children gain skills that can help them well into adulthood.

Research shows that vibrant and prosperous communities begin with children that are healthy in every domain: language/cognitive/communication abilities, social/emotional skills and physical well-being.

Children who develop arts literacy (knowledge, skills and ability), will have the opportunity to:
  • Learn to appreciate the arts as participants and spectators
  • Learn technical skills
  • Gain a wider view of themselves and their opportunities in the world
  • Develop self-confidence and self-worth
  • Explore and develop creativity and innovation
  • Develop an ability to make decisions independently
  • Learn how to work with others
  • Develop discipline
  • Learn to set and achieve goals
  • Improve their odds of success in all areas of their lives

Through activities that are challenging, meaningful, and based on strong arts education principles, workshops we have created together with the Art Pavilion in Zagreb can expect to have a positive impact on the lives of the children it serves.

From increased self-confidence to ability to work with others, the benefits of arts education resonate beyond the development of well-rounded children, and play an integral role in building strong, healthy and dynamic communities.


Learn more about the Art Pavilion:
The Art Pavilion is the oldest exhibition hall on the Slavic south and the only building that has been purpously built for big, representative exhibitions to be held in it. Together with the number of remarkable names from Croatian art history, exceptional names from other countries have appeared here. 
Croatian culture has never been closed or exclusive one, on the contrary, it has been naturally opened to the world, and the Art Pavilion in Zagreb was the place where great names from other countries were most seemly entertained. 
The need for an exhibition hall, where big exhibitions of artists and cultural importance can be held, was felt in Zagreb in the last decade of the 19th century when art life started to develop more intensely. The original idea and initiative for the construction of the Art Pavilion in Zagreb was given in 1895 by a painter Vlaho Bukovac, the most remarkable person in Zagreb’s artistic and cultural life on the transition of the centuries.  The possibility of the realization of construction of the Art Pavilion in Zagreb appeared during the preparations for the Millenium exhibitions in Budapest, whose gala opening was planned for 2nd May 1896. Hungary celebrated “the festivity of millenium” - a millenium of its nationally constructive life, so Croatia and Slavonia, which were politically and juridically connected with Hungary, had to contribute actively to the exhibition.

The invitation for the building of the Art Pavilion in Zagreb was officially published, and Viennese architects Hellmer and Fellmer (famous designers of theatres) were charged with commission. The construction work was performed by two building constructors from Zagreb - Honigsberg and M. Lenuci. After two years - 1897 and 1898 - the building of the Art Pavilion in Zagreb was finished, and the building itself was ceremoniously opened an 15th December 1898 with the representative exhibition called Croatian salon. 
One of the most beautiful Zagreb’s downtown ambients was deliberately planned and horticulturally rounded off in a “green horse-shoe”, and the Art Pavilion in Zagreb has most finely grown into its environment and became a participant of the creative integrity. The Art Pavilion in Zagreb is the place of the most concentrated insight into out own history, it is the stage where chosen parts from artistic, cultural and political present and past have been periodically set. In the period of two and a half past decades, the Art Pavilion in Zagreb found its basic function just in the presentation and valorization of characteristic courses and unavoidable contributions of the national tradition.


Big exhibition projects with wide thematic variety demand a wide range of co-operation, either with related institutions or the most competent critics - art historians or associates of various profiles who try to make every exhibition project into a creative event, interesting for the media. 
For every exhibitions that the Art Pavilion in Zagreb realize, and especially for retrospective and problem exhibitions, a comprehensive, representative catalogue is printed. For their scholary and meticulous, solid elaboration, together with a critical approach to certain subject-matter, some of the catalogues published by the Art Pavilion in Zagreb have become compulsory text-books for art history students on Zagreb University. 
In the coming period, the institution will keep pleading for continual and meticulous observation and elaboration of the most prominent persons and events of the Croatian art’s past and present - in its programmes of work. A number of unexplored chapters of Croatian rather old heritage and more modern art production is what is left, together with certain names that deserve scientific elaboration and whose work is still unexplored and has not yet been critically evaluated. 
All this is possible, because this place has its own specific role in Zagreb’s cultural environment, which is the result of the Art Pavilion in Zagreb being the central place and intersection of big fine art events in Croatian art, during its history and existence.

Find this and more information by visiting  http://www.umjetnicki-paviljon.hr/en/


Jul 31, 2011

Learning about low carbon travel / Ukraine


"Tell me and I will forget, show me and I might remember, involve me and I will understand."  Confucius captured so brilliantly the essence of practical knowledge and creative expression.

Working with schools and educating children on climate change and carbon footprint, we visited Ukraine, and spent a day outdoors, talking with kids about "getting around":

Why is taking a train better than taking a plane?
Why is bicycle better than a car?
What are dirty emissions and why do they smell so bad?

We helped children answer all these questions by participating in the workshop we set up with the help from a great bunch of volunteers from Odessa.

Working with children is always rewarding - they are fast learners and they find it easy to express their thoughts in a creative way.
Children quickly make connection between "goods" and "wrongs" with regard to the environment, even when they explain it with sentences like: "A bicycle is better than a car because a bicycle does not have yucky smelly gasses".

It is our job as adults to help spread information and raise awareness about the environmental issues. We have to do that in all countries of the world, not just the high developed ones.
In Ukraine, like in most of the Easter Europe, environmental issues may not be something an ordinary person even thinks about, but with our help, and with help of their children, they may start to.

Please take a look at some more photos from the event.