The PLANEA network is excited to start a new school year

A new school year begins and, with it, the educational centers that make up the PLANEA network are back on track with initiatives that are committed to other ways of doing school, integrating the transformative power of art into their usual educational strategy. This is the third year of development of the network, which has been proposed to cover five to prototype, evaluate and compile learning on how to implement art education in the classroom in a transversal way.

September arrives and, together with the art and school network PLANEA, we are preparing for a “back to school” very different from the previous one. She begins the course with the hope that the improvement in the health situation will allow for greater face-to-face attendance and an environment in which to develop teamwork and the arts more fully. An opportunity to be able to enjoy the playgrounds and common spaces again with the students and teachers, in addition to putting into practice all the learning of the last year, the one in which we demonstrate the necessary ability to adapt to face the circumstances.

Each new academic year is an opportunity for the PLANEA network to continue working with schools, agents and institutions committed to using artistic practices in public schools in a transversal way and located in the territories in which it is implemented: Andalusia, the Valencian Community and Madrid. As in previous years, during this new school year we will continue to promote initiatives developed jointly by artists and teachers, with a clear potential to stimulate sensitivity and critical spirit in students regarding contemporary social challenges. Proposals that are not limited to the art classroom or a specific subject, but that expand transversally to all specialties, addressing the educational challenges of teachers, integrating artistic practices into the curriculum and enhancing learning.

The return to the classroom is also exciting as we see how the network is growing: the pilot centers will be close to fortnight and the collaborating centers will already exceed 50 schools. In addition, the 2021/2022 academic year will allow the implementation of the plans and programs designed in recent months together with the ministries, cultural institutions and teacher training centers of each autonomous community in which the network is implemented.

Promoting the exchange of experiences between peers

Continuing to strengthen the community that makes up the PLANEA network is also a priority in this academic year that is beginning. Together with the regional meetings held by the educational centres of each Autonomous Community, the 2021/2022 academic year will hold the first face-to-face state meeting in which all the members of the network will participate. Both artists, teachers, counselors and experts in Art and School will share their experiences while analyzing the situation of the centers, the achievements achieved and will consider the next steps to follow in the common roadmap. A space in which to interact, exchange visions and establish new alliances to continue contributing to the full integration of art in the classroom as a complementary and transdisciplinary educational tool. In addition, we hope to also have the participation of colleagues from PEGASE, the sister network that we promote in France, to enrich the meeting with their experiences and promote the co-design of initiatives that can be launched in both territories.

Sharing and capitalizing on the experiences developed by the centers of the network is essential for its continuity. For this reason, during the new academic year, the new issues of the publications of the Planea network will see the light: the ANIDA magazine and the second PLANEA Notebook, which in this case will collect experiences, both inside and outside the network, on how to modify spaces, architecture and the environment to generate new places more suitable for educational activity using artistic strategies in particular.

A year of twists and turns

If there was one thing that characterized the 2020/2021 academic year in schools, it was the constant changes. The reduction of face-to-face teaching, bubble groups or hybrid formats generated new ways of developing teaching activity, far removed from the usual models to which both students and teachers were accustomed.

The health measures adopted in the centres required strengthening ties of collaboration and promoting a network of mutual care through which to share doubts, concerns and solutions that could be extrapolated to other centres that were looking for new forms of teaching. As part of this need for the exchange and viralization of knowledge, the course began with the launch of the Resource Center of the PLANEA network, a space that brings together various materials aimed at teachers and professionals in formal education that serve to activate artistic practice in the processes of knowledge production and learning both inside and outside the classroom.

In the same spirit, the PLANEA Notebook was presented, compiling the network’s learnings during its first year of existence, and the ANIDA magazine, the first academic publication of the network co-published on this occasion with Campo Adentro and the result of a public call to select educational resources that would face the climate and social emergency through artistic practices in schools.

During these months, the pilot centres and collaborators of the network have launched initiatives that have sought to improve school coexistence, face the bioclimatic challenge from the classrooms or generate new spaces suitable for teaching in times of pandemic. Initiatives that, in addition to enriching the educational experience, not only of the students but also of the teachers excited to accept these new challenges, have been a necessary relief, a way to release the emotions experienced in such a tense year, to laugh and enjoy other possible ways of doing school.

These experiences have been shared through courses and different meetings, both regional and national, which have served to strengthen the network and the community of collaborating agents committed to a public school in which artistic practices are used in a transversal and situated way in teaching.

At the same time, during the last academic year, the adhesion of new pilot centers and collaborators in the network has been valued, as well as the expansion of the network to other autonomous communities, something that we hope can be materialized throughout this new academic year that begins, expanding its action and highlighting the value of Art and School projects throughout the national territory to demonstrate that this type of initiative should not be an exception or a privilege, but it is an easily accessible possibility in public education.

From the Foundation, we are very happy to see the progress of the PLANEA network and its ability to generate new imaginaries, new sensitivities and an increasingly necessary critical thinking through the possibilities that art can offer to formal education. We are sure that we will end this new school year with a new backpack full of experiences and resources to continue sharing with the educational community.

Image credits: PLANEA network