Culture Cure: trauma and healing across time and space (LS-ME-556)

Culture during pandemics

During 2020 everything is marked by Covid-19 pandemic, with profound new realities and traumas. Students have to understand using critical reasoning the situation, analyze their emotions, apprehend the consequences, overcome the obstacles and heal. The previous year we have seen researches underline how art and museum visits can help our health and after the Covid-19 Shock in Culture that has museums closed or partially open with less activities, stuff and visitors reduction, it is needed to boost museum role in our lives. Especially when many researches show the important relationship between arts and wellbeing.

We all need art in our lives!

This LS tries to combine museums and education in a therapeutic way, more needed nowadays that ever before. It is grounded, hybrid (could be implemented digital of physical), adaptive and people oriented. This learning scenario focuses on students 13-18, but it can be easily adapted to any social or age group. Imagine quarantine time without for example books, films, music. Reflect also on what we miss more (socializing, our routines, walks, concerts etc.) and how a learning scenario, that could be implemented inside a museum, a classroom, or online could help keeping this connection alive. In sync with Bloom’s taxonomy, interlacing new technological tools with participatory and constructive pedagogy’ Culture Cure is focused on: a) showing how multicultural artists or traditions have portrayed different kind of traumas and healing through history (connectivity, cultural awareness, empathy); b) connecting online and offline artifacts in an hybrid learning activity (edutainment, gamification); c) providing new tools and skills to students; d) helping students connect with their emotions and thoughts while giving them tools to express them or understand them (storytelling, augmented reality, project method) in a hope to be a useful and creative way to empower both students and culture. Students learn to recognize emotions and meanings in arts, compare and contrast information, relate with artwork and their inner emotions, reframe their understanding seek for cultural content and finally develop new art. To conclude, this learning scenario hearing the need to keep art in our lives and to underline its healing effect, is aiming to culture awareness and empathy, stress relief and students empowerment.

Flexibility and future

This LS could express any museum collection. The first implementation was done digitally with students aged 15-17 in a cooperation with a University Museum and its Typography Collection. What trauma and healing students examined? Of course change, lost craftsmanship and traditions, books and censorship, revolution, knowledge for all and growth.  The second implementation is meant to be done in collaboration with a climate awareness group and their recycling- assemblage collection. Selected objects are in a creative dialogue with Europeana collection and also new artists’ works about climate change.

This LS is suitable for any group. Trauma and healing are part of our lives, no matter our age. Also it is something that we all strangle to bring in balance. Arts soothing effect will heal every heart and mind if needed. This LS was successfully implemented with a teenagers group and it will be shortly implemented with adults –seniors in an elderly home as part of their creative program.

Also this LS could be implemented digital or in the museum or classroom. For every stage there is an digital alternative, and many useful tools to use. Our times need a digital alternative so in a every possible lockdown, our collections could be able to make connections with our visitors regardless the time and space between them.

The future is every one and each of you! Try and make this Learning Scenario yours, share your thoughts, your improvements and please share the theme of the collection that you chose to involve in.

Thankful last words

This LS made me heal too. In time endless unproductive hours due to lockdown, I healed, I made something that brought joy in my life, educated be about other civilization during the research and help me get in touch with colleagues and visitors from other countries. I am thankful!

Would you like to know more about this learning scenario? You can download it below:

Did you find this learning scenario interesting? You might also like:

• Symmetrical ART
• One Coin, Two Sides – The Art of Debating
• Learning in the Cultural Environment of Europeana

Public Domain Mark 1.0: the featured image used to illustrate this article has been found on
Europeana and has been provided by the Nationalmuseum of Sweden.