The art project “Students go on a search for clues” was carried out at the Astrid Lindgren special needs school in Holthausen and lasted for a year, with ten eighth graders participating for two hours per week.
Fostering children's personalities
The project, initiated and led by cultural educator and freelance artist Dagmar Reichel, focused on the children's individual personalities. Reichel is also involved with the non-profit organization Krass, which promotes cultural education for young people. The project was funded by approximately €3000 from the Ministry for Family, Children, Youth, Culture and Sport of the state of North Rhine-Westphalia.
As part of their "treasure hunt," the students created pictures and sculptures. They incorporated photos of their favorite stars (such as Rihanna or Johnny Depp) into their paintings or created figures from papier-mâché and packing paper with which they identified. Fourteen-year-old Sercan is cited as an example; he crafted a figure in a black suit and a Guy Fawkes mask, as he expressed solidarity with the group Anonymous's fight for internet freedom.
Class teacher Marina Wenemeyer confirmed the educational success of the art project.
The educational success of the project was confirmed by class teacher Marina Wenemeyer, who emphasized that the students had become more self-confident because they realized they were capable of something special. The young people also learned that a work of art requires time and patience, as Sven (15) noticed during the long drying times of the paint. Although Reichel initially had doubts about the project's acceptance, the enjoyment of the artistic work prevailed. The results of the project were still on display this week at the art gallery on Suitbertusstrasse at the time of publication.