Photo from Ciudad y Ciudadanía Large collaborative banners were printed to remain in each of the three schools
'Ciudad y Ciudadanía' - Cities and Citizenship
Mary anne, Anna and Lula spent three weeks in three cities in Colombia in April running workshops with secondary pupils in collaboration with teams of staff and students from Universities in Bogota, Medellin and Manizales.
‘Ciudad y Ciudadanía’ is part of a larger ongoing investigation and research project by the Universidad Pedagogica Nacional in Bogota's – "Investigation, Education and Political Culture Group" and working with the Universities of Manizales and Medellin and with CINDE in recent years.
Following two previous visits by Anna and Lula to Colombia, a close partnership has been established between us and the University in Bogota. The academic and teaching staff there have been excited and inspired by the approaches and methods of Cloth of Gold and have integrated many ideas into their theory and practice in relation to developments and directions for social education in Colombia.
The workshops in this visit presented an opportunity for the partnership to put into practice a lot of this work. Pupils had already been exploring for some time how they felt about their local area and what visual features were important to them. This had been done through discussions, role play, map making and photography .
During our 2 day residencies, a filmaker from Medellin - Anna Christina Monroy, documented the project and interviewed each student on their views, experiences and opinions in relation to living in their city.
Pupils also created individual printed pieces based on maps of the local areas. Click to enlarge.
They shot photos illustrating their hopes for themselves and for their cities
Some pupils made digital collages combining their prints and photographs:
‘Cities of Imagination’
Pupils worked in groups creating their ideal city - its laws, values, culture ,rights and behaviour of its citizens. Each city designed a logo and printed a panel showing its identity.
Ongoing work and future plans
Public Art
Anna and Maryanne designed a series of banners from all of the work for display as public art in various locations in Colombia (see images on right - click to enlarge).
Virtual Project
We are in the process of setting up links and virtual projects involving pupils in Colombia and the UK.
Travelling Exhibitions in Bogota
Partners in Colombia are creating decorated presentation packs which will contain pieces of work, the film and a book which is being written about this partnership.
