“It was nice to play together with so many others, and especially interesting to see how everyone plays freely and it still sounds good somehow.”
Magdalena, pupil at a grammar school in Graz
The dialogue between education, culture and science opens up access to art and culture for young people and spaces to develop their creativity. With its annual theme the creative competition projekteuropa is oriented towards European priorities and incorporates the basic principles of education and cultural policy formulated at European level. This includes digitisation as well as addressing the climate crisis.
“Above all, I have learned that if you try hard enough and put in enough effort, you will meet with complete success.”
Pupil at a secondary school in Stegersbach
Since 1959 Austria has taken part in this international initiative which aims to address European values and dimensions in the school context. Founded in 1953 as “European School Day” the initiative initially involved France, Germany, Italy and the Benelux countries. This “European School Day” gave rise to the “European Competition” in 1975. This competition was also significant in the years after the fall of the Iron Curtain (1989): The European Competition was one of the first tools for school cooperation with countries in Central and Eastern Europe.
“Great experience – consideration for others – equal rights for all.”
Daniela, pupil of a grammar school in Graz
For a long time this competition – which originated in political education – was an essay competition. In the 1980s the ÖKS Austrian Cultural Service, later on KulturKontakt Austria (KKA) and now, with the integration of KKA into the OeAD, the OeAD took over the management and gave the competition a new direction: “Europa macht Schule” became a painting and drawing competition.
“I thought the drawing was great, I drew a football pitch across the street in one picture and put a water slide in the other with glue and kept on drawing. The head of the district then told us that a new park with a cage (for ball games) will be built on Nordbahnstraße. That's almost where I painted it. (...)”
Pupil of a special needs school in Vienna
In the last 10 years the creative competition has opened up to all artistic disciplines and increasingly focuses on interdisciplinary and process-oriented projects in a school context.
“(...) “projekteuropa” has inspired us a lot. Last year we developed a “rapid response collection” project with pupils from the European class at the grammar school Schillerstraße on the topic of Covid-19, implemented it together with the vorarlberg museum, and won a prize for it. We were very happy about that!”
Sabine Benzer, Vorarlberg Cultural Service /Theater am Saumarkt
In the school year 2020/21 pupils will work on the topic of “[digitale] Schule leben!”. Learning and teaching with digital media will be increasingly integrated into everyday school life. Projects are developed that deal artistically with “digitisation”, “climate” and European topics.
As national education agency the OeAD provides conceptual, advisory and organisational support for the competition on behalf of the Ministry of Education.
Submissions are possible until 21 May 2021! Information at www.projekt-europa.at
Author: Doris Lobersiner
