Primary school students discover the Royal Gardens

During the months of October and November, the little ones have recreated these emblematic places through murals, models and drawings. This initiative, promoted by the UCC+i, has had the collaboration of the Yehudi Menuhin Spain Foundation and the Spanish Foundation for Science and Technology.

Irene Vega

The project 'Art and Heritage in Schools. Discovering the Royal Gardens' has traced a route focused on the gardens, parks and spaces linked to the Royal Sites and the Heritage of the Community of Madrid. Through the paintings of the great masters of painting preserved in the Prado Museum (such as Luis Paret y Alcázar, Francesco Battaglioli, Antonio Carnicero or Isidro González Velázquez), primary school students from CEIP Francisco de Goya have known and learned these spaces so representative of the cultural heritage of the region. "Through the plastic arts they have drawn and recreated some of these spaces, taking as a reference the works seen during the sessions and always starting from their creative capacity at an individual and group level," explains Manuel Álvaro Mora, research support technician at the URJC.

The total of 50 sessions, carried out throughout the months of October and November, have given rise to a wide variety of documents, from murals of real landscapes and reproductions of hot-air balloons to models of gardens and drawings with crayons and watercolors. Thanks to Paca Vázquez, an artist from the Yehudi Menuhin Spain Foundation, and to Félix Labrador and Manuel Álvaro Mora, the workshop participants have been able to experiment with various materials and techniques such as newsprint, glue and paint, magnets, recycled elements and even the creation of zoetropes. As the URJC researchers describe: "The boys and girls have deepened their knowledge of these historic places through participation, respect, cultural exchange and joint work, learning to look at and understand their surroundings."

Promotion of creativity and knowledge of cultural heritage

In the European Year of Cultural Heritage, the Unit for Scientific Culture and Innovation (UCC+i), dependent on the Vice-Rectorate for Research, has promoted different initiatives to value the work carried out by URJC researchers in relation to studies about cultural heritage. In addition, the activity 'Art and Heritage in Schools. Discovering the Royal Gardens' has the collaboration of the Spanish Foundation for Science and Technology (FECYT), dependent on the Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities, through the Call for Grants for the Promotion of Scientific, Technological and of Innovation.

Primary school students between 6 and 12 years old have participated in this project, which has been a challenge for researchers when adapting the contents of the sessions. The results obtained have been successful thanks to the work of the team led by Professor Félix Labrador, who has supervised all the sessions. “The creativity and predisposition of the boys and girls has pleasantly surprised all the members of this project, which is why we are already working and preparing new sessions for 2019 in collaboration with a group of experts in psychology and a gamification and educational innovation company. ”.

The final objectives of this work have been to provide teachers and students with new educational tools, but also to continue collaborating in the near future with the URJC. "Thanks to these good results, an orchard and an urban garden will be financed, as well as the creation of a mural inside the school," concludes Professor Félix Labrador.