The great exposition of the childern's art in Estonian parliament

Evaluation of meeting in Alitys, Latvia

Partner - innovation education centre “IDEJA”

Why we are in the project and what has been done in Art therapy by our Centre.

During long-standing period of time, our Centre is implementing advanced education programes for teachers in visual and applied arts. As a result, the programes were of high demand by teachers. In the course of the program implementation, we noticed that we are working not only with teachers of pictorial arts, but from other subjects, as mathematics, chemistry, biology, linguistics and literature. We decided to conducts survey and results were quite eloquent, 35 % among program participants were teachers representing not artistic ambit.

The results after our survey were the following:

-          Our program are of high demand because of innovative approaches in methodology of education;

-          Our classes are conducive to memory improvement, concentration and enhancing of general employability at workplace;

-          Our classes assist to resist stress after working day in class work;

-          Give a smooth shift from working mood into another activities;

-          Disclose absolutely unexpected art potential of educators, which positively influence on their professional activity as well as their private life;

-          Improve slumber and health.

All abovementioned was encompassed into a new Artherapy program. While its development, we used innovative experience of national and international scholars, as well as our own experience, what made the product even more unique.

It is not a secret, that the notion “arttherapy” is related to medicine in Latvia. It is used for correctional influence on patients who suffer from physical and mental disorders. Our Centre commenced using a new resource of arttherapy as a tool for personal development, as well as a tool for working with their students.

The first step of the creation of arttherapy module for pupils’ development was the program to comprise kinder-garden kids into education game free-space process.

We have created and developed a series of tools and approaches, allowed the kids in more beneficial way, with interest master rudiments of maths, reading skills, writing. The results in groups, where participants applied our methodology was quite prominent to pursue artherapy techniques in education and upbringing.

The obstacles which were faced in Artherapy programme implementation

-          Conservatism of teachers and educators, especially in elderly age. They are very enthusiastic in mastering new materials, but reluctant to apply it in practice, due to the fear not to be supported by management of schools;

-          Absence of complex material database and methodologies in arttherapy;

-          Absence of systematic access to materials, albeit in general curricula of secondary schools there is no artherapy.

Our materials are used by enthusiasts who are eager to improve the level of teaching and personally witnessed the benefits of artherapy in practice.

Art Therapy in a process!

Many of us are thinking about how to keep ourselves in a good mood every day. Sometimes, problems are taking over us, and we fall into  depression. But we have some powerful weapon against it!


Here, next in video, we will see how it works!
Our guests came to us from a Center of psychological support.
One of these guests have never painted before, but the results have overcome our expectations.

New publication from our Lithuanian partners

Partner Denmark, Charlotte Harder

Sculptures and poetry at Albertslund Ungecenter, Denmark

This school year we have decided to turn our attention to sculptures and combine that with poetry to show the connection between the two. Both media express feelings and sensations in a unique way both when observed and when produced. We find that our students feel alienated to both art forms but once they are properly introduced, they embrace it fully and enjoy exploring more.

Introduction to sculptures

We began with a guided tour in a local residents area where the residents themselves have established a so called “Sculpture Bank”. Renowned artists from Denmark and other European countries exhibit their sculptures when they are not exhibited elsewhere. The sculptures are placed in the residential area in spots that suits them well and so it is an exhibition for the residents as well as the many visitors in the area. It is possible to book a guided tour with one of the founders of the idea and we took the students on one of these guided tours.

The tour was very successful. Our students were showing interest and asked lots of questions and commented on the various sculptures. They could see how varied the materials and expressions were and so they became informed about what a sculpture is and why it is interesting for people to make and for others to look at. There were sculptures for every taste and all the students found some of interest.

In the workshop

We have a small workshop for all kinds of creative work, metal and wood work. We have been working on birds houses and decorating old chairs, turning some of them into works of art, sculptures rather than chairs. We find that the students creativity develop through assignments where we twist the way we view an object. Birds house can be decorated with Graffiti or scary themes from Emo culture… the birds will still use them. A chair can be decorated with tiny butterflies making it too delicate to sit in, and then it is an object we could call a sculpture. It is often difficult to engage both genders in the same assignment.

We have worked with soap stone, which is an easy material for anyone to begin with. Sand stone has the feel of a stone but is a bit softer to work with and so we can use the tools that we use for carving and sanding wood.  This is something the boys find exciting and they work continuously for hours and hours with enthusiasm and never stop for a break. The teacher works on her own little sculpture to inspire the students and show them how it can be done. The boys have produced a few of their own and the teacher then began to encourage them to use more energy on one piece, polishing and refining it so that it would be nice and smooth. We find the boys work in flow and they relax during their work, making it enjoyable. These boys have ADHD and find it very difficult to sit and work for longer periods of time, so this is very helpful for them.

We plan on making other sculptures from metal scrap and we expect the boys to be equally thrilled about that. We have found another material especially for the girls, as they have not been very keen on the soap stones.

Art Therapy in everyday class

From early on, we decided to implement Art Therapy in the everyday class so it is not a separate topic but rather something our students are used to by now and very much integrated in the ordinary topics we teach. That is also the reason why we combine sculptures and poetry. This enables us to work on it for a longer period of time and it also shows the students how art is related and can be used by anyone to relax the mind. The students discover new skills and ways to use their imagination. This is very helpful for them in their complicated lives where they struggle with all kinds of problems, academically and socially as well as psychologically. We find the use of Art Therapy essential when teaching these students.

Art therapy Charlotte from jekanene

Meeting Lituania

Minutes of a Transnational Project Meeting

Date of meeting: 22. – 25. October 2014
Meeting location: Alitus, Lithuania
Participants: Regina Vilkeliene  Edgaras Charlotte Harder Katerina Jelena Ilona Roja Jelena Suhova
Minute taker: Jelena Suhova
Aims of the meeting
Consideration of the progress of project Evaluation of the contribution of partners to the project Planning the final stage of the project
Contents of the meeting
·         actual information about the project ·         shearing experiences and best practices ·         activity reports for period between meetings ·         financial reports and plans to the project final stage ·         representing and discussion of activity results ·         tasks for partners for the final stage of the project ·         plans for dissemination of the results
Issues discussed
·         Documentation about the project ·         Collecting and systematization of materials for video, Internet blog and web sites ·         Linking to the coordinator’s and partners web sites ·         Writing articles to mass media about the project ·         Developing Internet blog for the project ·         Creating video on the theme of project on the base of partner’s material ·         Next meeting on the project ·         Communication between the meetings
To-do list
Action (WHAT)	Responsible (WHO)		Deadline (WHEN)	Comments
1. Write articles to mass media about the project	Each partner		December 1-st 2014
2. Next meeting -     negotiations with Mare about visiting Finland -     decision about the place of next meeting – Finland or Riga -     meeting in Finland or Riga	Estonian partner All partners All partners		October 24, 2014 As soon as possible 1-st week of December	The decision about place of next meeting should be made immediately after results of negotiations with Finnish partner
3.   Creating video: -     collecting materials -     creating video on the base of the material	All partners Lithuanian partner		November 6, 2014	Materials to be sent to: r.vilkeliene@gmail.com
4.   The internet blog -     collecting materials -     creating blog with the material	All partners Estonian partner		November 6, 2014	Materials to be sent to:

“Schoolchild’s soul flight”

In the frames of our project I’ve organized an exhibition of artworks by Tallinn school students 06.05.2014 – 30.05.2014

              “Schoolchild’s soul flight”

that was aimed at school students, children and young people who had made paintings and drawings.

I represented children from Tallinn school nr. 53 and my art studio „Fantaasia“.

There are 52 students from Tallinn schools participating in the exhibition and nearly 90 children’s works are exposed. The exhibition is dedicated to school children and their spiritual life. The International project is also aimed at teachers, who work with children aged 5-18 years old.

Why then „Schoolchild’s spiritual life“? How much has been said about it at all? What’s really going on in a child’s head and soul? And how to help and support a child’s spiritual life? In the modern world a child comes across a wild range of negative factors: a large amount of unnecessary data, computer games, a difficult economic situation. As a result, relationship between adult and child is complicated, child becomes indifferent and aggressive. What to do? Art therapy is one of the most effective ways to establish contact with a child. Painting and drawing helps to dissipate the inner tension, to find and eliminate the source of a problem. All of this helps a child to develop independence and to boost self expression, helps to built healthy personality. Isn’t this what a modern society dreams of?

The main purpose of the exhibition was creating interest towards art therapy in the field of school education. For my part, I’ve investigated the impact of art on child’s development and behavior correction. Children from the age of 5 years old have made tens of works in the art studio „Fantaasia“, favourite themes and techniques were discovered. As a foreign language teacher I’ve used the elements of art therapy in the teaching of foreign language. The use of those elements appears to stimulate and facilitate the foreign language acquisition, develops independence and self-confidence.

The world changes – so do children, teaching methods are also changing.

The aim of exhibition and my work wasn’t intended to develop specific methodology (there are universities for this purpose), but the aim was to generalize and exchange teachers’ experience and to give an overview of art’s positive impact on children.

Project „ART THERAPY – A UNIQUE RESOURCE FOR PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT“ representative in Estonia, teacher Jekaterina Janutenene.