Education programs

Education programs for primary schools centered around art and nature. Developed as part of art collective "De Nieuwkomers".

year: 2020 - 2023
type: arts and nature education
role: educator · curriculum development · workshop facilitation
key words: ecology · art education · biodiversity · primary education · gardening · making

As part of De Nieuwkomers, we developed interdisciplinary art-and-nature programs for primary schools. The lessons combined visual art with ecology, biology, philosophy and making, often using the school's playground as the classroom. One of the programs was built around planting and caring for a traditional vlechtheg (woven hedge). Children worked with cyanotype, macro photography, video, drawing, willow weaving and storytelling while learning about biodiversity and ecosystems and observing the slow development of the hedge. The program ended with an exhibition of the work created throughout the series. Our second program, Hoog bezoek op het schoolplein, focused on insects, gardening, wild plants and exhibition-making. Children designed and built an insect hotel, wrote stories and made podcasts, explored how weeds could be used in art and food, and curated their own final exhibition.The aim of our programs was to create space for curiosity, play and close attention to the natural environment. Furthermore, an important aspect was to combine different disciplines instead of teaching art, science and ecology separately.

Presenting a new insect hotel on the playground of primary school "De Welle" in Kruiningen, The Netherlands

Children planting trees that will turn into a woven hedge on their playground

Children observing small insects during one of our lessons

Children preparing for their final exhibition

From painting with tree branches to an exhibition

Young trees that will become a woven hedge on a school playground. Written poems attached to their branches.

Part of the final exhibition at primary school "De Welle" in Kruiningen, The Netherlands.