What Do Young People at Escolarte 2024 Tell Us?

ESCOLARTE is a curatorial and #pedagogical program aimed at young people in secondary education, created in 2015. The program seeks to promote art education in educational communities to develop the creativity and sensitivity of young people as part of their comprehensive #education.

Every year, the #ESCOLARTE Youth Art Salon is held, where educational units from the Zulia region are invited to participate under the theme "Imaginaries of your environment". We understand the imaginary as the singular and pluralistic vision of each student about their personal, local, or global environment or context. The participant's proposal must be creative, original, and autonomous. The participants' works are previously selected and then presented to the Awards Jury, who award distinctions and mentions as they consider appropriate.

With ESCOLARTE we seek to put into practice our vision of motivating learning through creation and sharing transversal, sensitive, and transformative knowledge through art.

As an artist and art and design researcher, I conceived Escolarte as a #curatorial and pedagogical program that responds to my interest in socially engaged art. This is the subject of my current thesis in art education at Concordia University in Montreal, where I examine how to develop a sense of community and place through art, developing it as a parallel research and development program.

The inspiration for this program came from a transformative experience my daughter Alejandrina had, combined with my experience as a teacher in architecture and design for many years. As an artist, I embarked on this mission that faces new challenges every year.

Escolarte is possible thanks to the participating educational institutions that allow their students to participate, not only to develop their skills of sensitivity, creativity, and expressiveness but also cultural identity, and critical thinking among others, that is, in personal growth to be better citizens and most importantly to help them develop the identity of each student.

7th edition of Escolarte 2024

In the 7th edition of Escolarte 2024, held in CEVAZ Gallery, in the facilities of the Centro Venezolano Americano del Zulia (Cevaz), 14 educational institutions participated: Instituto Experimental Medici, San Ignacio, Fe y alegría, Colegio Nuestra Se?ora del Chiquinquirá HH Maristas, U. E.P. Santa Ana de Jesús, Instituto Latino, U.E.P. Se?or Jesucristo, Colegio Bellas Artes, U.E.P. Los Samanes, Colegio Nuestra Se?ora del Pilar (morning and afternoon shifts), Colegio Nuestra Macarena, Colegio Altamira, U.E. Los álamos, U.E.P. Algeria Mercedes Laya López, Escuela Bella Vista.

The contact with the communities was achieved thanks to the alliance with Rafael Urdaneta University and the community service students at the School of Architecture who come to the educational institutions as disseminators and facilitators of the program.

An important part of Escolarte is the meeting with family and friends during the exhibition, contributing to the socialization and visibility of the voices of young people, strengthening community ties and the network of affective connections that we must build as a society.

Although Escolarte has not grown and developed the educational tools as much as I would have liked, seeing the Salón Escolarte 2024 full of works and the joy of getting to know a group of young people from the city of Maracaibo through their work, moves us and fills us with satisfaction. With the program we have learned that the important thing is one student at a time, to continue to grow with Escolarte.

We look to the future with optimism and hope to continue counting on the support of the Universidad Rafael Urdaneta (URU), Fundación Belloso , Librería Europa , Centro Venezolano Americano del Zulia (CEVAZ), and we are pleased to welcome new sponsors Crocanticas, Baca, Librería Aeropuerto and Anthea, hoping to continue adding institutional allies, sponsors, facilitators and ambassadors of the program to continue growing with Escolarte, making talents, and developing cultural identity.

About the imaginaries

In terms of imagery, participation in the 7th Escolarte Salon was notable for the variety of techniques from painting, mixed media, and drawing, among others.? On themes such as water, identities, landscapes, and emotions. The museography displayed groups of works in dialogue with each other, presenting singular visions beginning with the lake context, honouring the lake and the port origin of the city, followed by works that explore youthful identities, intimate atmospheres, playful landscapes, local context, emotional expressions, and territorial explorations, establishing a visual dialogue of harmonious relationships and contrasts in techniques and formats.

An approach to the students' artwork reveals an intimate and expressive imaginary that moves visitors, showing a search for freedom and independence typical of adolescence. The jury, made up of architect Cristina Bellarosa, graphic designer and plastic artist Humberto Perozo , and architect Laura Rodríguez, agreed on the following distinctions, awarded in accordance "with the criteria established by Escolarte, taking into account the quality of the #artwork, the use of colours, the technique used and the composition, as well as the effectiveness with which the artists conveyed in depth the ideas behind the work and the theme of the competition, showing us pieces of great visual and aesthetic value".

The jury decided to distinguish 4 non-hierarchical works in the 7th edition. These works are those of María Chafloque with "Colores de las Personas en un Lugar" from the Colegio Nuestra Se?ora de la Chiquinquirá HH Maristas; Sara Urdaneta with "La Belleza de la Libertad" from the Colegio Altamira; and Susan Romero with "Colapso" from the U.E.P Santa Ana de Jesús, which stood out for their technical and aesthetic workmanship, their original and sensitive interpretation of the environment with expressive and personal results. Likewise, Almary Villavicencio. With "Arte Wayuu" from the UE. Colegio Nuestra Se?ora del Pilar (shift/afternoon) demonstrated a particular textile exploration.

In addition, honourable mentions were awarded to works that addressed themes such as the search for identity, emotional changes, uncertainty, and conflicting thoughts, characteristics of the adolescent stage. The four honourable mentions selected by the jury are: María Fuenmayor Martínez. "Fragile Happiness". EU. Colegio Nuestra Se?ora del Pilar (shift/afternoon); Camila Rojas. "Change of mood". Colegio Nuestra Se?ora del Pilar (shift/afternoon); Erimar Fernández. "Depression". EU. Colegio Nuestra Se?ora del Pilar (shift/ afternoon); Mariana Martínez. "Teen". UE. Nuestra Se?ora del Pilar School (afternoon shift).

Works such as "Entre las olas y las cadenas: La Sirena oprimida" by Yessica Urdaneta and "Confusión" by Ana Marín are original and suggestive proposals that highlight themes of female vulnerability and youthful rebellion, while other themes such as fantasies and dreams were also present.

For the originality, diversity, and expressiveness of the works of the UE Colegio Nuestra Se?ora del Pilar (shift/afternoon), the jury proposed a special honourable mention to the institution.

We know that emotional, affective, physical, psychological, and social changes are particularly difficult at the stage of general and diversified secondary education. That is why Escolarte is interested in offering a creative stimulus in art education as an expressive and socializing tool in the human formation of young people.

Innovating in Art Pedagogies

As an innovative strategy in the teaching-learning process for the next edition, participants will be invited to participate with "My Imaginary Diary", i.e. sketchbooks with ideas and processes, to stimulate creativity and reflection, recognizing the importance of flexibility and fluidity of ideas in the creative process.

The current challenge is to continue to encourage artistic expression among young people and to foster a comprehensive teaching-learning process. In contemporary art, we have learned the importance of promoting a vision of art where there are no wrong paths, no dead ends, no isolated paths, but where each step is part of a constantly evolving learning path. With this teaching-learning strategy in art, Escolarte continues to generate a stimulating environment that promotes encounter and transformative dialogue in the educational community of Maracaibo. We want to continue to encourage the encounter through the visual dialogue of artistic proposals, knowing what young people express, one student at a time. #publicsholars

Elsy Zavarce, director and founder of Escolarte, is an artist and researcher renowned for her contributions to art, design, and university education. She has a keen interest in Socially Engaged Art (#SEA) and community outreach, leveraging creativity as a catalyst for personal and communal transformation. Currently pursuing a doctorate in art education at Concordia University, she actively engages in advancing her field's knowledge and practices. For more information, visit her website at Elsyzavarce.com , and stay updated on her work by following @@elsyzavarce.