23 YEARS IN THE SERVICE OF ROMANIAN HERITAGE AND COMMUNITIES
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01.03.2023
The Future Acceleration Program has entered its fourth year of collaboration and is the flagship intervention of the UiPath Foundation, carried out in Botoșani and Olt counties, with the support of Pro Patrimonio. Through this programme, 70 children from five communities in the proximity of Enescu House and Neamțu Manor benefit from an integrated support package – monthly scholarships, weekly classes in Romanian language and literature, mathematics and English, clothes, school supplies, books, games, food packages, digital equipment, camps – and participate in various activities to develop digital skills and non-formal education.
The Children’s Music Academy is a Pro Patrimonio Foundation Program, continuously run at the George Enescu House in Mihăileni, through which 28 secondary school children benefit from weekly music education lessons in the community. They are currently studying their second instrument, the xylophone, after starting with the flute. Through this programme, the children develop their creativity, artistic sensitivity, practical skills and instrument technique, meet musicians who come to the residencies, and are exposed to a wider culture.
The Heritage Caravan features a series of workshops on a variety of themes, aimed at education and direct learning, through experimentation and creativity, about architectural heritage, memory, local identity, relationships between people, buildings and cultural values. The current stops of the caravan are mainly the communities around the architectural monuments we are dealing with, but the system can be replicated so that more and more children gain a better understanding of where they live, local identity and universal connections, and gain a sustainable perspective in regarding heritage and how it can be exploited.
During the five days of the Heritage Caravan workshops at the Enescu House in Mihăileni together with the team of children involved we researched the subject “How do we discover and creatively tell stories about the place we live in?” We had very intense work days, but with much satisfaction at the end for both the children and the inhabitants of Mihăileni.
The first day was dedicated to establishing the clues for Mihăileni. Each of the 22 participating children from the village earned one of the Mihăileni clues, “fought” as a warm-up for the history fragments by participating in fun and sporty team games. The elements of the village were then redrawn by the children in the context of history and the future they themselves imagine.
All these elements were then put together in a DIY frame book by the children, through which they learned an ancient Japanese bookbinding technique. The creations and other complementary textiles were finally personalised with linocut stamps.
Outdoor games and board games rounded off the autumn-tempered afternoon at the Enescu house.
The second day of workshops followed the theme and resource already developed last year in the Enescu Workbook – available in the Foundation’s free resource library. The previously created “on foot” route round Mihăileni was brought to life this year with a dynamic circuit with marker posts and interactive panels at the most interesting points of the village.
The children have worked hard to create four complex panels dedicated to the past, present and future of the Enescu House, the Zahacinski Museum, the former Town Hall and the Ceramics Factory.
The other destinations of Mihăileni were thus enriched with small wooden signposts to be mounted on the site.
On the third day we received new friends. Actress Irina Artenii defied the tiring Bucharest-Mihăileni distance and came for a short but intense workshop. The children got behind the curtains and played in like young actors. The end of the games gathered all the energies in a series of mini skits with secrets they couldn’t seem to get enough of.
The shadow theatre in the second part of the workshops was not only a new and novel experience for everyone but also an opportunity to create our models for the following day’s filming.
There was much laughter and applause at the end of the four teams’ scenes.
Getting ready, editing and filming!
The most excitement was probably reserved for this day, the fourth of the educational workshops in Mihăileni. With minimal training by our friend Alin Iacob and some home-made exercises, the four team coordinators became for one day directors and responsible for editing four short films with the enthusiastic teams of child actors, already prepared the day before for the audience and the camera.
Each of the four chosen locations — the George Enescu House, the Former Town Hall, the Zahacinski Museum and the Ceramics Factory — were creatively, playfully and amusingly told from the perspective of the past, the present and the future imagined by the children themselves.
Costumes were assembled, metaphors were written, recordings of voices, music and old objects collected by the children, all to tell the story of a series of places we all want to continue living for the benefit of the community.
All the videos can be accessed online on the Pro Patrimonio Foundation’s You Tube channel as well as next to each storyboard created by the children, via an attached QR code.
MUZEUL ZAHACINSKI din Mihăileni
FABRICA DE CERMAICĂ din Mihăileni
The last and probably the most loved day of the Heritage Caravan was the day dedicated to sports and culinary competitions, exhibition of works and film evenings.
We made the tour of the 20 landmarks on the Mihăileni Map – also available online https://me-qr.com/4037478 – with the whole group of children, mounting the signposts they themselves had made.
The award ceremony was attended by parents. They too came prepared for the cooking competition. Tensions were high, as they are every year, when the votes were counted.
The film evening started with the 4 creations of the children and trainers and continued, in the spirit of the caravan, with a screening of the animated film accompanied by pizza and lots of good cheer.
The feedback notes collected urgently send us back to the community to continue our work in the future, with the children unanimously confirming that they love the proposed activities and want more. And having said that, all the fatigue gathered in preparing and organizing the camp pales when compared to the joy and fulfilment of doing things of real use to the community, in the spirit of discovery and creative transformation of tangible and intangible heritage.
None of this could have been done without the phenomenal help of the trainers and volunteers involved on time and throughout all of this year’s truly demanding activities. So special thanks:
– Ana Maria Apostoiu – for her dedication, for being with us for years and for being the fastest trainer-raiser we know
– Răzvan Bogză – for his creativity, inventiveness and integration into the team as if we had known each other all our lives
– Ruben Mardaru – for his openness, competitive spirit in all activities, hard work to make things go according to plan and continuous involvement in the management of the Enescu House
– Cosmina Manolache – for her perfect integration in the team and in the spirit of Pro Patrimonio activities, professionalism and open-mindedness
– Delia, Teona and Carmen for their punctual involvement
In order to signpost the route for discovering the town of Mihăileni, we had the agreement of the Municipality of Mihăileni. This route has been mapped and narrated since last year in the George Enescu House Notebook, available online bit.ly/3PIAoW5 and bit.ly/31OQSYA
We thank UiPath Foundation for the partnership and trust it has shown for three years in supporting educational programs and caring for the heritage object, the George Enescu House in Mihăileni.
Read also:
Worksite diary – Landscape and Art Workshop
Landscape and Sound Workshop Log
April 2022
50 children from five communities surrounding the historical monuments George Enescu House in Mihăileni, Botoșani county and Neamțu Manor in Olari, Olt county, will receive “Heritage in a Package. The Art Nouveau Style” work kits before the Easter holidays.
Pro Patrimonio’s Heritage Education Programme is a continuous, trans-annual and interdisciplinary programme through which the Foundation has been carrying out a steady activity for over seven years, constantly diversified. The majority of the workshops undertaken are aimed specifically at children and young people from areas -sometimes poor and unstructured- where projects are being carried out to save, preserve and rehabilitate the architectural heritage (The Golescu Villa in Câmpulung, the Neamțu Manor in Olari, the Perticari-Davila Manor in Argeș, the George Enescu House in Mihăileni, etc.).
The 50 beneficiaries of the “Heritage in a Package.The Art Nouveau Style” work kits are children from the Future Acceleration Program run by UiPath Foundation in collaboration with Pro Patrimonio Foundation in both Botoșani and Olt. For three years Pro Patrimonio Foundation and UiPath Foundation have joined forces to help the local children’s communities.
The Easter kits encourage the discovery of the Art Nouveau style in Europe through exercises and practical tests, including examples from Romania. Springtime with its explosion of plants and flowers will be tuned in with this journey through the story of one of the most spectacular styles in architecture. Individual activities will engage the graphic and creative skills of the young beneficiaries in a personalised workbook and help the children to design a decorative object for the Easter table complemented by tasty surprises. The subsequent group activity will bring the children together in a joint workshop.
These DYI kits will be sent to children who will work on them independently according to precise instructions and at the same time having various free options plus an online meeting for further guidance and comparison of results. The group challenge encourages teamwork and the necessary human interaction and will be carried out under the guidance of a teacher or adult coordinator.
The kits encourage the exploration of Art Nouveau through practical exercises and games that stimulate curiosity, craftsmanship, creativity and logical thinking. The chosen field engages the dialogue between past, present and future, blends elements of past heritage with elements of contemporary technology and encourages the discovery and improvement of the inhabited, aesthetic and relational-human universe near by.
In the run-up to Christmas the children will receive a new set of kits with a different theme.
Audio details in the Radio Romania International interview, Pauza Mare show, minute 45 https://bit.ly/3NOBQpi.
In the run-up to Christmas the children will receive a new set of kits with a different theme.
Context
The George Enescu House in Mihăileni, Botoșani county and the Neamțu Manor in Olari, Olt county are two historical monuments owned by Pro Patrimonio Foundation. Over the years numerous individuals, private institutions and companies have donated time, money and materials to save them.
The George Enescu House din Mihăileni was saved from collapse and underwent a 7-year restoration process. It is now returned to the local community as a cultural and educational centre. The “Academy of Music, Education and Sound Studies” has been running here for three years.
The Neamţu Manor in Olari is in the early stages of restoration. Since 2018 the steady, step-by-step restoration has been underway. Even during the ongoing construction, the manor is an important landmark for the local community, since 2021 the “Experimental Centre for Studies and Education at the Neamțu Manor in Olari” has been created and is dedicated to this place.
Read also: Heritage Education
Landscape and Sound Workshop Log
“Workshop 5: Community Festivities”, July 16-21, 2019
Let the sound out, we have DIY instruments!
For the next 2 days, Andreea and Sorin are the musical hosts for sound explorations at Mihăileni. Today’s workshops interrogated the origins of sound, the path of instruments and the relationships between both sound and corporeality and between humans.
12 different types of instruments were drawn and built, using mostly wood as building material.
The orchestra of voices and instruments was thus tuned for the joint Sunday group meeting.
We thank the Mihăileni autumn for its understanding and postponing the rains until after the creative and play programs were completed.
The morning wakes us with a coldness reminiscent of early winter rather than late summer, and the rains insist. Yet no one skipped the landscape workshops.
Children participate practically and creatively in making herb pots, and the botanical prints far exceed the trainees’ expectations.
The weather allows us a portion of play in the glade and practice for Sunday championships.
We change the series to give as many children as possible the opportunity to take part in our workshops. We resume the activities of the first two days with 20 more children.
Even though autumn seems to have settled in full swing in Mihăileni, with cold temperatures and rain, the workshops go on outdoors in the tent, with more protective clothing and hot tea on the go.
Playtime after craft classes is the most successful warm-up remedy, and the glade across the road the best host for such activities. We eluded the rain during today’s workshops as well.
Pots, prints and a storm
On this day we set out to go home with a part of the Enescu House garden and some of its colours.
The children built their own wooden pots, equipped with waterproof foil, sand-pearl soil and 4 baby plants: rosemary, lavender, mint and sage. They each made a painted face dedicated to their drawing experiments, the figure of George Enescu as a friend of plants.
They imprinted big and small bags with local petals and leaves, using boiling and hammering techniques. They then experimented with some more exotic flavours such as turmeric and coffee and pigmented another series of bags.
However, the sport and play practice was interrupted by a fairytale thunderstorm which reminded us that autumn in Mihăileni comes much sooner than in Bucharest.
After all the activities related to preparing the courtyard and then hosting the concerts, it was the children’s turn to have a week dedicated to them. Yesterday five trainers worked with a team of 23 children from the local community.
In the first workshop they prepared a plant press construction. The press involved the actual wooden construction, the preparation of cardboard and paper inner modules for the positioning of the plants and a creativity competition in decorating the wooden covers of the press with pyrography and glued plants.
In the second workshop, the children learnt how to make an herbarium notebook by going through all its stages
After lunch the opposite glade hosted them for sports training in bedminton, volleyball and archery as well as a well-deserved rest in the shade.
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“The School of Landscape, Art and Sound” is a Pro Patrimonio Foundation cultural project co-financed by AFCN. The project does not necessarily represent the position of the National Cultural Fund Administration. AFCN is not responsible for the content of the project or how the results of the project may be used. These are entirely the responsibility of the grantee.
UiPath Foundation is a Pro patrimonio Foundation paartner in the program “Academy of Music and Education for Children” which has been running from the beginning of 2020 at the George Enescu House in Mihăileni.
Project Partners: Botoşăneanul, Radio România Muzical, Revista Zeppelin, National Geographic, AsoP, Filiala Teritoriala Vest, Societatea Internaţională George Enescu din Viena, Fundația Remember Enescu.
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Also read:
The School of Landscape, Art and Sound at the George Enescu House in Mihăileni
Worksite diary – Landscape and Art Workshop
Epilogue.
Even if Tuesday and Wednesday were the days of travel for volunteers and the Pro Patrimonio team on both days we worked hard to clean the place and complete the main path. We relied exclusively on the help of older children from Mihăileni, whom we thank, once again, for an exemplary involvement.
The last touches of this year’s garden arrangement will be made during the week of the landscape and sound workshops, August 23 – 29, together with our 100% reliable team from Mihăileni: the children’s community.
We leave free the place for Concerts on Siret, a new project conceived and initiated by Pro Patrimonio.
We saved the last day of summer school for planting on the side of the house and cleaning the back bank.
Once they know us in the community, the children of Mihăileni cannot imagine not helping us. So we have been working with some of them today.
We ended the entire program with a surprising and comprehensive four-hour tour of Mihăileni with the local history teacher.
We are glad to have been able to leave behind a brighter face of the garden and a better context for future cultural events.
Sunday – day for rest
After a week full of adventures, almost daily rain, searching, hiking and hard work, we chose a Sunday with somewhat more relaxing activities.
In the morning we went to see the pulse of the Mihăileni market.
Until noon we gave free control over botanical print experiments personalising the site shirts with leaves and flowers.
In the afternoon we were welcomed for a special visit to the Miclescu Manor at Călinești where we were loaded with stories of the place and photos of the garden and the house.
We collected sights from our trips, vegetables from the greenhouses in Mihăileni and ended the day with an overnight visit to a village wedding.
Communitary Saturday – call to “clacă” (work gathering).
The yard was cleaned, decorated and prepared all morning to receive the visit of the Mihăileni villagers coming to attend the work gathering. Together with the village boy-helpers we “sprinkled” the planting beds with pine wood chips, put all the plant pots in place, edged the current “pool” and the future main walkway with Corten sheeting and prepared the botanical print workshop.
Around 25 children and a few adults joined the afternoon planting event. With many of the children we had the joy of seeing each other again after last year’s workshops. We were pleasantly surprised to see the children as enthusiastic and full of life as they were in 2020. The race of “who planted the most plants” was hard to contain. Good thing the team kept up with the kids’ fast pace. You could see the results of the two-hour teamwork in front of the house in ornamental plants and shrubs along the fence.
The reward for the labours of the land came in the form of pies, doughnuts and a musical recital by a nearby children’s group.
We squeezed the last of the children’s strength in a hammer concert to print their souvenir bags.
End of the day with a round of tag in the garden, watering plants and stories on the porch. That’s enough for today. We look forward to a Sunday of relaxation and artistic experimentation.
A day as intense as can be in Mihăileni!
We depend on mechanised machinery to make our garden work more efficient and to fit into a particularly tight timeframe. Yesterday’s storm blocked machine access to the garden in the morning and even by midday we were anxious whether the excavator tracks would be able to scrape through the muddy site.
Luck and the machine users’ goodwill were on our side and we managed to fill the drainage ditch today.
Along with this big bump, we prepared the ground for Saturday’s upcoming plantings and welcomed the new family of decorative and climbing plants as well as the bags of mulch to our yard.
The future gravel driveway has now become a geotextile “pool” and is temporarily set up as an amphitheatre space for the “clacă” concert.
The evening of this full day also sees the “christening” of the new drainage system with a heavy rain, in the spirit of what we are already used to these days.
Ground mounts decrease in some parts but increase in other areas of the garden.
Storm code, mud pools and geotextile paths through the house and garden.
This day was not without adventures for the Enescu House team either. The work was largely split between those levelling the kerbs of the new gravel driveway and starting to dig the soil for the future decorative areas in front of the house, and those working ‘in the trenches’ on the house drainage ditch.
Along with manual work with shovel, spade, sledgehammer and foil preparation the excavator completed and helped us for a good part of the tasks.
Unforeseen events are always present, but accompanied by good humour, good food from Siret and help from neighbours.
The landscaping site has started!
Even though the full team was to meet up only in the afternoon, the work started in earnest.
One of the major works planned for this week is the resurfacing of the main driveway. We want a generous gravelled area in front of the house to better showcase it and more appropriately host local educational and cultural events.
So we cleared the old stone kerb path and the landscape volunteers from Cluj laid out the new path.
Although we were to receive the mechanical help of the excavator only tomorrow, the local crew surprised us with time to spare for the work and we started digging for both the new driveway and the new drainage ditch for the house in first day. The site “got ennobled” along the way with mounds of dug dirt and deep mud left from the rain. The team hangs on tight!
The three volunteers arrive from Bucharest during the day so the next day we will be more prepared to fight for the new Enescu House garden.
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The diary documentation through texts and photos was done by Andreea Machidon, coordinator of the Heritage Education program for Pro Patrimonio Foundation.
Work team: Andreea Machidon, Mihai Puica, Diana Teodora Vacaru, Adina Ispas, Mihaela Lungu, Adina Rachita, Ana Maria Pravicencu, Ruben Mardaru şi Marcu (+2y).
Details about the School of Landscape, Art and Sound at the George Enescu House in Mihăileni
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“School of Landscape, Art and Sound” is a Pro Patrimonio Foundation cultural project, co-financed by AFCN. The project does not necessarily represent the position of the Administration of the National Cultural Fund. AFCN is not responsible for the content of the project or the way its results may be used. These are entirely the responsibility of the grantee.
UiPath Foundation is a Pro patrimonio Foundation partner in the program “The Children’s Academy of Music and Education” which has been running from the beginning of 2020 at the George Enescu House in Mihăileni.
Project parteners: Botosaneanul, Radio România Muzical, Revista Zeppelin, National Geographic, AsoP, Filiala Teritoriala Vest, Societatea Internaţională George Enescu din Viena, Fundația Remember Enescu.
06.07.2021
Good news for our Enescu summer!
The new funding approved by the Administration of the National Cultural Fund completes our plans for this year in Mihăileni, started together with the UiPath Foundation, and the coming period seems to be full of surprises.
Under the name “The School of Landscape, Art and Sound”, this year at Casa Enescu we are bringing together two workshops centred around the notion of landscape and the practical and creative resources it offers.
From 28 July to 2 August 2021, six days will be dedicated to the Landscape and Art Workshop for the redevelopment of the George Enescu House courtyard and the artistic exploration of the natural resources offered by the garden and its surroundings. The garden work dedicated to young professionals in the field and the general public, will try to familiarize participants with as many stages as possible in the layout, preparation and arrangement of the site, while facilitating study visits to the area and becoming the basis of artistic experiments such as plant presses and natural pigments.
From 23 to 29 August, 40 children from three communities around the George Enescu House in Mihăileni will take part in the Landscape and Sound Workshop where they will practice their roles as landscape gardeners, gardeners and botanical artists through games and practical or artistic projects. In keeping with the specificity of the place, the study of sound will complement the children’s experience with specialists in the field and will challenge them to develop their practical skills through the construction of their own instruments, thus experimenting with the different qualities of the local wood species.
The materials gathered during the workshops and along the way, as well as the dedicated field study during this period will form the basis for the production, by the end of the year, of a Heritage Notebook, a tool for the creative exploration of the Enescu House and its surroundings through practical, sensorial or artistic challenges. The booklet will be conceived as a guide to the place, revealing the house history, architecture and garden, as well as elements of cultural identity in the immediate vicinity that can be accessed on foot, by bicycle or by car. This online-offline resource is offered to the general public who wishes to discover for themselves the story of the house and its surroundings.
“With all the challenges we encountered, the experience of the heritage workshops for children started last year at Enescu House convinced us that the long road between Bucharest and Mihăileni is worth the effort every time the opportunity arises. The community children’s openness, interest and joy sincerely impressed us and we hope that this year’s meetings will bring the children’s community even closer to the Foundation’s initiatives, to the Enescu House and its history in general, but more than that, perhaps to the way of relating to heritage, which we hope they will be able to carry forward in any future context they may find themselves in.” Andreea Machidon, Heritage Educational Programs Coordinator for Pro Patrimonio Foundation
By means of the proposed workshops and activities we want to complete the process of transforming the George Enescu House in Mihăileni, as a house — garden ensemble, into a cultural and educational center. It facilitates educational and cultural programs for adults and young professionals who want to complement their theoretical knowledge with practical or artistic exercises and experiments, and carries out educational activities for children in the vicinity throughout the year, together with partners UiPath Foundation, local teachers and guests from outside the community.
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“The School of Landscape, Art and Sound” is a Pro Patrimonio Foundation cultural project co-financed by AFCN. The project does not necessarily represent the position of the National Cultural Fund Administration. AFCN is not responsible for the content of the project or how the results of the project may be used. These are entirely the responsibility of the grantee.
UiPath Foundation is a Pro patrimonio Foundation partner in the program “The Children’s Academy of Music and Education” which has been running from the beginning of 2020 at the George Enescu House in Mihăileni.
Project’s parteners: Botosaneanul, Radio România Muzical, Revista Zeppelin, National Geographic, AsoP, Filiala Teritoriala Vest, Societatea Internaţională George Enescu din Viena, Fundația Remember Enescu.
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Call de participanţi: Şcoala de Peisaj şi Artă
Bucharest, March 9, 2021
For the year 2021 Pro Patrimonio Foundation and UiPath Foundation announce their actions to continue the program “The Children’s Academy for Music and Education” carried out in the communities around the George Enescu House in Mihăileni, a historical monument in Botoşani County, as well as the initiation of a new project, “The Experimental Center for Studies and Education – Neamţu Manor, Olari”- historical monument in Olt County.
The educational program dedicated to the children’s community in Mihăileni and surrounding areas scheduled to begin in February 2020, has been adapted along the way, influenced by national and regional restrictions caused by the pandemic. Thus, some of the activities took place in July – September 2020. The George Enescu House in Mihăileni was inaugurated on August 19, 2020 with a piano concert, in the context of nine days of non-formal education workshops attended by 20 children from Mihăileni.
24 children from Mihăileni and Vârfu Câmpului localities follow their passion for music within the program “The Children’s Academy for Music and Education” (CAME). In October 2020, the children received musical instruments – blockflöte – and began the lessons in the study of the instrument and musical culture. More than 600 hours of music education took place both in the yard of the George Enescu House and online, depending on the weather. The program continues throughout 2021.
The year 2020 also marked the partnership between UiPath Foundation and Pro Patrimonio Foundation in the implementation of the educational program “Future Acceleration Program” in Botosani County. Through this program, 20 children from vulnerable families from three communities around the George Enescu House benefit from integrated support designed to ensure their access to education: monthly scholarships, clothing, school supplies, sanitary articles, tablets, and online educational activities. In September 2020, all children participated in the UiPath Foundation Virtual Camp – an interactive educational camp, with workshops on various topics: programming (Scratch), STEM, architecture, photo editing, drawing, sports and healthy lifestyle. Since October 2020, children from Botoșani County have participated in approximately 800 hours of tutoring lessons in Romanian language and literature, Mathematics and English.
The children in both programs also benefited from over 500 hours of non-formal education activities – practical workshops and online camps – not only to bring them closer to the history and culture of the place they come from, but also to encourage them to discover the potential and explore the world we live in.
In parallel with the activities in Botoşani, in 2021 the partnership between the two organizations will be extended in Olt County, in the communities around the Neamţu Manor in Olari. Thus, non-formal education workshops will be organized for children from Olari, within the project “Experimental Center for Studies and Education – Neamţu Manor, Olari” and the work site for the mansion restoration that was interrupted last year will be resumed.
“We’ve managed to overcome the difficulties encountered. The action that was started last year has overcome the difficulties caused by the pandemic. The solutions were verified over time, satisfied the wishes of the foundation and delighted the beneficiaries, the children in the community. Due to the good results on both sides, through a judicious analysis, a new intervention is being started in another area, with problems specific to southern Romania, such as the one in Olari. We start from the micro-geographical and socio-cultural irradiation area of the monument and extend the strategy to the macro-exploration and rediscovery of the territory. We try to rebuild territories, to coagulate communities, to map their resources, to experiment responsibly. We have adapted and we are moving forward in the two communities with specific approaches to each one.” said Serban Sturdza, President of the Pro Patrimonio Foundation.
“The last year has significantly affected access to quality education for children from disadvantaged families and the integrated support offered by the Future Acceleration Program has made a real difference in the lives of children in Botosani County, as well as in the other four areas of the country where we work with partners such as the Pro Patrimonio Foundation. With the limitations generated by the pandemic, the development and consolidation of innovative educational hubs in the heart of rural communities offers a real chance for a better future for children from vulnerable backgrounds. We are happy to contribute through this partnership with the Pro Patrimonio Foundation to the development of sustainable educational ecosystems in Botoșani County and, this year, in Olt County, in the communities around the Neamțu Manor in Olari. ” Raluca Negulescu-Balaci, Executive Director of UiPath Foundation.
March 05, 2021
Last year in October 24 children from Mihăileni and Vârfu Câmpului localities in Botoşani county, received musical instruments – blockflöte – and began lessons in the study of this instrument and in musical culture. The 600 hours of music education in 2020 took place in the yard of George Enescu’s House, when the weather was favorable, and afterwards they took place online.
The program initiated and developed by the Pro Patrimonio Foundation in partnership with the UiPath Foundation is entitled “The Children’s Academy of Music and Education”. As a music education program, complementary to the school one, dedicated to children from secondary schools around the George Enescu House in Mihăileni, it helps children develop their interest in current school activities and, in this way, to enrich their cultural knowledge. Music culture develops creativity, logical thinking, structures critical thinking and develops the artistic sensitivity of young people in training. In addition, music coagulates communities, helps preserve local identity and complements a correct perception of heritage. In an area with an instrumental and vocal tradition still present, but with a high risk of social vulnerability, such as the Botoşani – Dorohoi area, music strengthens the feeling of belonging to the community, a very important element for restoring social cohesion.
Mrs. Paula Gavriluţă is the music teacher who helps the children descipher the blockflöte scores whilst also teaching them things about a much needed musical culture. During the year dedicated to Beethoven, the emphasis was on deciphering excerpts from the Ninth Symphony, and around December they learned about Anton Pann’s patriotic song as well as about the great composer George Enescu, who sang to the wounded or organized charity concerts. With the help of interactive online games, children learn to recognize musical instruments and through musical audition they put the musical phrases in order according to their intensity and according to the instruments that appear in the orchestra.
At the beginning of 2021, the group of children in the music program received new scores and continues to develop their skills in using the instrument.
The program continues throughout 2021 in partnership with the UiPath Foundation.
During the workshops held in Mihăileni in August, the 20 children from the project created through their research and works a series of materials that we gathered as was natural in an exhibition. It was opened in the courtyard of George Enescu’s House. The parents and the local community in general received it with great interest and even pride. These children’s perspectives – ages ranging from 7 to 12- on their village, local resources and possibilities is a unique approach from which we can all find inspiration and hope, so we set out to organize this exhibition online as well.
The topics they had to cover during the days of the workshops or camp – as the children from the local community beautifully called it – were very varied.
The main project team was composed of Andreea Machidon and Mihai Petrescu
Teammates: Luiza Simion, Ana Maria Apostoiu and Irinia Novac;
Specialized trainers: Andreea Tincea – sound and Smaranda Ilie – animation
The ANIMEST team
The management of the Mihăileni school and local coordinator Adrian Hariga
“EventFullDays at the Enescu House – cultural-musical explorations and exercises” is a cultural project realized by the Pro Patrimonio Foundation in partnership with the UiPath Foundation and co-financed by AFCN.
Between August 14 and 22, 2020, the Enescu House opened its doors to the community!
We celebrated the end of the restoration site with a wide range of workshops and activities dedicated to children from Mihăileni and a piano concert by pianist Raluca Ştirbăţ on August 19, George Enescu’s birthday.
Around 20 children from Mihăileni benefited from an intense eight-day program dedicated to the exploration and creative transformation of local resources. The experiments were aimed at children’s befriending the idea of built heritage having as landmark and object of study the Enescu House itself. The whole project was enriched with meals with the team, sports and board games and evenings with animated films dedicated to the whole community.
At the first inquiry into the community, the children received each an Explorer’s Notebook that accompanied them in the mapping exercise of the elements that define the surroundings of the Enescu House – materials, craftsmen, objects, built spaces, natural spaces, stories, customs, recipes or plants. The work on the Notebooks was the basis for the first two workshops for the construction of a series of interactive local maps with elements of objective presentation, proposals and visions adapted to the requirements of the inhabitants and personal hiding places in the form of stories.
On the day dedicated to sound, through games and exercises the children observed the vibration of various elements in their immediate vicinity, tested voices and instruments, built handcrafted musical instruments and tuned their energies in an impromptu orchestra.
Within the workshop dedicated to the architecture specialist, the children built a house-lighting fixture with 5 layers of walk-in and creative understanding of the Enescu House: golden plan and proportions, component materials, specialized terms and graphic representations, the main section of the house and the interior in its past and future of phase.
In the role of landscapers, the children proposed scenarios for arranging the courtyard of the Enescu House and created structures from woven twigs for future climbing plants.
The team researched the history of the house, proposing together with a specialist an animation with its story and some moments George Enescu spent in Mihăileni.
The celebration of the official opening of the Enescu House brought together the children at the concert in the form of hosts and hopeful helpers in organizing the event.
The works and research gathered, the sports games practiced in all the afternoons in the backyard and the friendships made during this time were used as a pretext for a big final exhibition and a series of competitions with awards. The festive day created an opportunity to gather a large audience, curious about the children’s work and gathered the teams in sports competitions, fun games, ingenious rehearsals and dancing choreography. The badminton competition took place with a generous audience of parents, relatives, friends and neighbours, but also with tempting prizes. The children-parents culinary test gathered 15 local dishes, judged with great seriousness by all the tasters present on a musical background offered by a local children’s orchestra from Vicov.
The eight days were real educative and creative rehearsals for children, an opportunity to make friends with serious tools, such as: motosaw, drills, saws, pyrography tools or carving knives and playful challenges, local stories and reflections.
Starting with the first day, the children claimed the term workshops and turned it into a camp. No one was interested in the lunch break at home and everyone preferred to stay in the backyard for continuous game sessions or help offered to the team for various chores. The house courtyard was not large enough for the daily requests from children from all over the community to participate in the events, but the rules of distance imposed by the pandemic forced us to limit the number of participants, but also to promise that in better times we will put more workshop places available.
By the end of this year we intend to leave room for a surprise DIY kit, a future online exhibition of works and explorations from this summer, a presentation film for the project and a future digital map with the craftsmen around Enescu House.
None of this would have been possible without the basic team: Andreea Machidon and Mihai Petrescu set off with: trainers – teammates Luiza Simion, Ana Maria Apostoiu and Irinia Novac; specialized trainers Andreea Tincea – sound and Smaranda Ilie – animation; film specialist Alin Iacob; graphic specialist: Mona Petre; ANIMEST team; the school management from Mihăileni and the local coordinator Adrian Hariga.
The “camp” at the Enescu House started in 2020 and we all hope that it will be an event that will enrich the place every year.
“EventFullDays at the Enescu House – cultural-musical explorations and exercises” is a cultural project realized by the Pro Patrimonio Foundation in partnership with the UiPath Foundation and co-financed by AFCN.
