With the European Heritage Days 2024, starts the third Italian edition of the Young European Heritage Makers Competition, the cultural heritage competition aimed at school-age children and young people from the countries participating in the European Heritage Days (GEP), promoted by the Council of Europe and coordinated in Italy by the General Directorate for Museums in collaboration with the General Directorate for Education, Research and Cultural Institutes of the Ministry of Culture.
The aim of the project is to bring the younger sections of the population closer to cultural heritage, encouraging their active, exploratory and cognitive participation, promoting or strengthening awareness of the concept of culture.
The competition is also an opportunity to get to know the point of view of young people, understand what they consider to be the identity of our cultural heritage and draw inspiration from it to modulate future institutional activities.
How to participate
Children and young people are invited to tell through images a material/intangible/digital testimony of the cultural heritage of their territory, explaining what its meaning is for the community of reference and its connection with the European cultural heritage. The paper can consist, alternatively, of:
- an image (photo, painting, portrait, PowerPoint presentation) accompanied by a descriptive text (of a maximum of 800 words, in Italian or English);
- a video of maximum 5 minutes.
Participation is divided into two age groups:
- girls and boys between the ages of 6 and 11 (primary school): the group can consist of a minimum of two participants up to an entire class.
- boys and girls aged between 11 and 17 years (secondary school): the group can consist of a minimum of two participants up to five participants.
There is also the possibility of individual participation, subject to the signed consent of the parents to be attached to the application form.
Each group must be followed, in the creation of its project, by an adult mentor, authorized to work in contact with the children and young people involved (teacher, educational service, librarian, educational operator, museum professional, etc.).
The role of the mentor is to coordinate and follow the activity and to transmit the final paper, not to intervene in the process of exploration of heritage by children/young people and their freedom of expression.
Each mentor will also be able to work with several groups of children/young people, possibly helping them in the drafting of the descriptive text in Italian or English.
Aims and objectives
The aims, on which the national commission elaborates the evaluation criteria, are:
- To involve children and young people by encouraging and identifying Europe's future #HeritageMakers. For this reason, children and young people are called to narrate, to tell a story that interprets the sites and works that surround them and that they consider cultural heritage.
- To allow young people to use the means of expression and communication that are most congenial to them. For this reason, they are asked to use a visual format, such as videos, photographs, drawings and images, accompanied by a text written in their own language or, if possible, in English.
- To encourage young protagonists (Young European Heritage Makers) to research European history in the tangible, intangible, natural and/or digital heritage that surrounds them, and its relevance to the theme of the European Heritage Days 2024 Heritage on the Way.
Submission of the papers
Mentors will have to upload the works directly digitally from 1 October 2024 to 31 December 2024 through the form available on the European platform dedicated to the initiative: https://www.europeanheritagedays.com/Young-European-Heritage-Makers by clicking on Send your experience.
Simply select Italy from the Country drop-down menu, indicating in the Type section whether it is an individual or group work, and filling in the fields displayed with the personal and contact details of the mentor and/or individual participant (who, as a minor, must attach the written consent of the parents).
Once the form has been completed, the publication of the project on the website will not be immediate, but will take place only after validation by the national contact persons. The system will then save the project in draft mode.
Selection of the winning projects
A commission of the Ministry of Culture will proceed to publish the projects deemed suitable on the website and will then proceed with their evaluation. Finally, it will decree an Italian finalist for each age group by January 2025. The two projects selected in Italy will enter the European selection in February: in March 2025 the winning projects among the participating countries will be announced. The group of winners for the 11-17 category will be awarded with a visit to Strasbourg organised by the Council of Europe in May 2025.
For info on the initiative write to dg-mu.servizio3@cultura.gov.it, specifying in the subject "Information on the European Youth Competition".
Documents
Circolare_Young European Heritage Makers 2024
