Erasmus: Time to share knowledge of Italian Art with Czech children ****************************************************************************************** * Erasmus: Time to share knowledge of Italian Art with Czech children ****************************************************************************************** Paola Antonelli studies Art History at the University of Chieti (Italy). She decided to sp final year at the Charles University in Prague and joined the Catholic Theological Faculty After the initial search for the best Czech or Czech-Italian topic for her MA thesis, Paol write on the Society of Patriotic Friends of Arts, which was the foundation of the Nationa Prague. While spending the majority of her time in the various Art History libraries in Prague, ma Library of the National Gallery, Paola found also time to share her knowledge of Italian A children and prepared two Europe Meets School projects for the Basic Art School Olešská, P her return to Italy, Paola also participated in the competition for the best Erasmus exper 25th anniversary of the Erasmus programme organized by the “Youth on the Move” initiative Commission. Paola, let us start with your entry for the Erasmus competition to the 25th anniversary of Could you quote your Erasmus “story” for the Erasmus anniversary for us? Yes, sure. Here is my entry for the competition (note from the redaction: the entry was sl and adapted by an English native speaker): “The city of Prague and local people are defini apart from the rest of Europe… When I started packing, I thought “well, it’s an European c know English!” But no, they don’t! Which, as you can probably imagine, led to some very fu even stressful episodes… Czech language is really difficult for me, there is no way to learn it fast. But the Czech say “goodbye,” the sound of which I found very musical; it’s “na shledanou.” So one of my last days, while waiting for a train going to my hall of residence in the sub started to say “na shledanou” to everything: “na shledanou” to the Staroměstská metro stat can see the Prague Castle just in front of you as you walk up the stairs from the station; to the tastefully looking cakes in all the cafés; “na shledanou” to the Charles Bridge and the ones that you just look at and the ones that you have to touch so it brings you good f shledanou” to the trams, so particular that every tourist photographed them; “na shledanou coffee they served in Prague, so very different from the Italian one; “na shledanou” to th Square, my favourite spot in the city, and it’s Astronomical Clock; “na shledanou” to the actually wait before they try to get on the public transport until the previous passangers shledanou” to the Vltava/Moldau river, so wide and wild; “na shledanou” to the guy who pla from the top of the Town Hall Tower at the Old Town Square every full hour; “na shledanou” Czech people, who were so damn nice, and “na shledanou” to the rude Czech people, who were “na shledanou” to the wonderful trdlo, or trdelník, one of the best pastry I have ever eat life; “na shledanou” to the adventures and disadventures of living in a hall of residence miniature kitchen; “na shledanou” to the most amazing Art Nouveau, Gothic and Baroque buil literally surrounded by… and finally “na shledanou” to Praha in its whole. We’ll see each other again, in spring, when everything is in blossom and it is no longer f Is it already known who is the winner of this competition? Have you actually participated interest in winning something – or just because you enjoyed the Erasmus programme and want it to the next generation of students? Actually the competition is not yet over – there is time to post stories until 30th April the redaction: this article was prepared in late April 2012). Then, they will select 10 be publish them again so that people can vote to select the story for the first, the second a place. I decided to participate because I found it really nice to show to the other Erasmus peopl people in general, how beautiful the city of Prague is and what being there as an Erasmus me. Obviously, it would be nice for me if my story is found interesting and maybe even awa I take it you still miss Prague. Would you have liked to study here longer? Did you have a your host faculty and the Charles University in general? My case is a bit particular because I arrived to the Charles University to write my Master so I wasn’t supposed to take any classes. Certainly it would have been nice for me to be a Prague longer, but since I had passed all my exams by the time I left for Prague, it would been useless for my studies to stay any longer. As I have said earlier, I came to Prague to write on my thesis only so I had to work prett But it wasn’t so hard, because I found a very supportive atmosphere at my host faculty, th Theological Faculty, at the Faculty of Arts and in the libraries. Unfortunately, there wer History classes in English for Erasmus students at my host faculty – I think it’s because few Erasmus people in that faculty; but I met the local Erasmus Coordinator (Mrs. Dana Vrá who was really kind and helped me a lot with all the bureaucratic issues. I wanted to attend some Art History classes in English anyway because I was interested to approach in teaching of my subject. This is why I joined the Faculty of Arts for the subje Architecture in Europe and Czech Republic,” being especially attracted by the focus on the It was a really good choice because our teacher, Prof. Josef Záruba, took us to a differen Prague every week, and it was all paid by the university! He also made himself very availa was interested in our studies. He totally understood my situation, too, so he kindly let m class without taking the final exam and gave me advice for my thesis as well! Did you have a good support also in the libraries you were using? Yes, but the level of the support depended on the library. First of all, I went to the Cen the Faculty of Arts. I was fascinated a lot by this library: it’s really modern and there in most of the corners, so one could read books in total relax. But unfortunately, no one there. Therefore, I was only able to read the books displayed on the shelves in the readin of them was really useful for me. I switched to the National Library then and I found lots of books in English there. It was study, order the books and make copies there, even though you cannot take the books out of you have to read them on spot (note of the redaction: this is a special rule for the forei National Library; similar rules are valid for Czech scholars abroad). But they keep them f you need them, so you don’t have to order them every time. But I spent almost all my time studying in another library: it is a very small one but it materials for History of Art and all people who work there were so nice and helpful! It wa the Šternberský Palace, the seat of the National Gallery’s collection of the European art, the Prague Castle.       It has taken you quite long to find a suitable topic for your thesis. I know you had initi a topic connected to the time of Rudolph II and the Italian artists at his court, but fina very different time period – late 18th and 19th century – and the Society of Patriotic Fri have you picked up this topic and were your professors both here and in Italy satisfied wi I arrived to Prague with only a general idea of the topic I wanted to examine closely in m I started with the Italian painters at the court of Rudolph II. The course I’m graduating “Museology,” so I was interested to learn how some particular Italian paintings became par collections in Prague. Then, I went to visit the Šternberský Palace, a part of the National Gallery where a huge paintings of European masters from the 15th and 16th century are exhibited, including the I have said before, there is also a small library in the Šternberský Palace: when I got th my research on the National Gallery itself, trying to find some useful information about w Italian paintings were acquired. Then, during my research, I discovered that the gallery was created out of the ideas and d a group of Bohemian noblemen, united in an association called “Society of Patriotic Friend topic seemed very interesting to me, because while studying the work of these men I was ab the gallery was raised from nothing. This was why I told my teacher at my home university it and she answered that the topic I found was perfect and also something nobody has ever Italy. She encouraged me to continue my research on the Society. As you yourself said, one of the most enjoyable parts of your stay in Prague was the oppor Czech children about the Italian art in two projects prepared in the frame of the Europe M programme of the Erasmus Club of Faculty of Arts. What were your projects about? I prepared two projects on two different Italian painters: Caravaggio and Arcimboldo. In t project I explained to the children the way this artist used to paint and how he reflected his still-lives, which was a very innovative thing for his time. Then I asked them to pain life by themselves, paying the attention especially to the lights and shadows, like Carava In the second project I introduced the painter Arcimboldo, who lived in Prague for a part He painted portraits of people, including the Emperor Rudolph II, with vegetables and frui books, insects…) used as eyes, ears, mouth etc. I suggested to the children to do the same a portrait of a person, imaginary or a relative or friend of them, using fruits, vegetable object they preferred. Have you enjoyed teaching and the cooperation with the host teacher (Mrs. Hana Horká)? Are children similar to the Italian ones or are there differences? Are there any schools simil Art School in Italy? Yes, I really enjoyed teaching the children. It is indeed one of the experiences I liked t Erasmus period! I cooperated really well with the host teacher, she seemed quite intereste and she was very kind. The children were also amazing and they were very talented! And als polite: eventhough I spoke in another language to them, they never interrupted me or talke during my classes. It is not so common to see something like this in Italian schools… Mayb we were in an afternoon art school, which the children attend because they really like art In my home town (Chieti) we don’t have any school like that for children, unfortunately… M some similar schools in bigger cities like Rome, for example, but I’m not sure about it. Except of sharing information on Caravaggio and Arcimboldo with the children in your host painting with them in the art of these two artists, you taught your pupils also some Itali about your home region. The projects were running in English or Italian, depending on the interpreters for either of the languages (Erasmus Club tutors Lukáš Fík, Tomáš Otradovec a How was the cooperation with the interpreters for you? Was it a problem for you or the chi The cooperation with the interpreters went really well. I didn’t have any problems in talk but I enjoyed the times when I could talk in Italian (note from the redaction: Paola could in approximately one third of the classes which were interpreted by Tomáš Otradovec, who s fluently) because the children’s reaction to my own language was really nice: they were so fascinated! It really pleased me! I didn’t have to face any particular problems in teaching, but I have to say that on my fi that my sentences were sometimes too long: I didn’t pay enough attention in preparing a sp children. So I changed this for the following classes, and in this way I learnt something The interpreters were really friendly to me, we connected well to each other, chatting abo and our lives also, and they supported me during the lessons. They suggested some question I could ask the children or helped me approaching them, because it was really my first exp teaching to children. They also proposed to me to teach some basic Italian words to the children. It was really beside the useful words and short sentences like “Hello”, “How are you?” etc., I also talk the particularities of the Italian language, like the fact that we have a lot of ways to n “blue” (the most common ones are celeste, blu and azzurro), and I also talked in the diale region! I can say that the children liked this! We also compared some tongue twisters both in Ital language – the Czech ones were so difficult! So in the end it was really an enjoyable, fun experience, which I recommend to every Art History or Art Education student coming for the to Prague. You joined also another programme of the Erasmus Club, the Tandem Language Exchange, durin Prague. We believe that this is one of the best possibilities for the Erasmus (and also ot students not only to learn some Czech but also to meet and befriend Czech people, especial more tandems. Was it also your case? I know you had more tandem partners – was the approac different? Do you keep in touch with them also now after your return to Italy? Since I’d heard about the Tandem project I immediately liked the idea and joined it. My ex completely fulfilled: I met several Czech students, just like me, and I was happy to share of my country with them and learning theirs. They took me around Prague and told me more a and the life in the Czech Republic, besides teaching me the language, of course. Our meeti informal; we were just meeting in cafés, chatting nicely while enjoying a cup of coffee. I met three students, one girl and two boys, and all of them had a different approach to i the Czech language. First, I met one of the boys, who taught me some basic words and phras colours, question words and so on. Then I learnt the other guy, who taught me some grammar got known the girl, who helped me practicing the pronunciation of Czech language by readin magazines. In return, I helped them with the Italian language; they were really interested in practic they were already studying it on their own. All three of them were really friendly, and I with them since I came back home. My days in Prague were more particular due to joining th Thank you for the interview.