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On a small square, in the deep south of Rotterdam, stands a small pavilion. The building has five classrooms overlooking the square - and a school, De Toermalijn. Beautiful things happen there.
Three years ago - I had just started at SKAR - I met the headmaster of primary school de Toermalijn. He spoke enthusiastically about his school, about how he was trying to give the children opportunities, instead of just lessons. But he also told me how difficult that was. Many of the children at that school came from families whose parents had hardly had any education after primary school. However smart the children were, they had fewer opportunities than most of their peers. He asked me if I could help him.
I told him I wasn't gonna run an arts education program. We, SKAR, provide workspace for artists/creatives, we don't deal with their work. What we can do is to make work and workspace more compatible. We rented that little pavilion there in Zuidwijk from the municipality to turn it into studios. We have spoken to artists with Ariadne Urlus (still known from MaMA). Artists who have applied to us for a studio and for whom education is central to their work. To them we rented the rooms in that pavilion. We asked the director to regularly hire these artists for his art education. Between the artists and the school an art education program was then created (for which they are normally paid). And all this is called SKARlokaal.
We are now a year and a half further, and in all silence it has become a wonderful success. The artists do what they like to do, and make some money out of it. What's more, a lot is changing with the students at the school. Boys to whom behavioural problems were attributed sit for hours working on their project, in supreme concentration. Children who mainly did what they were told because they were told to do so, take initiative, for example in a final presentation of group 8. A mother says that her daughter is flourishing, because she is not only given space, but also trust. And parents come forward because they want to. Apparently the children there suddenly get a perspective that that school alone could not offer. All this can be attributed to the artists and the school. But perhaps also a little because we have made the workplaces a little more compatible with what the artists/creatives need.
Olof van de Wal
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