DIVOC vs COVID: Discovering the Incredible Virus of Creativity

DIVOC deals with the redescovery of the ancient pilgrims’ routes that cross Europe as a means to integrate arts in an European dimension and give teachers and students innovative and creative strategies to meet the needs of their communities. It will focus on three routes (via Francigena and two Saint James routes – the Portuguese and Via de la Plata ones) and, while walking, participants will gain knowledge of the historic monuments and the natural environment around them. The project involves 4 schools , two Italian schools (one is a newcomer) a Spanish and a Portuguese one. 80 students aged from 13 to 16 years old (12 will be disadvantaged ones) and 48 teachers will be involved in the mobilities, but bigger numbers of students and teachers will take part into the virtual mobilities and phisically to their local ones.Walking on pilgrims’routes is a very strong and spiritual experience with social effects because it generates fruitful interactions among the participants. It will be challenging for our students, that are used to virtual interactions, to adapt themselves to different cultures and contexts. Moreover the pillgrimage will lead them to introspection, meditation, self-analysis and will broaden their minds. Walking together will help youngsters overcome personal limits, become aware of the impact of anthropization on the environment and inspire them to care and respect their history. In fact, the project aims at offering students a new outlook on art and recognize it as part of the environment. Creativity will be stimulated in every step of the project through active laboratories where the students will express themselves through various artistic forms (manual and digital) using the L2. So, they will gain digital and linguistict competences while reinforcing their European identity. The inclusive strategies adopted (peer to peer, cooperative learning, problem solving) during the workshop will give teachers the chance to share good practices. The project also aims at promoting the territories explored on a tourist and and economic level and, through its activities, it will give our students the chance to gain the competences needed to work in the field of sustainable tourism. The concrete results will be travel journals to be planned before the mobilities and produced during the mobility workshops. Another product will be a repository of the documents gathered in libraries and archives that can be used in the future by partecipants when needed for study or work. The project will also be a significant experience in a world that takes advantage of people’s fear for diversity and strangers for political purposes. Pilgrimage indeed are peaceful crossings of people from different countries who walk together and support each other. DIVOC will provide students with a chance to reflect and learn how to manage personal relationships, be tolerant and fight against the fear of diversity.Finally, it will be the means for our adolescents to better know themeselves and their peers in a critical moment like the one we are living today due to the pandemic crisis and its confinement consequences.