IT24 CC - HERITAGE – Bijou Museum: visit and workshop

Aims and skills targeted : Students visit the local Bijou Museum to be aware of the the history and the customs of the region thus stimulating curiosity, openness and tolerance towards different cultures and respect for other traditions. Students enhance their understanding of living cultures, including local crafts. Students take part in a workshop where they work in groups and indivisually to create artifacts inspired by the value of creating connections and bonds. Skills: critical  thinking, creativity, problem-solving, manual skills.

Students visit the museum under the guidance of an expert. They observe the artifacts exhibited and, through descriptions and Q&A sessions, learn about the history of the local firm producing fashion jewelry and how it contributed to the economic development of the town in the early 1950s-1960s. It is a journey through the 19th-century socio-economic history of the town and the development of accessories and fashion during the same period. Students are asked questions to engage them in discovering the local industry and the artifacts manufactured by the workers who later contributed to the creation of the museum.

Following the visit, the students take part in a workshop where they are divided into smaller groups, again under the guidance of an expert. The workshop's task is to create pieces of jewelry inspired by the value of creating bonds and connections, one of the themes of the exhibits previously shown to the students. The students use simple materials and tools to express their inventiveness. By working in small groups, students share ideas and inspiration, thereby developing and expanding their individual creativity.

 Results : Students learn about the local history, the traditions and socio.economic aspects of the region, and draw inspiration from the fashion jewellery artifacts that were originally created in the local factory. Students create their own pieces of jewelery using and sharing with the rest of the group their own ideas and their own manual skills, critical thinking and problem solving. They can keep their own creations as innovative souvenirs of the workshop experience in which they cultivate the values of connecting and bonding with others.