“My Country” is a project financed by the Agency for the Support of Civil Society and aims to promote the historical, ethnographic, artistic and cultural values of Albania by giving children and young people the opportunity to discover, appreciate and raise awareness of the younger generations on cultural heritage.
Cultural heritage shapes our daily lives. It surrounds us in the cities and suburbs of Albania, natural landscapes and archaeological sites. It is not only found in literature, art and objects, but also in the crafts we learn from our ancestors, the stories we tell our children, the food we enjoy and the movies we watch and know. We now fully know that cultural heritage plays a central role in our societies, creating a sense of unity within and across national borders and promoting mutual understanding and shared values.
Our goal is to raise the awareness of young people on the cultural heritage, historical, ethnographic, artistic and cultural values of Albania.
Compared to other approaches to learning, artistic forms give more meaningful features to the understanding and interpretation of cultural heritage. In this way the participants face in the first person the original phenomena of inheritance; actively engage and exchange information with other participants; are committed to the idea of heritage care.
The target of the project are students aged 6-12 and invites them to create and share drawings with motifs such as folk costumes, carpet motifs, artifacts, castles, landscapes, and other activities such as folk song, folk dance, building objects with plasticine, etc.
Learning and understanding while having fun is the motto of this project. The engagement of artistic and creative forms sharpens our vision and therefore the project uses this type of methodology. Art improves our thought processes, creates self-expression, provides us with access to our feelings and moreover art teaches us discipline and increases self-confidence to “try” life and experiment with new activities. As an added value, art forces us to slow down and take a closer look at life.