Recap Roundtable: Paths to creative and inclusive education
In the framework of a joint training in Budapest, MUS-E Hungary and the IYMF co-coordinated a roundtable event taking place in the renowned Liszt Academy of Music in the heart of Budapest, on 2 October.
In the form of a roundtable, the advocacy event was attended by speakers Dina Sensi, expert on social inclusion and long-term collaborator of IYMF; Olga Hoffer, teacher at Vörösmarty Mihály Általános Iskola; Ákos Gubinecz, MUS-E Hungary artist and coordinator; moderated by Andor Timár, President of MUS-E Hungary Association. Andor Timar and Meredith Borodine (IYMF project manager) opened up the evening by introducing the speakers and the audience to the International Yehudi Menuhin Foundation and the MUS-E Programme with a few words.
Speakers exchanged thoughts and good practices on the topic of “Paths to creative and inclusive education”: how the MUS-E® Programme positively influences the education sector, the evaluation results of the impact of the programme on the children as well as cognitive evidence of how the artistic practice influences children’s brain development, and the importance of letting things evolve organically as a means to make ties with the school’s neighbourhood and other stakeholders.
According to Andor Timar, what makes the MUS-E® Programme special is that “Each believes in the strength of the others”. Dina Sensi, when talking about the history of the MUS-E® Programme, explained that “When MUS-E® enters a school, it creates light”.
Olga Hoffer, who has been invested in the MUS-E® Network for twenty years, adds that the atmosphere in MUS-E classes is special and that the programme helps withdrawn children to express themselves. The effect of the MUS-E workshop is felt even when it is over. Dora Szeben added that it is important to create a space so that the children can remain influenced by the arts even when the MUS-E artist is no longer there.
To Akos Gubinecz, the way that the children are honest and genuine really helps him to work with them as an artist. What also helps is how the teachers are implicated, with no barrier, following the CAT model which is applied throughout the MUS-E Network: Children, artists and teachers are all on a same level.
The roundtable was followed by a networking moment with drinks and Hungarian specialties.
