17/06/2009
Vitoria-Gasteiz, 17th
June 2009.- Once again this year, the Santa María
Cathedral Foundation has set up the traditional crafts workshops for
children during summer. This time, so that children can deepen their
knowledge on the history, art or architecture of the temple in a
pleasant and fun way, they have organised week-long summer workshops.
The planned programme includes workshops which will be carried out
Monday to Friday from 10:00 am to 13:00 pm. Aimed at children 8-11
years old, there is a choice of three turns: from 6th - 10th July, from
13th - 17th July and from 20th - 24th July. This novelty aims to bring
the temple closer to children through short visits to different
locations of the building. By means of this they will get to know the
problems the temple faces, the work being carried out and the
importance of preserving our heritage.
In groups of twenty children, the workshops will be bilingual
(Basque-Spanish) and the price will be 20 euro for members of the
Circle of Founders, and 30 for non-members. All that is required to
enrol is registration at the Santa María Visitor Reception Centre, or
by calling the following phone No.: 945 255 135 by each Friday prior to
each turn.
1st day –
Welcome
During the first day participants will make contact through games. In
addition, they will make a T-shirt with the logo of the cathedral and
which will serve as a uniform for the rest of the week and so that they
can identify their group.
2nd day –
The cathedral is ill
During the second day participants will get fully involved in the
cathedral`s historical problems. They will learn about its construction
stages, its history and the work and investigations carried out for its
current restoration. The group will chat with on-site technicians who
will explain their work and the techniques used, with examples and
language suited to children. The manual activity will consist of the
elaboration of a board with pegs where they will hang up and point out
areas with problems. Afterwards at home they can use it to hang photos,
notes, postcards, etc.
3rd day - The wall
During this day they will visit the scale models of Gasteiz, they will
see what the city walls looked like and will walk along the recovered
portion of it. The aim is not only to learn about the function of a
wall, but also about the construction techniques and the idea of
reusing it for other purposes. Afterwards each child must build a wall
with different recycled or reused materials.
4th day – The Portico
of Light-Polychromies in the Portico
On this day participants will visit the portico, where they will hear
an explanation on their function, the value of the sculptures and the
tympana as `comics on stone`, and the value of polychromies throughout
history. The activity will consist of making a notebook with a series
of colourless photographs of the Paternina chapel printed on
transparent acetates, so that they can repaint the polychromies of
different periods and decide on how they would paint them themselves.
5th day – The voice of the
cathedral
During the last day the youngsters will visit the bells of the
cathedral. They will learn about their dimensions, the manufacturing
techniques and their functions, many of them now forgotten. They will
think about the need to recover them, not only as artistic objects of
great value, but as key elements for the development of life in
villages and cities. In the workshop each participant will manufacture
a bell, give it a name and even engrave an inscription.