On the classroom desks are reproductions of paintings by prominent artists: van Gogh, Gauguin, Caspar David Friedrich. Next to them are paintbrushes, pencils and rulers. The eighth-grade students at Erich Kästner High School in Hamburg have a special task: they are to create copies of some of these famous works.

While some of the students fiddle with sketches, others are already preparing the paint mixtures. They were asked to pick the images they want to copy themselves, since this gets them start thinking consciously about art, says art teacher Ulrich Schötker.

More art on the curriculum

Most of the students are working in concentration. But once the school day is over, high culture will not be of great importance to many of these 13-to-15-year-old boys and girls. The new educational program "Culture Agents for Creative Schools" aims to change that - at least a little bit. According to the program's manager, Sybille Linke, the goal is to transform schools into places of culture through art and music lessons.

"The schools that are participating in this project hope to enhance the artistic aspect of their curriculums - and for this they need the support of the Culture Agents," explained Linke.

Since September, the project has been initiated in 138 schools, most of them with a high percentage of children from disadvantaged families. The project organizers hope that they can make cultural activities a part of these children's daily lives.

"[The Culture Agents] are people with an artistic background," said Linke. "They already have experience in working together with schools. They build bridges between two different systems: schools and the cultural institution or artists."

Taking it step by step

Filmmaker Matthias Vogel is one of the "bridge builders." He works at three schools in Hamburg as a Culture Agent, 32 hours a week altogether, and he gets paid for it.

"Art and culture need to have a constant presence in schools," said Vogel, pointing out that children spend a large part of their day at school.

He sits in the cafe belonging to Erich Kästner High School, a bit out of breath. Today, he has one meeting after the other; there are a lot of concepts to discuss. Every school has its own specific demands for how the program should be run, he says. This is why the Culture Agents spend a lot of time at the beginning observing how things work at their schools and getting to know the teachers.

Erich Kästner High School, located in a dreary gray building in the north of Hamburg, has around 1,500 students. Vogel's experience has shown that getting teachers involved in meetings and planning is not so easy; they are usually very busy and rarely all present on the same day.

Vogel's main contact at the school is Schötker, who, due to his involvement in the program, became the school's cultural program head. He likes the fact that he can develop ideas together with Vogel in a non-bureaucratic way.

"It is not based on directives," said Schötker. "Neither the school administration nor the authorities tell us how we should do our work."

Plans turn into action

It will still take another few months before the ideas can be implemented. The first plan should be ready by the end of the school year, and the first projects can then kick off.

The schools can apply for government grants to finance the art projects - up to 40,000 euros ($53,000) for three schools. The program is scheduled to run for four years.

Author: Janine Albrecht / ew

Editor: Kate Bowen