EN RESiDÈNCiA brings together secondary school pupils and artists through contemporary creation

For over ten years now, the city of Barcelona’s education and art communities have benefited from a programme that brings these two spheres together through contemporary creation. The initiative, led by the Barcelona Institute of Culture and the Barcelona Education Consortium, is called EN RESiDÈNCiA and was created in cooperation with the A Bao A Qu Association. Also taking part in the scheme are 16 mediation teams (creation factories, creation spaces, art centres, museums, theatres and other performing arts spaces, and organisations at the intersection between culture and education).

The programme is aimed at the city’s state secondary schools. Over the course of a school year, pupils come into contact with artists and are able to develop their own creation process during school hours. The pieces and creations emerge from joint work conducted by the pupils, artists and mediators, developing their own artistic creations via an ongoing process of participation, dialogue and reflection on the piece and its creator. This connection is ongoing right from the ideas stage to the public presentation, in a way that makes the pupil the active subject in the entire process.

In parallel to the classroom sessions, and midway through the process, the group shares the work done so far with the school’s teaching staff, in what is known as ‘contamination sessions’. When the residency is over, the group of students, together with the artist, present the final pieces and processes to the public. In this final stage, the action moves out of the school and into one of the city’s cultural facilities. By way of example, some of the cultural spaces and facilities that have taken part this year are the Catalan National Art Museum, the Joan Miró Foundation, Hangar, El Born CCM, Sala Beckett and the Central del Circ circus centre.

The success of the experience – for creators, teachers and pupils alike – has confirmed the project’s status as key in the city for building a bridge between teenagers and contemporary creation, and for generating new forms and contexts of creation.

All set for a new edition

EN RESiDÈNCiA is one of the city’s longest-standing Culture and Education programmes. There has been a total of 13 editions so far, and the participants for the 14th are virtually confirmed for the start of the 2022–2023 academic year. Once again, 26 secondary schools from all over the city will take part, selected through a public call for applications. Included among them are three schools that are taking part in EN RESiDÈNCiA for the first time (Institut Consell de Cent, Institut Joncar and Institut Sagrera – Sant Andreu).

In the latest edition of EN RESiDÈNCiA, 450 pupils and 48 teachers from 26 schools and 16 mediation teams worked on proposals in different areas, such as the visual arts, performing arts, poetry, music and more.

There was a new addition to the programme for its 13th edition. As part of the public closing presentations, La Capella hosted ‘Per capítols’, an exhibition of 6 of the creation processes, which was visited by more than 6,000 people between 24 May and 3 July.