Behind the scenes: all citizen(s):

Anyone walking across Domplein is probably not aware that metres below ground a medieval palace is hidden. Programme maker Erwin Maas of the Centre for Science and Culture tells how the story of this palace is to become the starting point of a brand new education project: All Citizen(s).

Actually, very little of the palace is still visible, Erwin explains. 鈥淭hrough the entrance on the Vismarkt, you enter a basement, where you can still see the old pillars of the palace. There is a small museum display and you can watch a film. But even though not much remains of the palace, it does tell an important story: Emperor Henry V granted Utrecht city rights there in the year 1122. The moment (some) Utrechters were allowed to call themselves citizens.鈥

Pilaar in de kelder van Paleis Lofen
Photo: Paulus van Dorsten

Together with the DomUnder foundation and Stichting Kopa (a Utrecht foundation for art education), we thought: what if we took this special story as a starting point to get schoolchildren thinking about citizenship, about their place in society? Erwin: 鈥淭here is a strong need in secondary schools for more tools to give substance to citizenship education. What rights and duties do you have as a citizen? That is what we are responding to with this project. Using research and art, we challenge pupils to investigate their own voice within society.鈥

Especially in getting to know the target audience lies a great challenge.

The project comes about in co-creation, in dialogue with pupils, teachers, researchers and artists. 鈥淲e are now in the exploratory phase,鈥 says Erwin. 鈥淲e have had a vocational school class over, we have talked to teachers, and with a group of researchers, including archaeologist Saskia Stevens and anthropologist Coco Kanters. This way we find out what is important to the target group, and how we can charge the questions they have with research from Utrecht 木瓜福利影视.鈥

Does Erwin see any obstacles? 鈥淓specially in getting to know the target group lies a big challenge,鈥 he says. 鈥淲e have to get the subject really close to the pupils鈥 world of experience. It is also a challenge to make this project sustainable: what form should we choose so that it matches the needs of schools as closely as possible?鈥

Erwin Maas is a programme maker at the Centre for Science and Culture

 

Text: Stephanie Helfferich

Close-up

This article is also published in the fourth edition of the magazine Close-up, full of inspiring columns, background stories and experiences of researchers and support staff.

Go to Close-up #4