HERITAGE ENGAGEMENT PROGRAM

An Introduction to India's Art, Culture and Histories through Heritage Education activities. 

 

VISION

The key aims of the project and the principles that underlie our understanding of history and heritage are:

  • History from Below

    History and heritage is most often negotiated by local communities, and history learning must reflect the specific struggles, journeys and life worlds of these communities. We focus on making history relevant to the everyday lives and memories of individuals and communities. This allows for history to be understood as a discipline that sheds light on our present.

  • Participative and Dialogic

    We hope to encourage an attitude of interrogation and reasoning towards any information about the past. History is about debate and interpretation based on evidence. We want to challenge students to think in these terms.

  • Activity-based learning

    Activity-based learning focuses on engaging students in a creative, holistic and active form of learning. Through engaging activities, students are able to draw their own conclusions and hone their understanding of the present, equipped with a proper understanding of the past.

  • Holistic Learning

    Our objective is to develop and deliver learning activities that draw from other social science subjects and integrate skills that will be useful beyond the classroom. Our activities will involve students using a range of skills, such as leadership, time management, critical reading ability, engagement with state bodies and state documents and lateral thinking.

The ultimate goal of the proposed learning techniques is to inspire and reinforce young people’s commitment to preserve our heritage, and to help close the gap between school and society by offering stimulating activities which promote involvement in the community.

The student activities concentrate on three aspects:

  • In Class Sessions

    Discussions, Research, Learning Aids

  • On Field Sessions

    Site and Museum Visits

  • At Home Engagement

    Exercises and Researches

ACTIVITIES

  • Heritage Experiences

    Cultre has heritage walk partners across the country, on themes ranging from food to textiles, built heritage to gender. Heritage walks are participatory and inclusive and an excellent means of engaging students in a creative exploration of history. Heritage tourism is a fast progressing sector of the economy. Training students in conducting such walks will open up new avenues for future career choices.

  • History from the Source

    How to make the learning of history a critical and hands-on experience? We believe that this can be achieved by engaging students in the exploration of historical sources.

    Facilitators, in consultation with the Cultre team, will put together an archive of interesting visual and documentary sources related to the history curriculum of each class. Students will engage in a participatory session to interpret these sources. Students will be encouraged to learn history by posing questions

  • Cultural Heritage Workshops

    Heritage education must focus both on the tangible built remains of the past as well as intangible cultural heritage.

    Through the medium of workshops, students will engage with performing artists, craftsmen and folk musicians. These workshops can involve sessions on storytelling, magic, puppetry, pottery, print making, tie and dye and papier-mâché among others.

  • My Museum Programme

    Museums are sites which are meant to engage people in an immersive and object-based experience of the past. However, museums often tend to be cold and distant spaces for young students.

    This activity is aimed at making museums a site of engaging history learning. Facilitators will facilitate the creation of a museum corner in each school by the students. Students, working individually or in groups, will curate small exhibitions using everyday objects and family artefacts and heirlooms, the aim being the narration of personal and family histories using objects.

  • CultreBOX

    Cultre BOX contains tangible products that bridge the understanding of India’s rich culture and heritage to the modern era. It takes a multidisciplinary approach to heritage focusing on Science, Technology, Engineering, Art and Mathematics (STEAM) while presenting advanced concepts in an engaging and experiential format.

  • CultreAPP

    CultreAPP is an app for heritage enthusiastst hat primarily focuses on improving, testing and gamifying the knowledge of Indian Culture and Heritage. With an intent to popularise tangible, intangible and natural heritage of India, the mobile app will have various features across multiple domains.

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