ARTS & CULTURE AT LYCÉE CLAUDEL

“The true purpose of art is not to create beautiful objects: it is a method of reflection, a way of apprehending the universe and finding one’s place in it”. Paul Auster

Art is subjective, it questions and sometimes disturbs; it brings us and makes us feel emotions, leads us to reflect and to question our understanding and vision of reality. Our world is made up of a rich cultural diversity and art education must have as its objective to transmit this knowledge of cultures and to make us aware of its importance, to respect it and to preserve it through generations.

Art has an important role to play in education. It allows us to discover and understand the world in a way that is quite different from that proposed by science and other theoretical subjects. Because art is a field where there are no right or wrong answers, it offers children the possibility to make their own discoveries and experiences.

From the earliest age, each student at Lycée Claudel builds his or her own artistic and cultural education pathway. This pathway combines all the knowledge acquired, the practices experienced and the encounters made in the fields of arts and culture. The Lycée Claudel provides its students with multiple opportunities to live rich, intense and diversified cultural experiences:

lessons (musical education, visual arts, literature, audiovisual cinema, interdisciplinary practical lessons, etc.)
educational outings (visits to exhibitions, museums, heritage education, conferences, shows, etc.)
participation in competitions (Enriched Book Award, Albertine Award, poetry and reading competitions, etc.)
organized meetings or clubs…

Objectives :

The opening to arts and culture meets three main objectives:

To allow each student to build a rich personal culture;
To allow each student to develop and strengthen their artistic practice;
To allow our students to meet artists, works of art and to visit cultural sites.

Why is this essential?

The benefits of opening up to the arts and culture from an early age are multiple:

Contributes to the development of autonomous individuals, capable of personal choice ;
Facilitates academic success by allowing the development of a sensitive and creative intelligence;
Promotes the development of critical thinking and curiosity;
Contributes to the development of students through the acquisition of knowledge, artistic practice and encounters.

THE PLASTIC ARTS

Throughout their schooling, from Kindergarten to College, students develop their potential for invention and creation through the teaching of visual arts.

In Primary school, this teaching is provided by a multi-skilled teacher, in variable time frames but regularly distributed throughout the year. From Middle School onwards, the practice of visual arts is more sustained, the skills to be acquired more complex. One hour per week, the courses are given by a teacher specially dedicated to his discipline.

MUSICAL EDUCATION

Music is a non-verbal language that allows one to express one’s own sensibility with an infinite number of nuances. Whether in a group or individually, making music engages something intimate, singular, which expresses what words would struggle to say.

Music education provides students with the cultural and technical knowledge necessary to develop their listening and expressive skills.

Musical practice at Lycée Claudel begins in kindergarten, continues in elementary school and then in middle school.

The music teacher teaches his or her students the history of music and communicates to them the pleasure of making music and listening to it.

The orchestra of the French high schools of the world

Lycée Claudel Chorale

Extracurricular musical activities

AUDIOVISUAL CINEMA

This course is at the heart of the cultural and humanistic project of the Lycée Claudel. It is one of the links in the student’s cultural journey.

This course is a lively workshop where each student can develop his or her cinematographic knowledge and train his or her eye. It also aims to stimulate the pleasure of discovering quality works and to open them up to the riches of the world’s cinematographic heritage.

The Audiovisual Cinema section also contributes dynamically to the life of the school through its Ciné-Clap festival, the discovery of the Toronto Film Festival (TIFF), the screenplay contest and its involvement in various activities.

LITERATURE

Literature is an integral part of the artistic and cultural education of students and is included in all school curricula, from elementary school to high school. It promotes the complete development of the child, his intelligence, his capacity for abstraction, but also his sensitivity.

The discovery and practice of literature, writing, poetry and comics are all opportunities to share the taste for reading and to approach in a concrete way works of heritage and contemporary writing.

Arts & Culture