30 November 2023 – As part of the School Renovation for New Generations project, supported by the Norway Grants, the didactic corner-gallery Under the Homan Lime Tree was opened at the Ivan Grohar Primary School on Tuesday 21 November 2023. The gallery Pod Homanovo lipo was visited for the first time by the pupils of the school, who saw a part of the Škofja Loka’s town centre and experienced the gallery as a place to socialise and educate about cultural heritage in a pleasant and interesting way.
The new look and the new content of the school corridor are aimed at learning about the cultural heritage of the local area, where students and other visitors to the school can learn, with the help of dedicated teachers, that cultural heritage can be interesting, creative and timeless. The gallery was created by art teacher Petra Primc Marko from the Ivan Grohar Primary School and Neža Gubanc and her team from the Secondary School of Woodworking (ŠCŠL), with the support of project partners from the Faculty of Humanities of the University of Primorska, the Institute for the Protection of Cultural Heritage, the Municipality of Škofja Loka and the Association of Historic Towns of Slovenia.
Professor Petra Primc Marko says: “I wanted to recreate a space that would bring people and cultural heritage together in a pleasant way, like walking through the city, looking in a shop window, socialising and educating at the same time. A space where students could contribute and educate themselves and others“. She adds that the gallery also has high hopes for the future, because “perhaps it is the students who have acquired knowledge of cultural heritage at school who will nurture this knowledge, receive additional training, have an interest and perhaps one day pass on the knowledge themselves to new generations at the Pod Homanovo lipo gallery”, the professor concludes.
The event was also attended by the project promoter Mateja Hafner Dolenc, Secretary General of the Association of Historical Towns of Slovenia. She took the opportunity to thank the headmaster, Marko Primožič, the team of the Ivan Grohar Primary School and the professor Petra Primc Marko. She highlighted the active cooperation and expressed her joy that cultural heritage is being connected to children in a fun and interesting way from an early age, as this is the only way they can strengthen their relationship to it.
In addition to visiting the gallery, the students and other participants had the opportunity to see a collage of photographs of architectural elements of the Old Town. The collage was created by the teachers and students of the 7th grade art class. Besides the photo wallpaper, the star of the corner was the first exhibition on paving stone and slate. Visitors walked past samples of the paving stone, which were made under the expert guidance of students in the art class. The participants also visited a room where products made of slate have been displayed. The slate has been used as roofing material throughout history and up to the present day. The products were made in a workshop where the pupils learned the ancient craft of working with slate.
The project School of Renovation for New Generations is co-created by the project promoter, the Association of Historic Towns of Slovenia, with project partners the University of Primorska, the Institute for the Protection of Cultural Heritage of Slovenia, the Ivan Grohar Primary School, the Municipality of Škofja Loka, MAGMA Geopark AS (NOR) and the Škofja Loka School Centre.
Sourse: Šola prenove za nove generacije