atrs help you to find your kingdom. by Henk Langenhuijsen. Key competence 8. Cultural awareness and expression

1. Art helps you to find your kingdom
A lesson in darkness brings light in your eyes
Art is a mirror image of identity of individual or society. It is a reflection of what we feel, think,
practice, believe of how we behave and of the rituals we practise. On the whole it is a reflection of
ideology of the society and our feelings. Creative and cultural education at ‘Koning Willem I College’
in ‘s-Hertogenbosch is not a major part of the curriculum, but it is, at the same time, of great
importance.
Attending performances in our theatre (‘a lesson in darkness’) and visiting exhibitions is a valuable
experience for the students and enables them to participate in all kinds of cultural events outside the
school. ‘E5cultplein’ encourages students to be active by creating opportunities and positive
experiences. We have a professionally equipped theatre (building E] and focus on five disciplines:
theatre, dance, music, literature and arts of design. The theatre is a meeting place, where students
become aware of the richness of cultural diversity, encounter new adventures and discover their
own, sometimes unexpected talents, interests and identiy. It’s a place where they can experience the
pleasure of being on the stage. There is a growing recognition that the arts have an integrative
function. However, cultural education is not structurally embedded in all courses, there is a tendency
to support and facilitate cultural initiatives. The theatre is not only used by the creative students, but
by all of our students. There are all kinds of performances where they can meet and deal with many
different social issues, like homosexuality, loverboys, freedom of speech etc.
Koning Willem I College believes in Gardner’s theory of multiple intelligence. Creative thinking and
using all talents of the students is one of the starting-points. The student is the reason for our being,
so the student at Koning Willem I College finds ample opportunity to develop himself in his own way,
based on his own talents. Art education can be very helpful.
Apart from that art is very important for social cohesion. If you can accept yourself and others the
way they are, and can judge them without fear or jealousy, you will be more tolerant and open-
minded. And you will enable yourself to work on social behaviour and manners and accept rituals
that are not yours. Art education also helps students to learn how to express themselves and to be
able to make a presentation in front of an audience. Art education is a way to stimulate self-
confidence.
E5cultplein organises performances in our theatre, helps students and teachers to organise multi-
cultural events, stimulates visits to museums and exhibitions, makes educational lessons about social
works, teaches students how to write and perform stories and poems, shows films, organises
workshops about theatre, dance, art design and debating. E5cultplein not only has the knowledge
and skills, but also has a large network and many contacts with cultural institutions in our region. We
sometimes also leave our playground: students of our college for instance made a performance
about the painter Jeroen Bosch for the city council and made acts for many other institutions. Koning
Willem I College is a community college and therefore also enables other people to make use of our
facilities.

2. Art is a method of presentation to draw attention of others. A perfect ‘artist’ is a person whose
project gives deep impressions and becomes an inspiration to others. We try to make clear that in
fact everyone is an artist with a talent of inspiring others, including yourself. It helps to get a better
school and perhaps a better society, at least a kingdom for your own.
Henk Langenhuijsen