Glass, minerals and a fried cheese

Report from the December excursions of Czech and Saxon children

December was marked by joint excursions of Czech and German children in the InterBridge project. Two meetings, several bus trips, galleries, a museum, glass, minerals and, above all, deepening Czech-Saxon contacts.

The excursions were attended by the Sokolovská Elementary School in Liberec, the U Lesa Elementary School in Nový Bor and the students of the Christian Weise Gymnasium in Zittau. The trip itself was part of the program: Czech and German children sat deliberately mixed up and tried to ask and answer questions in a foreign language. Again, Czech students who are learning German and German students who are learning Czech went on the excursions, so they had the opportunity to converse.

The first trip on Friday, December 12. led to the Ferdinand Porsche Museum in Vratislavice, where the children learned interesting facts from the life of this important designer and visionary. From the perspective of our project, the most important finding for the students was that the technical development of cars is not only based on calculations and construction. Design, working with materials and the ability to think creatively play an equally important role. This connection of technology, science and aesthetics is one of the main themes of the InterBridge project.

After lunch, we went to Jablonec nad Nisou to the InterBridge exhibition in Gallery N. There, the children could see their own work exhibited alongside student projects from TUL. For many, it was a powerful moment, because their work had its place in a “real” gallery.

The second excursion on Monday, December 15th, was about glass and minerals. The first stop on the way from Zittau to Liberec was the Kunratice crystal church, which was decorated by the nearby Pačinek glassworks with glass chandeliers and other objects, such as the crown jewels made of uranium glass, a monstrance with a fused bone of St. Zdislava, or sculptures responding to current topics, such as the coronavirus.

The trip then continued to the Granat Gallery in Turnov, where the students learned something about the history, mining and processing of Czech garnet and viewed current and historical jewelry made from this unique Czech mineral. I was especially interested in the garnet jewelry associated with celebrities - the Czech Nightingale or jewelry for the British Queen. In any case, by visiting the Granat Gallery, we finally connected the topic of minerals and stones with the excursion of the children from IPS Stollberg to the Terra Mineralia museum in Freiberg, which was organized in the summer by our colleagues from TU Chemnitz. This theme continues after returning home – children in the Czech Republic and Saxony are creating painted stones that will become part of the next joint exhibition in the form of pixel mosaics.

Monday's excursion continued with a short stop at the university's Gallery N in Jablonec nad Nisou, where the children viewed the InterBridge project exhibition and were especially delighted with their exhibited products. Káťa Chromčáková, our project graphic designer, prepared a special puzzle - a colorful bilingual pocket accordion called "Beads in the Creation of Czech and Saxon Children", which we gave to the children as a souvenir and thank you for their involvement in our project.

Teacher Markéta Barth, who teaches the children in Zittau Czech, knows well that the best way to practice a foreign language is in practice, so at lunch at the U Balcarů restaurant, the German students had to order food in Czech, and each one for himself. And so the poor waitress patiently listened to each student, even though it was clear in advance that the order would basically be all fried cheese and some "schnitzel" :-)

The December excursions confirmed once again that Czech-German cooperation can, at least for children, occur very naturally during a joint journey, during joint creation and shared experience. The InterBridge project thus concludes its second year of operation, which was a year thematically focused on fashion, jewelry and clothing accessories, 3D printing, glass and stones. In the third and final year of the InterBridge project, the topics will shift more towards technical fields, such as mechanical engineering and electrical engineering, but the essential thing remains: personal meetings and building relationships that give real meaning to cross-border cooperation.

Hana Křížová