Description
The “Leonardo 4 Children” initiative aims to help children in need through educational projects on art and science, on the occasion of the 500th anniversary of the death of Leonardo da Vinci and the 30th anniversary of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of the Child in 2019.The fables of Leonardo da Vinci can be of great stimulus for children and young people, showing the value of knowledge of nature, competence, modesty, respect and caring for others. For this reason, we selected 12 fables about natural elements, plants, animals and objects and we translated them into seven languages.
We launched with our partners 3 competitions across Europe from Feb. to May 2019: one for children aged 6-12 to interpret fairy tales with comic strips, one for young composers to interpret such fables with classical music and one for young teenagers aged 13-18, on original integration of art and science. The competitions saw the extraordinary participation of 709 children and teenagers from 15 European countries, with as many as 322 original and creative works. The works published in this book will be exposed in prestigious places, such as the Royal Museums of Turin and the Ambrosian Library where original masterpieces by Leonardo da Vinci are kept, and the winners’ music will be performed in concerts and events. This shows that children can enter places of culture not only as visitors and spectators, but also as active subjects and authors of original works.
The resources collected thanks to the initiative will be entirely dedicated to providing educational support on art and science to children in need, especially orphans, abandoned, sick or refugees, thus creating a solidarity and cultural bond between children and young people of greater and lesser opportunities, in particular between European and non-European children, showing that all children have similar potential to create and become ‘geniuses’ inspired by Leonardo.
