| Author | Organisation | Keywords |
|---|---|---|
| Lorka Lončar Uvodić | Krapina Neanderthal Museum | Educational Programs, Neanderthals, Creative Expression |
"With the Neanderthal Man in Art and Design" and "With the Neanderthal Man in Animation" are educational programs organized by the Krapina Neanderthal Museum from 2019 to 2022. These programs aimed to connect the Museum with high school students, particularly local youth.
With the Neanderthal Man in Art and Design
This program was conducted in collaboration with the School of Art, Design, Graphics, and Clothing in Zabok. Around a hundred students explored various prehistoric topics, Neanderthal life, and human development as presented in the Museum's permanent exhibition. The Museum served as their source of inspiration for artistic creation. Guided by their professors, students crafted various objects using different art techniques in school workshops. This experience allowed them to see the museum as a source of lifelong learning and artistic activity.
This experience allowed them to see the museum as a source of lifelong learning and artistic activity.
Inspired by Neanderthals and prehistoric times, students created illustrations featuring prehistoric motifs, ammonites, trilobites, and other fossils. They also drew humorous comic strips, designed posters, and depicted Neanderthals in famous portraits, self-portraits, and pop art styles using drawing and painting techniques. In applied graphics workshops, students created stencils for dry needle printing and linocut matrices for printing fossil illustrations on pillows.
They also applied their drawings to T-shirts using transfer foil and screen printing, experiencing the full process from concept to realization. Additionally, they painted with natural pigments, crafted clay plates depicting Neanderthal menus, and sculpted clay heads of modern Neanderthals, blending past and present. They also designed jewelry and clothing inspired by the elements—fire, water, earth, air, and quintessence.
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Ilustrations of fossils. Archive MKN -
Korina Kralj, Juxtaposition I., dry pigment. Archive MKN -
Work in pop art style. Archive MKN
For the final exhibition, titled "5. element," students created promotional materials, demonstrating their perception of the museum as a hub for creative and artistic activity. Under their professors' guidance, they processed museum topics in a layered manner and acquired lasting knowledge.
With the Neanderthal Man in Animation
To maintain ongoing communication between the museum and young people beyond a one-day visit, the "With a Neanderthal in Animation" program was launched in 2022.
This program involved students from local secondary and elementary schools and individual visitors. Inspired by prehistory and Neanderthals, participants created films and video games. Over several months, high school students visited the museum in small groups, developed characters and scenography, wrote scripts, and produced short stop-motion animation films. Some students also developed 2D and 3D video games.
During the summer holidays, younger children participated in film workshops conducted by the FROOOM film school. Professional animators from the non-profit organization Shadow Casters worked with a small but enthusiastic group of children for five days. The children explored interesting museum objects and topics through the permanent exhibition and the Hušnjakovo site and learned about filmmaking. They created their own flipbooks, learned about the camera obscura, and most importantly, developed an engaging story about evolution, crafted characters and scenography, and animated it all.
Conclusion
These programs are among the numerous educational initiatives at the Krapina Neanderthal Museum. Through interactive methods involving independent research, creative expression, creation, socializing, and play, children and young people learn about the significance of the Krapina Neanderthals' discovery and the Hušnjakovo site.
