Storytelling and Experiential Learning Festival
Babel School+Liceu and its national and international partners invites you to StorySeed – a celebration of the Art of Storytelling, multilingualism and expressiveness in education.
A project organized within the TM2023 European Capital of Culture program, StorySeed will take place during October 5-8 in Timisoara and will bring together children, teachers, pedagogues and artists from 11 European countries.
Since 2018 until now, year by year, Babel has brought the seeds of Experiential Learning to Timisoara and Romania during SEED (The European Week of Democratic Education).
In 2023, StorySeed will share with the Timisoara and national community both the joy of Experiential Learning and our enthusiasm for the Art of Storytelling as a way of human expressiveness and building communities.
We believe that all children, in all schools in Romania, can flourish when supported to develop their own way of expression. In the Reggio Emilia pedagogy, Loris Malaguzzi talks about the hundred languages of children and how they slowly disappear during schooling years. Through StorySeed, we will celebrate the diversity of children's unique ways of expressing themselves and also the regional linguistic diversity in Timisoara area. Experiential pedagogy and the art of storytelling will guide our steps in this regard.
On October 5, the World Teachers' Day, Babel Școală + Liceu becomes a castle of stories told in 9 European languages for children and teenagers from Timisoara and its surroundings. In the company of well-known artists in the world of storytelling, coming from France, Germany, England, Serbia, Hungary, Romania, Ukraine, Italy and Spain, children and young people will be exposed to unique experiences in which the expressiveness of the artists will take them to imaginary worlds full of meaning and emotion.
The storytelling sessions will be followed by 15 expression workshops facilitated by local artists from different artistic fields. They will support the children to express the contents, the newly created meanings, the emotions experienced in the imaginary worlds to which they had access through the stories. Dance, theater, modeling in clay and creative writing are some of the opportunities available for children during the Storytelling Festival.
Teachers who are interested in introducing the art of storytelling to their classrooms will be able to take part in a learning experience with the artists present at StorySeed on October 5, during the afternoon panel discussion of the festival.
The day will end with a storytelling performance by the well-known Hungarian artist Maja Bumberák: Roots and wings – reinterpreting the feminine in tradition and modernity.
October 6 is a day dedicated to adults (artists, teachers), and we will be exploring the power of Storytelling as performative act. The workshop for artists and teachers will be supported by the Hungarian artist Maja Bumberák. It is designed to inspire the Timisoara artistic and educational community in direct relation to the space of authenticity that can be created for the public through the oral interpretation of stories.
October 7 and 8 are dedicated to teachers from all over the country who are interested in methods of supporting children's creativity and expressiveness in schools through Experiential Learning. Once again, in 2023, Babel brings the Dutch-Flemish inspiration which is the basis of the innovative pedagogical approach created in Timisoara in 2016.
Suze Roelofs (founder of Tweemonds – The Dutch Center for Wellbeing and Involvement), Ludo Heylen (author of the basic books of Experiential Learning, former director of the Center for Experiential Learning of the University of Leuven, Belgium), Wilma van Esch (trainer and author of books on Learning Experiential), Tom Goevers (Belgian trainer and teacher who uses Experiential Learning in everyday life with children), will hold non-formal workshops for teachers, offering a unique and memorable learning experience.
The workshops are meant for teachers who want to create as much space for expression, dialogue and initiative as possible and who are in search for the right methods to do that. We are happy to welcome again the participants of the 6 previous editions of SEED, starting 2018 up to now.