Waldorf News

Routes of Sculpture: An international art contest open to all Waldorf Steiner schools in the world

from Giovanna Uzzani

Art is at home in the territory of Tuscany (Italy) between Carrara, Massa and Pietrasanta, where, over the course of the centuries till the present, sculptors from all over the world have worked in marble and founded an unique culture of the stone.

So, in the Summer of 2014, with Galleria degli Uffizi, the author of this article, with the help of Eletto Tour Operator, curated Routes of Scultpure, an adventurous edition of the series of exhibitions entitled ‘The City of the Uffizi.’

It was the first to trace the paths of contemporary international art in this context, and also the first that aimed to support another noble facet of this territory: the G. Pasquinucci Cardiac Hospital of Massa, an international centre for the treatment of paediatric congenital cardiopathies, and the non-profit Association Un Cuore Un Mondo, which works side by side with the hospital (www.uncuoreunmondo.org).

Last Summer Eletto Tour Operator hosted in the countryside near Florence, the students from Freie Waldorf Schule Dresden, for a training trip devoted mainly to sculpture, thanks to Studi d’Arte Cave Michelangelo, that  offered each student a block of marble to sculpt (youtube/eletto tour operator / FREIE WALDORF SCHULE IN DRESDEN).

A new idea was born from that training trip: to propose an international annual contest open to students between 17 and 19 years old of the Steiner Waldorf schools in the world, to that every year come to have a training trip in Tuscany.

The aim of this contest is the creation of two reliefs in marble, for the outside walls of the Heart Hospital (Hospital of Paediatric Cardiac Surgery G. Pasquinucci in Massa, Tuscany, Italy). The theme of the art works is free, just thinking of an audience of children.

The two groups of winners, with the teacher of their school, will be hosted free of charge for fourteen days in Massa Carrara, Tuscany, Italy: here they will create their marble relief in Studi d’Arte Cave Michelangelo (www.studidarte.com), working with the craftsmen, who will monitor the work and also teach them, in a unique experience of full immersion in this artistic workmanship. This training course is a real apprenticeship where it will be possible to carry out a project guided by a professional sculptor craftsman.

The contest will be repeated annually in order to decorate, year after year, an outside wall of the Hospital, with messages from Waldorf Steiner students from Europe and beyond.

The contest combines different purposes: it is a project with educational and training goals for students; it has an international character; it is inspired by the development and knowledge of the territory of Tuscany, that has always tied its identity to sculpture; finally, it is a project of solidarity, dedicated to help and support children around the world suffering from grievous congenital heart disease.

The submission/registration of the schools and their students is free.

Each school can donate as much as it wishes as a free gift to the Association Un Cuore Un Mondo NPO, for the next Mission Eritrea.

Every Waldorf Steiner school in the world can subscribe and participate with students between 17 and 19 years old. The schools must send the completed registration form to the Secretarial Office of the Contest, The deadline for the submission is the 7th of January 2016.

To have Information please contact: fdifiore@live.it;  info@elettotour.it / web site: www.elettotour.it

Students from Freie Waldor Schule Dresden visiting the Hospital Pasquinucci last July, with the Heart Monument in front of the hospital