Nominee Threshold Award Social Practices
Meet Yoland de Pater! Yoland was nominated for the 2021 Threshold Award Social Practices with her graduation project ‘De Gele Ringmap’ (The Yellow Ringbinder). In this interview, Yoland tells us about her work and future plans.
Can you tell us a bit about your graduation project and how it came about?
I started by asking myself the question: ‘how can we prevent children from dropping out of school?’ I have always been an activist and seek to push the boundaries in one way or another. So I started exploring how activist art, education, and critical thinking can make children more resilient and proud. I believe that if children would be more resilient, they could conquer the world and achieve anything they want. I am teaching art at a preparatory secondary vocational school (VMBO basis kader) and I notice that sometimes, pupils can be very insecure, dissatisfied, and have difficulties being themselves. I want to help those children grow.
I see my classroom as a ‘free state’ within the school. And from there it all begins. I designed a continuous learning line that allows the pupils to reflect on the process and look ahead at the next steps. They become owners of their development process. The goal of the learning line is to create resilience and increase the self-confidence of the children. We go outside, into the neighborhood, talk to people, organise exhibitions and community projects. By presenting their works in the real world, pupils can be proud of what they made—their work becomes meaningful. I also think it is very important to involve parents and other teachers in the process to create a safety net.
The Yellow Ringbinder is inspired by a quote by Sjef Drummen that says “change begins with the teacher, not with a teaching method in a ringbinder.” The colour yellow is inspired by books I encountered during my research, the best books all happened to be yellow. So, a good book had to be yellow! Also, the ringbinder is the most common, generic and stupid product in educationland, so I wanted to do something with that. That is how the Yellow Ringbinder was born!
In the coming years, the Yellow Ringbinder will be put into practice. It will grow and mature by trial and error. When the Ringbinder is fully developed I can go visit other preparatory secondary vocational schools (VMBO basis kader schools) and hand over the Yellow Ringbinder, so that other schools will also be encouraged to compile their very own Yellow Ringbinder and teach activist art to set their pupils’ minds free.
Which themes or societal concerns are you addressing in your work, and how?
The themes I address in my work are activism, of course, resilience, critical thinking, ownership, identity, connection, dialogue, awareness and confidence, and pushing boundaries. These themes are very dear to me as a person, and being able to develop my programme around these values allows me to really give something to the students. Something that I know can be valuable for their personal growth. That is a great feeling. And besides that, I believe that creating a community is very important. Last year in the exam period, I asked the children to make cheering signs to encourage the children who were graduating.
What will you be working on in the near future? What are your next steps?
I have set up a talent class together with a culture coach from Museum Boijmans van Beuningen. Every Monday at the end of the day, children from three different schools come to my ‘Freestate’ and deepen, feed, discover, and expand their talents. I am in close contact with the Culture Director of Schiebroek and others, such as Nathalie Molina of Studio Moio. Together we plan to organise community projects, exhibitions, events, and so forth. Our intention is to start in the direct neighbourhood, Schiebroek, but later on, we may expand. Furthermore, I am teaching activist art at the Montessori Lyceum. At the moment, they see art education merely as drawing and painting lessons, we are now pushing to introduce visual arts into the program. Finally, when everything is settling down a bit, I will absolutely continue to create my own work!
To read more about Yoland’s work, pay a visit to her Graduation Catalogue Page. Furthermore, her journey can be followed on Instagram and her Website. The winners of the Threshold Award Commercial Practices will be announced during a festive ceremony as part of the Graduation Show. Keep an eye on our Graduation Show page for more information.
