Territorio Mudéjar, a breeding ground for new professionals in the management of historical-artistic heritage

At Territorio Mudéjar we make the most of our resources to generate professional fields of excellence, in which each area we develop is specialised and works to find solutions of innovative use for the “heritage space” as a space for professional development and learning.

These days we are finalising the different actions that are part of the practical study for the definition of a specialised professional profile for cultural heritage located in rural territories and that in our case coincides with the work that we actively carry out with the localities that hold the UNESCO World Heritage declaration.

This project, funded by the Ministry of Culture and Sport through its 2019 call of grants for projects for the conservation, protection and dissemination of World Heritage Sites, as well as by the Council of Zaragoza through its direct aid to Territorio Mudéjar, aims to make our entity a benchmark in terms of the quality applied to the development of projects linked to management and accessibility strategies, understanding that the quality and achievement of objectives of our projects must begin by strengthening the skills and abilities of the people who work on them on a daily basis.

In this line, we have developed different actions throughout the year 2020 through which we are working on the creation of synergies with entities of recognised prestige in our territory such as the Tarazona Monumental Foundation, the Santa Mª de Albarracín Foundation, the Association of Municipalities of the Camino de Santiago or the Sobrarbe-Pyrenees Geopark, among others.

In addition, we are in continuous contact with national and international entities that work to ensure that professionalization is the key to the future of our heritage as an economic agent and from different points of view, such as Icomos España or Aproha.

The richest and most stimulating actions are found in the incorporation of students, recent graduates and emerging professionals in the different projects that we carry out through the University of Zaragoza, for the Challenge Programme, for entities such as Cepyme that train for professionalization, or through the introduction of students in training period for the development of their Master’s or Bachelor’s Degree Final Project.

For this reason, students of Art History, History and other humanistic fields are training in Territorio Mudéjar to be able to build a learning process that takes into account the contexts: Mudejar art, Aragonese art and the general context, because no art is free of influences.

As an example of some of the initiatives we are working on:

-We have been in San Mateo de Gállego making a technical visit so that Sarai Salvo -student of the #ChallengeProgramme2020- gets to know the town and can start working on her Master’s Degree Final Project on the parish museum of San Mateo de Gállego, using the knowledge learned in the creation of focal points of heritage and cultural action for the town.During the visit we also visited the Mudejar pottery workshop Siglo XXI of Fernando Malo, a ceramics workshop specialising in the reproduction of Mudejar tiles for restorations, which will form an active part of our student’s project.

-We have also done technical visits to Magallón (town council) and Tarazona (Tarazona Monumental Foundation) with Derry Holgado and Alfredo Notivol, as part of the internships they are doing through the programme for recent graduates in the first case and through CEPYME in the second.

-With Derry Holgado we visited the Tarazona Monumental Foundation, the Santa María de Albarracín Foundation, the UNESCO Sobrarbe-Pyrenees World Geopark and the church of San Pablo in Zaragoza, one of the buildings declared UNESCO Mudejar World Heritage.

-Eugenia Gallego, another of our students, is working on her Final Master’s Degree Project on the management plan for towers in Villarreal de Huerva, Mainar and Romanos.

-María Foradada is studying different options within Territorio Mudéjar that allow her to develop her Bachelor’s Degree Final Project and finish her degree studies with a clear focus on Mudejar heritage and its practical application in rural areas.

With this project we contribute to training professionals with specific skills through the real application of the contents of the training programmes, who know how to detect what is essential in order for a project to be carried out and have a chance of success.

Likewise, with this work we are making progress in the project to define a professional profile for the management of historical-artistic heritage located in rural areas, financed by the Ministry of Culture and Sport and by the Council of Zaragoza through its direct aid to our organisation.

International Day of Education: how to introduce the methodology of heritage studies into curricula

    Territorio Mudéjar joins the International Day of Education, a celebration proclaimed by UNESCO which this year is dedicated to “Recovering and revitalising education for the COVID-19 generation”

    At Territorio Mudéjar we work to link education, heritage and innovation; to introduce the methodology of heritage studies into curricula; to achieve a rural and identity-based rootedness beginning in the classroom; to train university and postgraduate students in methodology and heritage (Challenge Programme); and to create knowledge through our research stays.

    We are convinced that everything starts at school and that school is a passport to the future that helps to shape what we will be tomorrow.

    In this task, teachers are essential, compasses that activate the magnets of curiosity and knowledge.Our latest initiative “Rural school in motion” is aimed at them.

    Students, families, teachers, administrative and service staff and the educational community in general: Happy Education Day!

    We started the project “Circular from the rural school “.

    Would you like to work in the classroom with educational materials on the Mudejar identity of the villages? Do you understand the heritage space as an innovative learning space?

    In the coming weeks the first action of the project “Rural school in motion” will begin, an introductory course to the project in which Territorio Mudéjar offers to those interested in linking education, heritage and innovation to know the starting point and the methodology with which it will work until mid 2022 together with seven of the local development groups in the province of Zaragoza coordinated by the ADRI Calatayud Aranda group.

    “Rural school in motion” is a cooperation project between rural development groups coordinated by the ADRI Calatayud-Aranda group, together with Cedemar, Adefo Cinco Villas, Asomo Moncayo, Adrae Comarca Alta del Ebro, Fedivalca y Adri Jiloca Gallocanta, and financed by the Government of Aragon through the Leader programme and the Provincial Council of Zaragoza through the Territorio Mudéjar association, as a private collaborating entity that manages the implementation and execution of the initiative.

    The aim is to develop educational materials related to the Mudejar identity of the villages, placing rural schools and the educational community of the villages at the centre of the project, with a triple purpose:

    ◾️Work on the introduction of the Mudejar heritage identity in the work programmes of schools beyond the artistic or complementary areas.

    ◾️To involve the educational community in the valuation of the Mudejar heritage as part of their personal history, which favours the knowledge, conservation and dissemination of the identity of the localities.

    ◾️To use the work carried out in schools as material for dissemination and tourist use on the Mudejar heritage of the villages for a family and children audience.

    ???? In the COURSE we will explain the working methodology and the results of the pilot project that was carried out in the CRA Vicort Isuela in the 2018-2019 academic year and which is the starting point for the implementation of the project in the schools of the villages of Territorio Mudéjar.

    It will be taught by Laura Castejón and Víctor Gumiel, teachers who carried out the design and testing of the pilot project, and Victoria E. Trasobares, director of Territorio Mudéjar who has extensive experience in the management and implementation of Mudejar heritage management projects in rural areas.

    The Department of Education has included it as an approved course in its catalogue of ongoing teacher training activities and recognises the training hours.

    The course will be carried out on-line through the entity’s digital work platform that we will set up for the specific training.

    Course information: https://mcusercontent.com/…/c70fb223…/CURSO_CIRCULAR.pdf

    Application form:

    Option 1: If you have a certificate or electronic signature https://doceo.catedu.es/…/portadaInitConsultarActividad…

    Option 2: If you do not have a certificate or electronic signature, write a message to: info@territoriomudejar.es

    Project information: https://mcusercontent.com/…/9591a…/PROYECTO_CIRCULAR.pdf

    If you have any doubts or you want to consult us about any particular issue you can call us on 876 634 125 or write an email to info@territoriomudejar.es

    Study-trip to Cortona (Italy): Territorio Mudéjar participates once again in the COrtonaOPen3d workshop.

    This week saw the end of the eleventh edition of the workshop organised by the Politecnico di Milano, the Brera Academy of Fine Arts, the Urbino Academy of Fine Arts and the Aragon School of Design COrtonaOPen3d, in which Territorio Mudéjar participated for the third consecutive year.

    In this edition, the director of the entity, Victoria Trasobares, travelled to the Tuscan town to share with the participants in the workshop her strategic vision of the possibilities for development offered by Heritage in the rural environment and to explain to the students, students of architecture, design and Fine Arts, the management processes that enable the implementation of innovative projects, such as those developed in the Gonzalo M. Borrás Gualis Research Stays and Projects.

    The students of the workshop have developed a total of 23 proposals centred on the possibilities offered by the Girifalco Fortress, located in the upper part of the city, as a pole of innovation and cultural development with a theme that this year revolved around the theme of music. Reflections ranging from its connection with existing structures in the town centre such as the Signorelli Theatre, the development of installations along the routes leading to the fortress or the refunctionalisation of some spaces have materialised the ideas on the future of heritage as a driving force for local development shared during these days.

    On the other hand, various meetings have been held with the cultural institutions responsible for the Cortona On The Move International Photography Festival, the managers of different heritage sites such as the Girifalco Fortress itself and the heads of Culture and Tourism of the local council in order to set up joint projects that, with a strategic vision of the management of the heritage of these territories, will allow new actions to be developed over the coming year.

    COrtonaOPen3d is a SmartCityDesign workshop in a Cultural Heritage context held in the town of Cortona (Arezzo, Tuscany, Italy) from 29 July to 7 August. During the workshop, participants develop individually or in groups an architectural design project or an artistic installation inserted in the context of the city of Cortona.

    The workshop lasts approximately 100 hours divided between frontal lessons, lectures and project workshops and is conducted in Italian, English and Spanish. Each year around 50 to 100 international students participate.

    The students of the Desafío Programme, Unita and the collaborators of Territorio Mudéjar attended the presentation from the organisation’s headquarters in Tobed.

    Students of the Desafío and Unita programmes begin their training in heritage management

    Territorio Mudéjar is once again taking part in the Desafío Programme, popularly known as “rural Erasmus”, and this summer we will once again be hosting students on work experience in our villages.

    The students will live in Tobed, Velilla de Ebro and Castejón de Valdejasa thanks to this programme promoted by the DPZ Chair on Depopulation and Creativity, financed by the Diputación de Zaragoza and managed through Universa, the Orientation and Employment Service of the University of Zaragoza.

    The initiative is in line with Territorio Mudéjar’s objective of promoting curricular or training internships and professionalising profiles linked to heritage in order to boost employment in rural areas, attract professionals and develop projects that lead to investment in our villages.

    In the same way, this summer we will also train students thanks to the European university project UNITA-universitas montium. This initiative is being developed together with the universities of Turin (Italy), which acts as coordinator, Pau and Savoy Montblanc in France, West Timisoara in Romania and Beira Interior in Portugal.

    All of them, during their scholarship, will be trained in the methodology of cultural heritage management projects with professionals from different disciplines. In addition, they were immersed in the different models of accessibility to the monuments in the towns of Territorio Mudéjar, among other issues.

    Territorio Mudéjar explores new collaborations in the event Atardecer con Zaragoza Nsencia in Ejea

    It has been a pleasure to participate in ‘Atardecer con Zaragoza Nsencia’, an event held on the 28th of July at La Botillería in Ejea de los Caballeros. ?

    There we explored new broadcasting collaborations and enjoyed the performance of the violagambist, vocalist and composer Pilar Almalé, and the Rondalla Cinco Villas, the best BSO for an afternoon of networking.

    The event was attended by Javier Lambán, President of Aragón; Ros Cihuelo, Deputy for Culture of the DPZ; Elena Guinda, Director of INAEM, councillors from Ejea Town Council, businessmen and journalists, among others.

    Cycle of talks at the Monastery of the Canonesses of the Holy Sepulchre in Saragossa

    This week, the church of the Monastery of the Canonesas Regulares del Santo Sepulcro is holding a series of conferences open to the public, with the aim of showing the important historical and cultural heritage of this building.

    The director of Territorio Mudéjar, Victoria Trasobares, participated on Wednesday with a talk on “Mudéjar architecture in Aragon”.

    There he spoke of Mudejar architecture as a living heritage with open lines of research in which transdisciplinary viewpoints and teams are necessary in which the monument is understood in an urban context, in a cultural landscape and in relation to the inhabitants who live in the context of the heritage.

    About 75 people attended this event in which Victoria Trasobares addressed the knowledge of the heritage monument from a management approach to generate impact and innovation projects.

    The presentation was attended by the canonesses represented by Sister Ana, the general director of culture of Zaragoza City Council, Elena de Marta Uriol, and José Juan Fras, the City Council’s Culture technician.

    This series of talks is part of the agreement that Zaragoza City Council and the Canonesas Regulares del Santo Sepulcro signed last year to promote the recovery of the Monastery.

    Territorio Mudéjar puts its projects on the road into practice at the Grasshopper Festival in Torralba de Ribota.

    This summer we are continuing to make territory and participating in the activities programmed in our villages. This weekend we were at the Grasshopper Festival in Torralba de Ribota.

    This event aims to generate an experience that favours meeting and exchange between the inhabitants of the village and visitors, both urban and from the region.

    The differentiating value of this festival is that the public can access places that they do not usually have the opportunity to see, thus broadening the vital experience of getting closer to rural life and its small details.

    In short, it seeks to create bridges between the town and the city, reactivate the territory and attract new audiences.

    And we were there to contribute to that end with our Projects en route, thanks to which we took a walk through Torralba de Ribota talking about culture, history and Mudejar heritage.

    Thank you for counting on us to enjoy this great opportunity to experience the town together and to see how artists, inhabitants and public mingle in a creative environment where culture is the protagonist.

    Study visit to Territorio Mudéjar with experts from Cordoba, USA and Qatar

    This Tuesday, Territorio Mudéjar held a study visit to its localities in which the director of the organisation, Victoria Trasobares, was accompanied by Bárbara Ruiz Bejarano, professor of Islamic studies at the University of Alicante and project director of the Las Fuentes Foundation with its headquarters in Córdoba.

    Attiya Ahmad, Associate Professor at George Washington University (Washington DC); Hadeel alhosani, Reem jassim, members of the Qasd Foundation (Qatar) also participated in the meeting. All of them related to the Medina Network.

    The study visit covered the towns of Daroca, Morata de Jiloca, Maluenda and Tobed, where Mudejar culture was explained in its broadest sense, covering monuments, civil architecture, town planning, landscape and trades and traditions.

    Maluenda
    Morata de Jiloca
    Daroca

    Territorio Mudéjar brings Mudejar heritage and culture to the Armantes Wine Festival in Cervera de la Cañada

    Summer is a time for festivals and in them, we can always find a space to talk about our heritage.

    This Saturday we were invited to participate in the Armantes Wine Festival in Cervera de la Cañada, a meeting organised by the cultural association Los Bubillos to focus on the enormous potential of the town: for its Mudejar church declared World Heritage by UNESCO, for its spectacular landscape of ancient vineyards, for the Armantes mountain range and for its gastronomy and human wealth.

    At this festival, the children of Cervera showed us their work inside the church. An activity in line with our project Circular from the rural school, in which we want the youngest children to understand, appreciate and help us to promote the heritage of their localities.

    Territorio Mudéjar took part in a presentation in which we explained our raison d’être and developed the activity ‘Proyectos en ruta, un paseo por Cervera’ (Projects en route, a walk around Cervera). We talked about the cultural and landscape heritage of the area and, of course, we made a special stop at the Mudejar jewel: the church of the Assumption or Santa Tecla, the work of the master builder Mahoma Rami. This fortress church, which the visitor finds austere in appearance, hides in its interior an impressive painted and stapled mural decoration, plasterwork in the windows and the parapet of the choir loft, in late Gothic style, and splendid Mudejar pottery.

    Thank you very much for inviting us!