Heritage as a learning space: a visit with Art History students

These days we have visited Torralba de Ribota and Mesones de Isuela with the second year Art History group of the Conservation subject.

The people who will be the future of our profession experienced the use of real heritage for learning and enjoyed the architectural space as a classroom.

Thegroup was accompanied by teachers Gonzalo Preciado, Julio Gracia and María Ángeles Cejador.

In addition, Alfredo Notivol, guide of the Comarca del Aranda and former trainee of Territorio Mudéjar, was our cicerone in the castle of Mesones de Isuela.

Students at the University of Experience learn about the Mudejar space

The 4th B students of the subject “Mudejar, emblem of Aragon” of the University of Experience have carried out several days of learning using the heritage space as a place of knowledge. Walking through the Mudejar space, discovering the light atmosphere and even being able to touch the Mudejar materials have turned the buildings, monuments and villages of Territorio Mudéjar into a textbook for active and innovative learning.

For several days 55 students visited the villages and monuments of Tobed, Cervera de la Cañada, Aniñón and Torralba de Ribota. The closing ceremony of the course took place on Tuesday 8th November in the Parroquieta de La Seo after visiting the Mudejar monastery of the Canonesas del Santo Sepulcro (Canons of the Holy Sepulchre).

The first students of the Desafío 2020 Programme arrive at Territorio Mudéjar

The first students of the Desafío Programme, funded by the DPZ and managed by the University of Zaragoza, are already in Territorio Mudéjar learning and putting into practice applied cultural heritage management models. This is the third edition of an initiative that allows young university students to do work experience in towns in the province of Zaragoza and that seeks to help young people with ideas to reach – and stay – in rural areas.

“By showing students how we work with the heritage in these towns, we pave the way for them to choose how they want to focus their careers in the future, and we hope that this future is closely related to our region,” explains Victoria Trasobares, director of Territorio Mudéjar.

The team of Art History students participating in the Desafío Programme – María Foradada, María Domínguez, Elena López and Sarai Salvo – have been living since the beginning of August in the organisation’s headquarters, Tobed, where they are getting to know the work system. They are joined by Eugenia Gallego, María Irazabal and Derry Holgado, who are working from a distance.

The program’s first phase consists in an introduction to the entity and its working methods, familiarizing the students with the networking system and the partners involved: city councils, culture officials and individuals in charge of cultural and heritage dissemination programs, combining classroom learning with fieldwork. In addition, the students are being trained in the cultural heritage management project methodology by professionals in diverse disciplines such as project design and assessment, awareness of the applied management models implemented in our region, and in the fields of project dissemination management and communication.

The Challenge Programme – now in its third edition – is aligned with Territorio Mudéjar’s strategic 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 involve the conservation of our heritage and investment in our villages as a differentiating element.

What is special about Territorio Mudéjar? It is framed in the rural environment, it works in a network with 34 municipalities and with interdisciplinary professionals, it also works with an international brand such as the UNESCO World Heritage declaration of three of the monuments of its member towns and with a model that is committed to professionalism, scientific rigour, vanguard and sustainability and that makes the inhabitants of the villages an essential part of its projects.