Art and science ship sails around Europe
Bridging art and science can bring interesting benefits to both disciplines, adding real-life applications to art and facilitating the understanding of science for youth and for the general public. The EU-funded project 'Hulda, the European arts and sciences sailing festival' (HULDA) created an innovative strategy to raise the interest of youth and civil society by bridging art, science and daily life. Employing a historical sailing boat that lent its name to the project, the Hulda visited 10 port cities across Europe to create a dynamic travelling festival. It visited cities in Belgium, France, Greece, Italy, Malta, the Netherlands, Portugal, Spain, Sweden and Turkey, organising workshops for youth in every destination to investigate science through a creative approach. The event was backed by the on-board exhibition of non-figurative static and kinetic artwork by Turkish sculptor Ilhan Kuman, which fit in perfectly with the project's theme. The workshops showcased the relationship between art and science across the ages through the works of Da Vinci, Escher and Kuman. Examples also include mathematics-based techniques used in Arabic, Iranian and Turkish mosaics, as well as more modern science concepts easily depicted through art, such as oscillation and three-dimensional (3D) perception. In effect, the project successfully created alternative perspectives to awaken public interest in science, exploiting art as a tool to communicate science in novel ways. It transformed the Hulda into a centennial schooner hosting a science and art festival that travels along the coasts of Europe. HULDA has also established a pan-European network of stakeholders and project beneficiaries linked with schools and other institutions in order to reach students. It provided children and youth with the chance to work with their peers on creative scientific experiments, using the universal language of science and its varied aspects of intercultural collaboration. Overall, the project represented an excellent, highly creative example of how science can be made engaging and accessible to younger generations. This boosts the EU's goal of fostering a knowledge economy and rendering science more attractive to youth in novel ways.