Edu

Young Continental Notebooks

A European format for creativity, citizenship and engagement for schools.

Young Continental Notebooks stems from the cultural and photographic experience that is Continental Notebooks, aiming to turn schools into spaces that foster creativity, listening and the creation of contemporary cultural content.

This programme is designed to be replicable in secondary schools and other places of education to help young people become creators, observers and storytellers of their own time through music, photography, podcasting, filmmaking and other creative and artistic activities.

A contemporary European lab

Young Continental Notebooks focuses on the great changes that are shaping contemporary Europe:

• climate change and sustainability
• identity and local heritage
• memory and future
• public spaces and communities
• social fragility and inclusion
• active citizenship and cultural awareness

At the heart of the project is one simple but powerful question:

How can young people tell the story of the continent they are inhabiting and helping to build?

From concept to creation

Young Continental Notebooks is not just a theoretical programme.

It’s a concrete creative experience.

Each school involved embarks on its own original creative journey that can feature:

• Composition and songwriting
• Production of music videos
• Podcasting
• Photography and visual storytelling
• Performances and group activities
• Video making
• Interdisciplinary workshops

The students are not mere spectators but authors of culturally relevant content, capable of sparking ideas, questions and conversation.

The pilot project

The first Young Continental Notebooks programme took place at Istituto Argentia Majorana, a school in Cernusco sul Naviglio, as part of Fondazione Cariplo’s Creative Climate project, with scientific supervision by Italian Climate Network.

During the workshop, the students succeeded in producing:

• An original song
• A music video
• A podcast
• Behind-the-scenes videos

The collected material is more than the account of a school project — it is a genuine shared, collective cultural production experience.

A replicable format.

Young Continental Notebooks was conceived as a flexible model that can be replicated by schools, cultural organisations and European educational networks.

Each programme can be adapted to:

• The age of the students
• The local context
• The chosen topics
• The artistic skills of the participants
• The local and international networks involved

The format features concepts of:

• Art and European citizenship
• Environmental education
• Collaborative activities
• Contemporary creative output
• Active youth participation

A creative archive of the new generations of Europeans

Each experience becomes part of the evolving archive of Young Continental Notebooks — a collection of songs, images, podcasts, stories and visions produced by students from different places, united by the desire to express their present.

A great European creative atlas built by the new generations