Pinart is a cultural initiative of Los Pinos School (Euador) and the result of its collaboration with Fundación Parentes.
We share with you the interview we did to Juan de Santiago, Project Director of the Pinart Project.
Good morning Juan, could you tell us a little about the Parentes Foundation and its relationship with the Pinart project?
Good morning. With great pleasure. The Parentes Foundation is a Spanish foundation that aims to promote educational projects around the world. Although our headquarters are in Madrid, most of our activity takes place outside of Spain, with projects in Europe, Africa and America.
Part of our work at the Foundation consists of providing service to the schools that make up our educational network, such as Los Pinos School. And Pinart is a Los Pinos project, with which we are very excited.
And what is the objective of the Parentes Foundation in the case of Pinart?
The first thing I would like to comment on is that at the Parentes Foundation we are firm defenders of the value of training as a way of contributing to the development of society. In fact, most of our projects have this educational aspect. We believe that a well-formed society, with a high educational level, is usually a more fair society.
Since we began our relationship with Los Pinos School, we were positively struck by their great cultural and artistic sensitivity and the great teaching team they have in this area. So we said to ourselves… Why don’t we promote that area and help them turn Los Pinos School into a cultural reference? And that’s how it all began. We believe that culture and art have enormous educational potential.
And what expectations do you have with Pinart?
Many! As I was saying, we aspire to turn Los Pinos School into a great cultural reference in Quito. We know it will take time, but we are ambitious. Our goal is to facilitate access to art and culture not only for the school’s students but also for other students and people in the city. During this first year, all the events will be musical and will have a somewhat limited capacity due to the pandemic, but over time we will incorporate theater and plastic arts events and we will open these events to the general public.
What do you think the pedagogical impact will be for the students?
The pedagogical impact will be great, without a doubt. I think that the greatest effect will be to awaken a greater sensitivity towards culture and art in each one. For the rest, through the didactic workshops the students will be able to get to know the artists up close, discover what their work is like and we will break that barrier of ignorance. We are also excited about the social and solidarity dimension of Pinart, with the participation of students from other schools and students with some type of disability.
And finally, could you summarize in four words what Pinart means to you?
In four words? Not an easy challenge! But I would say that it is an international project, as it is the result of the collaboration with the Parentes Foundation; that it is an educational project, since it has a great educational component and its headquarters will be a school; that it is a cultural project, since it will bring us closer to music, theater and the plastic arts; and finally that it is a social project, since it will be a meeting point for artists and students, public and private schools, and will also have foundations and solidarity organizations.