Workshops
Creative Storytelling
PERCEIVE with a new eye – NARRATE in a personal way – REFLECT interactively:
In Roman's interdisciplinary workshops, you discover a new sensibility and language for sharing with yourself and others about how experiences resonate with you intellectually and emotionally.
Your learn to bond with an environment/a topic in an unprecedented way, to perceive it with a new eye, to actively appropriate it and to establish links to your own biography. Each participant finds the narrative medium which best suits their own personality: Text, drawing, collage, music, installation, photography, sculpture, video, performance etc.
Roman's workshops are therefore often booked as interactive REFLECTION WORKSHOPS at the end of study trips, colloquia or project week.
Art as a social catalyst
Roman perceives art as a social catalyst. The experiences made during his “personal” art projects serve him as a trigger to multiply the interdisciplinary discourse in other parts of society:
Throughout Europe he develops, directs and coordinates interdisciplinary art workshops in partnership with schools, universities, study tour organisers, research institutes, Ministries of education, memorials, foundations and museums.
Topics
A detailed documentation of all the topics and workshop concepts you find in the Pedagogic Portfolio below.
Topics (selection): History & Remembrance, Sustainable Development, Plastic Pollution & Ocean Conservation, Migration & Outdoor Education, ChatGTP & AI, Literature & Philosophy.
Participants
The participants of Roman’s workshops have ranged from primary school children to university professors, furthermore: university students of diverse disciplines (visual communication, fine arts, architecture, fashion design, biotechnology, communication in social and economic contexts, dance, music, literature), high school students, teachers, refugees and inmates of high security prisons.
Elementary Schools
The commission of the development project "Door to Door" – Expansion of the School Zone had selected Roman to set up his studio for one year under the roof of the Nürtingen Primary School Berlin (DE). This experimental residency programme was coordinated by the Zurich University of the Arts/Institute for Art Education (CH).
During this time, Roman led, amongst others, a seminar at the primary school for his students of the Berlin University of the Arts, which resulted in a cooperative workshop between the students and the primary school children: Report.
Graphic Readings
Based on his two illustrated children's books – The Mussel and the Sandhopper and Mottie the Moth – Roman has given numerous graphical readings in primary schools, financed by the Berlin Authors' Reading Fund. This also included readings in bilingual formats like the one for the European State School Berlin Judith-Kerr (German-French).
For details please consult the Pedagogical Portfolio.
High Schools – Prizes
Roman has led interdisciplinary art workshop for high school students in Germany, The Netherlands, Belgium, Switzerland, France, Spain, Italy, the Czech Republic, Ireland and Bosnia-Herzegovina.
The innovative concepts of his workshops have repeatedly been distinguished with prizes, the latest: eku ZUKUNFTSPREIS 2021 (2.500 €) by the Saxon State Ministry for Energy, Climate Protection, Environment and Agriculture. For details see the Pedagogical Portfolio.
Roman’s publication about the Erasmus+ project Our Memories & I at five historical sites throughout Europe:
Universities
One of Roman’s interdisciplinary workshops as a lecturer of Berlin University of the Arts (UdK): He developed and directed the project Microplastic and Medusae – poetic expeditions into H₂O for his UdK students and students of the Technical University Berlin (TU) – in partnership with 13 scientific research institutes and the Hybrid Platform, a project platform which promotes interdisciplinary exchange between art, science and technology.
Roman’s publication about their exhibition at the international festival The Universal Sea – Pure or Plastic?!, Budapest (HUN):
Academic Study Travels
For the CIEE (Council on International Educational Exchange), Roman has led workshops for the seminar Ruin and Revival: History, Modern Memory and Identity for six consecutive years.
Participants: US-University professors from diverse faculties: economics, journalism, psychology, history, art, literature etc. Roman Kroke accompanied these groups as an interdisciplinary expert during their study trips to Krakow (POL) and Berlin (DE) and, as a conclusion, led for them an artistic reflection workshop.
Teacher Trainings
Roman has provided teacher trainings in Germany, France and Switzerland about art as a medium for interdisciplinary learning in the areas of history, natural sciences, literature and philosophy.
Partners in Switzerland: The Directorate of Obligatory Education (DGEO), Republic and Canton of Geneva; the Pedagogical Universities HEP Vaud (Lausanne), HEP BEJUNE (Bienne) and HEP du Valais (Saint-Maurice) // France: The Académies of Versailles, Montpellier and Bordeaux; the Mémorial de la Shoah (Paris) // Germany: the Berlin Senate for Education, Science and Research.
Refugees
For the Belgian NGO Refugees got Talent, Roman led two art workshops for refugees from Iraq, Syria, Iran, Azerbaijan etc. As curator, he then supported them in presenting their works as part of the MosARTic exhibition at LaVallée-Creativespot, Molenbeek-Brussels (BEL).
For details see the Pedagogical Portfolio.
Prisons
At the invitation of the association Lire C'est Vivre, Roman developed the concept for a five-day pilot workshop with inmates of Europe’s largest prison, Fleury-Mérogis (FR); the project was funded by the Ministry of Justice, Culture and Communication.
For details see the Pedagogical Portfolio.