Context
This Week i activity forms part of an awareness project about Michoacán culture. The objective is to foster reflection on this state’s resources and contribute to its promotion, while driving the region’s economic development. The activity took place in Morelia, Capula, Santa Fe de la Laguna, Ihuatzio and Pátzcuaro. The students’ work helps the community to recognize, value and appreciate the artwork of the region’s artisans.
Challenge
To develop creativity and visual skills using the camera as a means of expression, learning about basic visual composition to create a photography series that reflects the traditional clothing, architecture, daily life, festivals and rites of Michoacán.
The challenge is a theoretical-practical activity to learn about the functioning of a digital reflex camera in manual mode and also to document popular culture and art by means of a photographic tour of the villages in the Riviera del Lago de Pátzcuaro region in Michoacán, with the aim of disseminating and promoting their traditions.
Intervention outcomes
Students developed creativity competencies and visual skills using the camera as a means of expression and learning the basics of visual composition. They visited the Capula, Santa Fe de la Laguna, Ihuatzio and Pátzcuaro communities, photographically documenting the work of the region’s artisans, conducting interviews, learning how arts and crafts are made, and becoming aware of their cultural and economic importance. The students’ photographic work was exhibited together with another Week i activity, which consisted of a comprehensive concert of traditional Michoacán music, held in the historical center of the state capital, Morelia.
The participating students developed creativity competencies and visual skills, and used them to contribute to the awareness and promotion of the cultural importance and wealth of Michoacán, thereby driving the region’s economic development.
The students handed in photograph dossiers and essays, which displayed the competencies of empathy and social commitment they had developed, responding constructively, fairly and with solidarity to outside circumstances.
The beneficiaries were the students themselves, the Michoacán artisans and the community who viewed the photograph exhibition held within the framework of a comprehensive concert in the historical center of Morelia, the audiences who will be able to view the students’ work on digital media, and the people who will benefit from the economic development that results from the promotion of Michoacán art.