The aim of the PIMDI- partnership is to develop and explore a pedagogy of imaginative dialogue for all fields in arts education.

In order to fulfill this aim, we planned four intensive weeks with the students and the teachers to carry out imaginative dialogues in different contexts: In Helsinki we worked with elderly people. In April we will go to Kristiansand to collaborate with the local art museum and cultural school to experiment with imaginative dialogues with children and youngsters. In September we will work together with a secondary school and a library of a multicultural district in Reykjavik. Finally, we will collaborate with different arts educational fields in Groningen to address urgent questions by using the pedagogy of imaginative dialogues. Our activities will result in the development of a method, a curriculum, a practical toolbox, reflective documentations and some academic papers, by trying -out, reflecting and redesigning imaginative dialogues during the intensive weeks.

Due to Covid, all planned activities in the first year and a half, could only take place online. This made discussing in the learning community of the teachers difficult. Theoretical concepts have been touched upon but need to be further explored in depth.

Students developed different forms of imaginative online dialogues with each other. These were aimed at making the differences in culture, background and experience visible or audible. Students developed so-called propositions (open assignments for each other) and shared their experience. For example, audio tours recorded at different places were made for each other. From the audio tour, the dialogue partners made drawings. Together the students reflected on the differences in imagination that were found in the drawings.

In Helsinki, groups of students from each partner developed an imaginative dialogue as a present for the elderly. A present – in the sense of a gift and in the sense of being present for the other at the moment, in a sensitive manner and dialogically aware about the present situation.