Van Gogh Sites Foundation partner in European project OldSchool
How can students contribute to real-world challenges in the heritage sector and learn from the experience themselves? We will be exploring this over the coming years in OldSchool, a new Erasmus+ project. The Van Gogh Sites Foundation is one of the six European partners and is collaborating on this project with Thomas More University College in Belgium.
OldSchool
OldSchool was launched in September 2026. The project investigates how universities of applied sciences and heritage organisations can collaborate effectively, and how to embed that collaboration firmly within education and heritage practice. Students undertake assignments set by heritage organisations. Lecturers, researchers and heritage professionals provide them with guidance throughout the process.
As part of the FARO programme, we are linked to Thomas More University of Applied Sciences, the project coordinator. Together with their students, we will explore how they can contribute to the narrative and experience of Van Gogh’s heritage.
The partners
The project brings together three universities of applied sciences and three heritage partners:
- Thomas More University of Applied Sciences (Belgium) and Van Gogh Sites Foundation (Netherlands)
- Beja Polytechnic Institute and the municipality of Beja (Portugal)
- VIKO University of Applied Sciences and VAGA Publishing House (Lithuania)
The three universities of applied sciences are part of the European university alliance HEROES. Together, the partners contribute expertise in the fields of heritage, tourism, wellbeing, inclusion and education.
The project
In the first phase, students, lecturers and heritage professionals will conduct joint research. What is needed to collaborate effectively, and where do the opportunities lie? Based on this, we will draw up guidelines, which we will test in six practical case studies during the 2027–2028 academic year.
In doing so, we look at what students gain from the collaboration: what they learn, whether they feel they belong, and how connected they feel to heritage. We also examine how heritage organisations can formulate effective assignments and what they can do with the students’ contributions.
What are the benefits?
The results are brought together in an open-access collaborative model for heritage and higher education, featuring practical training materials for universities of applied sciences and heritage organisations. This enables other organisations to draw on the experiences gained from OldSchool in their own collaborative projects.
The central question
Central to the project is the question: how do we turn heritage sites into places where young adults feel at home? Together with students, we are exploring this from various perspectives:
- Part of this is: how do young people feel welcome and connected?
- Social engagement: young people who actively contribute to their local communities
- Mental wellbeing: heritage as a place that does you good
- Storytelling: sharing the stories behind a place in a new way
- Slowing down: taking a moment’s pause in a fast-paced world
- Connecting with peers: heritage as a place to come together
- European values: what unites us across borders
- Intergenerational dialogue: young and old in conversation about heritage
- Heritage values: why heritage matters, including for a new generation.
“We believe it is important to engage young people more with heritage, in a way that really suits them,” says Caroline Belt, director of the Van Gogh Sites Foundation. “In OldSchool, we work with students to discover what works best for this.”
-
OldSchool is co-funded by the European Union through the Erasmus+ programme
