Videos from Oberhausen and Pennsylvania

Here is a video of one of the presentations at the Gymnasium at Gustav Heineman Schulzentrum on November 12 - Mrs. Zini's class talking about Thanksgiving. Later that evening, the presentations were made at the LVR-Industriemuseum for the "Thanksgiving is Coming" event. The students did a fabulous job!

So after looking at a lot of these videos on Wednesday, I thought it might be fun to show our friends in Germany what a real American Thanksgiving looks like. Using my husband's family as an example, I videotaped the food being brought to the table. All the loud talking in the background is, at least in my experience, very typical of a Thanksgiving dinner in America - family from far and wide getting together, catching up and laughing, and watching American football. I hope this gives everyone an idea of this very American holiday! Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wIB0dwwytHc
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x4GrDrGNJTU

Article in the Tribune-Review

Transatlantic Journal Project Exhibition Opening

The Westmoreland and Greensburg-Salem High School presented the Transatlantic Journal Project student art exhibition opening reception last Friday night. Over 170 people attended! It was a great success!

This exhibition, includes thirty-eight reproductions of journal entries, and is the conclusion of a year-long collaboration with Greensburg-Salem High School and three schools in Oberhausen, Germany, facilitated the Westmoreland Museum of American Art.

Greensburg-Salem High School National Art Honor Society student, Megan Wigle acted as chief curator for the project.

There was also a pizza party for all involved in the Transatlantic Journal Project.

The exhibition is on view through December 26th. After its conclusion at The Westmoreland, the student artwork will travel to the LVR-Industriemuseum in Oberhausen to be exhibited from February 5 – March 27, 2011.

Trips are over but the project continues

Our visitors arrived safely back in Germany after a wonderful trip to the U.S. The opening of the Transatlantic Journal exhibit on Friday night was attended by over 170 people! Thanks to all the students who made it a success, including the Advanced Art Students who simultaneously had their exhibition in the Museum and provided the refreshments.

Check our Facebook page for images of the event. In the meantime, here's one last shot of our visitors from our trip to Fallingwater on Saturday.

I look forward to continuing this project through new partnerships started with Mrs. Zini and Mr. Beck and Mrs. Redinger and Mr. Bugdoll! And the journals will also continue . . .

Wilkommen in America!

Uwe, Stephanie and Shila arrived on time on Wednesday evening and we spent nearly the entire day yesterday at Greensburg Salem High School. After breakfast with Mrs. Grace's French class, we had a very informative tour from Principal Zilli. After stopping in on Mrs. Lyons' Spanish class and speaking with Mrs. Bevington's creative writing class (including enlisting a junior named Holly to write the end of a film that Uwe is working on in Germany), we visited with Mrs. Redinger's Biotechnology class. There was a lot of great dialogue with our German guests about genetically modified cats and fish . . . a dialogue I am sure will continue on their wiki space.

We then had lunch with students and teachers in the school library and met with the superintendant, Dr. Yarabinetz, who spoke to our guests about the district and its philosophy.

Returning to the Museum, the group had a tour with Barbara Jones and after some shopping, we were joined by Heather Berry and Brooke Leonard from MCCA for dinner. Shila, Stephanie, Brooke and Heather then enjoyed a performance by Kenny Blake as part of the Westmoreland Jazz Society concert series here at the Museum.

Tonight - we open the Transatlantic Journal Project exhibit along with the art exhibition of Mrs. Audia's Advanced Art Class. See you at the Museum at 6:30 pm!

Installing the Transatlantic Journal student art exhibition

On Wednesday, November 17, we had the following Greensburg-Salem High students at The Westmoreland to install the exhibition featuring reproductions of the Transatlantic Journal project: Kyle Hines, Marion Morton, Kylee Wombacker, Christian Blackwell, Nick Hughes, Megan Taylor and Brent Contic. Opening reception is Friday, November 19 from 6:30 - 8 PM at the Museum.

transatlantic journal project exhibition is ready!

we are so excited about the transatlantic journal project exhibition and can finally breathe after 2 weeks of constant chaos. it was all well worth it! the space looks wonderful and i would like to thank everyone who helped with the installation last night at the museum:
christian blackwell, kyle hines, marion morton, megan taylor, nick hughes, brent contic, and chris hunter.

and thank you so much to pj zimmerlink for guiding the kids through the process.
what an awesome experience you have given them and we here at GSHS are truly grateful for it!

Welcome home!

We arrived home around 11 pm last night after fog in Dusseldorf delayed our departure by about an hour. Despite valiant efforts (read: sprinting through the terminal) by Mrs. Grace and myself to reach our connection on time, we just missed our plane from Atlanta to Pittsburgh- it was pulling away from the gate as we arrived! So we had a little more time to reflect on our travels and we want to thank EVERYONE for their hospitality - from all the folks at the LVR (Thomas, Ingrid, Burkhardt, Stephanie, Gerhard, Walter, Nina) to our new friends at the schools (Herr Saalfeld, Herr Bugdoll, Frau Mohr, Frau Zini, and our old friend Frau Reiber) to the consulate in Dusseldorf and our dear friends the NewLanders . . .it was a very memorable trip and we look forward to returning the hospitality - beginning at 6:12 pm tonight. I will keep you posted on the days ahead. Tomorrow we spend most of the day at Greensburg Salem High School.

And don't forget - join us at the Museum on Friday at 6:30 for the opening of the Building a Transatlantic Bridge exhibition curated by Mrs. Audia's National Art Honor Society students. It will be a great opportunity to meet our German guests: Stephanine Buchholz, Uwe Bugdoll and Shila Zini.

How do you say "not raining" in French?

Today, we started the day at the Heinrich Boll Gesamtschule in Oberhausen, where we sat in on two of Frau Mohr's French classes. Over the lunch break, Herr Bugdoll and his wife took us to the largest indoor ski slope in the world at Bottrop (the next town over), where we also got great views of the Tetrader (built on an old slag heap, as is the ski slope) and the last working factory, Haniel Prosper. We then went back to the school so Madam Grace could skype/vchat with her students in Greensburg. Students from Frau Mohr's class also joined us. Despite some technicial difficulties, we were able to accomplish the video chat! We really had a very enjoyable day in the school.

After some quick shopping, we went with Burkhardt and Stephanie to St. Antony Hutte, where we saw the excavation of the old iron works and also visited the Museum displays. Both are very impressive. We then went out to one more dinner at the Pfannenkuchen Haus (the pancake house) in the Centro. We really had a wonderful time and we look forward to repaying the wonderful hospitality of our German hosts the day after tomorrow, when they arrive in Greensburg!

Did I mention there was no rain today??

See you all soon!

Building a Transatlantic Bridge Project culminates with Student Art Exhibition at the Westmoreland Museum of American Art

The Westmoreland Museum of American Art and Greensburg-Salem High School will present the Transatlantic Journal Project student art exhibition from November 20 - December 26, 2010. An opening reception will take place on November 19 from 6:30 p.m. – 8 p.m. and is free and open to the public. This exhibition, which includes thirty-eight reproductions of journal entries, is the conclusion of a year-long collaboration with Greensburg-Salem High School and three schools in Oberhausen, Germany, facilitated the Westmoreland Museum of American Art. After its conclusion at The Westmoreland, the student artwork will travel to the LVR-Industriemuseum in Oberhausen, Germany to be exhibited from February 5 – March 27, 2011.

In November 2009, high school students from both Greensburg, Pennsylvania and Oberhausen, Germany launched the Transatlantic Journal Project as part of the Building a Transatlantic Bridge project. Thirty-nine blank journals were purchased and exchanged back and forth between Greensburg and Oberhausen. Working in collaboration with each other, the students began to share writing and artwork on the pages of the journals. There were no rules for the project, and students were simply instructed to express themselves to each other using words and images. The students in Oberhausen and Greensburg became acquainted with each other through the journals.

Read news release.

Rainy day in Essen

We had a great day today, despite the persistent rain. Herr Lozinski picked us up at the hotel and drove us to Essen to have lunch with Ingrid Trocka-Hulskin and Thomas Schleper. Thomas officially thanked us for our partnership with the LVR-Industriemuseum and told us he hopes we can continue moving forward. We will all be thinking of the possibilities . . .

We also thanked Thomas because without him and his team, Born of Fire, followed by Feuerlaender and now the Transatlantic Bridge project, would not have happened. We hope to see Thomas again soon - maybe next time in America.

After lunch, we drove to the Margarethenhoehe - a settlement of worker's housing established by Alfred Krupp's wife Margaretha (Alfred Krupp was like the Ruhr's version of Andrew Carnegie). It is a beautiful garden community and one would never know it was designed for workers. The foundation behind it wanted there to be gardens and trees and for each house/apartment to have it's own garden. The Ruhrmuseum owns an apartment there, so we were able to see inside - it was for a family with two children - it was very small, but had a lot of new technology for the time, like a washing machine, bathtub and an indoor toilet! The neighborhood also had its own stores - just like the company stores for the steelworkers and coal miners that we hear about in PA. They even had their own form of money. It's amazing the similarities between the Ruhr and our own region. The same stories I heard from my parents and grandparents, we are hearing here.

After coffee and cake in a nearby restaurant, we headed to the Ruhrmuseum. It tells the story of the region from prehistoric periods through today. It is housed in the old coal plant of Zeche Zollverein. Across the river was the coke plant. If it wasn't for the rainy weather, we may have been able to tour the entire site, but instead we just focused on the exhibits indoors. It is a relatively new museum and it was very impressive - one could spend many days there taking in all the information.

Tomorrow, we visit Heinrich Boll School and see Herr Bugdoll and Frau Reiber, in addition to observing a French class. Gute Nacht and Bonsoir!

Dusseldorf

Stephanie and I spent the day in Dusseldorf yesterday with 3 teachers from Oberhausen: Uwe, a math teacher and his wife Elisabeth, Antje, an art teacher, and our host Gertrude, a French teacher,w ho met us at the train and invited us to breakfast in her apartment. There we were each presented with a bread version of Saint Martin, whose day was celebrated here on Thursday. It was a great day even though it rained through most of it. We walked along the Rhine River where we say 3 early Frank Gehry buildings, sheep grazing, barges towing goods, and rode 173 stories to the top of the TV tower, where we ate lunch in the revolving restaurant. There we had 360 degree view of the city. Amazing really, even on a cloudy day we could see for miles. Went shopping, window shopping mostly, along the 'Madison Avenue' of Dusseldorf, and bought German chocolates. We took the train back to Oberhausen and ate another good meal at the Brauhaus in the Centro. Uwe wanted to go to the disco after, but we discouraged him. A great fun day.

Düsseldorf

The TV TOWER

Students of the HBG visit the Thanksgiving celebrations.

Thanksgiving has come and it's all over now!

We had a wonderful time yesterday here in Oberhausen. The day began with a visit to the Gymnasium at Gustav Heineman in Dinslaken, where we met with English teacher Shila Zini (who will visit the US next week) and headmaster Herr Bernd Saalfeld. We had a tour of the school campus and then we observed students making presentations in English about three holidays - Halloween, All Soul's Day and Thanksgiving. The presentations were a practice round for the evening event, where the students did a wonderful job of entertaining the audience at the LVR-Industriemuseum. (look back here for videos of the presentations in the next few days!)

After touring Feuerlaender in the Peter Behrens Bau, we met up with Greensburg Salem Assistant Principal Joe Maruchnik (I'm sorry Joe if I have spelled your name wrong!)and visited an AMAZING solar system exhibit in the Gasometer (there was a huge moon in the large former gas tank - my photos do not do it justice). We all took the elevator to the top of the Gasometer - even me with my fear of heights (and I have a photo to prove it). It was very windy up there!

Then we got ready for the main event - Thanksgiving is coming. We were honored that our American Consul General was able to join us for the event, in addition to the teachers and students from Dinslaken. We were treated to a wonderful performance by Thomas Schleper's band Sunday's Best - they did four songs - one German (written by Thomas), one American, one French and one Italian. They ended their set with a great rendition of "It's all over now, Baby Blue." After delicious pumpkin soup and turkey cranberry "cocktails," we once again enjoyed a performance by the NewLanders. Thomas and I joined once again to play the hammers on Coal Digging Blues - just as we did at the closing celebrations for Born of Fire three years ago.

It was a wonderful evening. I'm sharing just a few of the photos . . .

Arrival in Oberhausen

Hi All: Barbara Jones, Mrs. Grace and I arrived in Oberhausen on schedule and, after a short break at the hotel, we went to have curry wurst with french fries at the Rathaus Grill. After a meeting at the LVR-Industriemuseum to chat about the Building a Transatlantic Bridge project with Burkhardt and Stephanie, and a tour of the heavy industry exhibit in the former zinc factory, we traveled to Dortmund, where we visited the Hansa coking plant. Despite gale force winds and sideways rain, Burkhardt gave us a quick tour and after dinner in an old mill, we went back to Hansa to see the NewLanders play. The concert was held in the former workers' locker room. Instead of lockers as we know them, though, the workers put their clothes in buckets that they could then raise to the very high ceiling. Each worker had a unique key to his own bucket. All the buckets are still on the ceiling.

Tomorrow, we visit one of the schools and have the closing celebration "Thanksgiving is Coming." I'll write more then. Aufwiedersehen!