One Thousand Birds in Coimbra

The One Thousand Birds in Coimbra is an anchor project of strategic scope for the Municipality of Coimbra and is aimed at the entire preschool community in the municipality of Coimbra, in an intersectoral articulation between the Education Division, the Culture Division, and the São Francisco Convent Division of the City Council. The project involved 48 preschool classes in 34 schools, their educators and operational assistants, the families of the participating children, and other carers. In addition to an intense training programme, there were activities in the kindergartens and activities of a complementary nature that brought together diverse audiences in a large community at the Convento São Francisco. The project combines artistic creation, training, and community involvement through a series of artistic-educational experiences of different kinds in which we are encouraged to listen to the ‘voice’ of the birds as a metaphor for bringing the community together in caring for the environment and in the hope of listening to each other better. The project’s name comes from a Japanese tradition that says if you build a thousand birds while thinking about a wish, that wish will eventually come true.