12000 French and Luxembourgish schoolchildren to celebrate Esch2022 through their drawings.

From 16 until 16 October 2021, an art competition will invite schoolchildren to participate in discovering or exploring Space.

This special programme for children and young persons will play a key role in the activities that form part of the European Capital of Culture festivities. Under the patronage of the Luxemburg Minister for Education, Children and Youth, the chancellor of the French Grand Est Academy and together with the Luxembourg Space Agency (LSA) and the Luxembourg Science Centre, an art competition “Molconcours”, a Creative Competitioninviting young people to submit Proposals for the Future Space, will start on 16 September 2021. It invites contributions from young school children and space enthousiasts aged 6 to 12.

“We have all been offered drawings made by children. And as all those who are in touch with young people know, drawing is their favourite mode of expression. It shows us how they understand the world and how inventive they can be when it comes to imaging new worlds. Let's look at the not-too-distant future. Let's suppose the new world were to happen in space, what would it look like in the eyes of our children? It would be one way of stimulating their creativity and encouraging them to participate in the REMIX Festival, the prelude to the European Capital of Culture celebrations. It would also be an opportunity to see what children make of a real and important scenario that mixes art and science: for that too is Culture”, says Delphine Harmant, Project Manager for the Programme for the Young Public, brimming with enthousiasm.

The most extraordinary ideas will have a chance of becoming a key to the opening day of the European Capital of Culture events on 26 February 2022. The REMIX Festival - under the banner of participation and co-creation - includes several workshops, round tables, special events and competitions.

A competition open to schoolchildren whether Space novices or confirmed enthousiasts.

The competition is intended for school children aged 6 to 12 who are going to a school in Esch-sur-Alzette, Luxemburg's second most important town, or in one of the 10 towns of the Pro-Sud region (so they would be in Cycles 2 to 4) as well as children in the 8 French towns that form the Communauté de Communes Haut Val d'Alzette (CCPHVA) (who would in CP to CM).

Together with its expert partners, ESCH202 proposes teaching tools which teachers could use to prepare their classes. Such tools would include video animation to encourage childrens' to participate in the competition, an exercice book for the children, a teacher's guide and teaching tools brought together by the expert partners as well as visits by ESERO educators from the “Space goes to school” programme.

Young heads reaching for the skies

Training to become an astronaut must be one of the first things that comes to the mind when hearing or reading the words “career in space”. But the Space World has so much more to offer!

The Luxembourg Space Agency was created in 2018 to develop the national space sector and one of its key activities is to make youngsters more aware of what is on offer in the space sector and encourage them to explore this. This is why the LSA is involved, through various initiatives at national level, such as partnering with the LuxTech School or implementating the ESERO programme in Luxemburg together with the ESA and the Luxembourg Science Centre.

According to Marc Steiner, LSA's enthousiaistic CEO: “We are committed to inspiring the next generation of scientists, engineers, mathematicians and business people capable of implementing revolutionary ideas and transforming tomorrow's world so as to make it better. This wonderful initiative fits in perfectly with our efforts and we are very much looking forward to discovering the children's projects!”

The winners will meet astronauts Claudie Haignerie and her counterpart Reinhold Ewald

All the winners will meet the first female European astronaut to join the International Space Station (ISS) and her counterpart, Reinhold Ewald, the former director of the German space agency, in the Grand Auditorium of the Maison du Savoir in Belval on 29 November 2021. And by the way, these two astronauts trained together for their space adventures.

About 450 pupils (that is 18 forms!) will receive a prize, for when a pupil wins a prize, his or her whole form will be winners. Moreover, there will be prizes for each age group, so there will be six first prizes, consisting of a educational day at the Eurospace Center at Transinne in Belgium. The six second prize winners are offered by the LSA and will allow the winners to discover how astronauts feed themselves in space. The prize winners will attend a workshop in “Cooking in Space”, led by the ESERO Luxembourg team. The six third prize winners will receive entry tickets to the Luxembourg Science Center as well as a piece of meteorite. All 450 winners will receive tickets for the REMIX Opening, the show that opens the European Capital of Culture events on 26 February 2022.

ESCH 2022, a programme full of events for children and young persons

Esch2022 brings together about 130 projetcs. Almost half of these contain elements that are of particular interest and relevance to children and young persons. They also allow this age group to explore a vast range of fascinating activities. The “Creative Competition – How Young People's see the Future and Space” is part of the REMIX Festival which opens on 24 September 2021. On top of this competition, children and young people are invited to meet two artists in the Annexe22 on the occasion of the Jugenddag (Youngsters' Day) and the Escher Familjendag (the Esch Family Day) on 17 and 18 September. Here they will be able to discover two hackers of children's toys. Jankenpopp & Confipop's “Collectif Freesson” invites small and big children to join them in a workshop and attend two open air concerts that are as wacky and as unusual as you can imagine. The artists pirate vintage consoles to turn them into electro-musical instruments. Geek culture will be in the air.