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Projects 2025
The success of the 2024 challenge is giving impetus to new projects based on the Ode to Joy.
Let us head to the schools!
Ode2joy - Up2Date! (2025)
Objectives
Ode2Joy Up2Date aims to use Ode to Joy, our European anthem, as a tool for artistic development and European citizenship among educational teams and secondary school pupils in disadvantaged rural and urban areas. Teachers will test innovative (transdisciplinary history-music; games) and participatory teaching practices with these young people in France and Belgium. The objective is to create tools that make the EU accessible to all and strengthen European awareness within the educational community, using Ode to Joy as a powerful lever for civic unity and European identity.
Activities
Activities 1 and 2 will train 10 teachers from France and Belgium to teach Ode to Joy in an innovative way. Together, they will create a teaching toolkit to teach music and civic education differently in these two countries. Activity 3 encourages all young people to reinterpret Ode to Joy. Activities 4 and 5 combine advocacy actions and youth mobility. The latter consists of producing digital communication resources.
Results
The expected outcomes of this project, thanks to civic and music education training offered to five Belgian and five French teachers and their students, is the creation of teaching tools developed jointly by the latter and their teachers, tested in an intercultural, inclusive context and usable on a larger scale. The teaching kit will include an Ode2Joy website to provide resources and create a virtual museum to showcase contemporary Ode2Joy.
How to participate?
1. Post your artwork on social media with the hashtag #Ode2Joy2025 and tag Fondation Hippocrène.
2. Submit your entry on the website, under the tab ‘Take part in the challenge’.
How does it work?
Take on a creative challenge by reinterpreting Ode to Joy to celebrate our European anthem! There are many prizes to be won, such as coaching sessions, meetings with artists, and invitations to exclusive concerts and artistic events.
In 2024, choirs took part; drawings representing the values of Ode to Joy; excerpts from end-of-year shows featuring pupils dancing to the European anthem, or excerpts from musical performances were submitted.
The challenge is open to all young people under the age of 35, including school audiences, from across Europe, for pupils aged 5 to 18.
Prizes 2025
Credits: European Union Youth Orchestra
Prizes for schools
> Visit to Europa Experience
> Presentation by the Young Europeans Federalists in class
> European flags, goodies
Prizes for individual participants
> Coaching sessions
> Europa Park gift card
> Tickets to concerts and events in Europe
> Invitation to the awards ceremony in November 2025 in Bougival!
And also... prizes for organisations that promote or actively participate in the challenge.
If you have any questions or technical issues, please write to ode2joy.campaign@gmail.com