Have you ever heard about Højskole?

Before I came to Snoghøj I knew nothing about Højskolen.

I was living at my parents’ house in Italy and working for a little company as a graphic designer. It wasn’t my dream life, but it was a pretty common situation, as I could see among my friends and relatives.

But still I felt like I was missing something.

Then Corona came, and it brought – along with many other things – a lot of questions about the future. My company, who used to collaborate with museums and other public institutions, was struggling due to Corona restrictions, and eventually and unwillingly I had to resign.

It was sad, but it was also somehow a sign of fate, cause a few months earlier I came across European Solidarity Corps, and got really interested in it. At the time I was 28, almost 29, and I told to myself “that may be my last chance to do it”.

So i started to look for projects in the cultural field, and after a while I came across a peculiar art school located on the seaside and surrounded by beautiful nature. We got in contact, we liked each other and eventually, the 18th of June 2021, with relaxed corona restrictions and umburdened of my job, I landed in Billund Airport, my first time ever on Denmark’s soil, destination Scenekunsthøjskolen Snoghøj.

How to explain what an Højskole is?

Let’s try: take every stereotype (expecially negative ones) you’ve ever heard about Danes, and Nordic people in general: cold, distant, unfriendly, aphatic… you got the picture. Well, Højskole is the exact opposite: a community of warm hearted, extravagant, energic and caring people living together and working on becoming the best version of themselves.

Højskole is a community made of students, teachers, staff, janitors, and everybody plays a role in the maintenance of the system. Nobody feels useless.

But of course the focus is on the students. They come to Højskole from all over the world to learn things, but not only for that. Cause Højskole is not about passing a test with the best grades you can get and then forget whatever you learned. Actually, there’s no grades at all! You join the Højskole community for the sake of it, and because you know that what really matters is hardly quantifiable in numbers, letters or whatever scale we invented to mesure people’s talent and value.

There are around 70 Højskole in Denmark, each one with his own focus and specialization. Scenekunsthøjskole Snoghøj is the realm of musical and performance art. And you will probably notice it as soon as you step inside. Then you would probably stumble across a bunch of students playing an improvised piece, or you would hear an angelic voice singing from one of the rooms. And that’s not necessarily from class hours! During class hours the teachers share their knowledge and experience with humility and openness. There’s no rigid hierarchy, everybody feels involved in a never-ending learning process, no matter the age or the “rank”.

Actually it’s not uncommon for students to prepare courses themselves. If you have a passions that really drives you, why not sharing it with others? So during my stay here I witnessed DIY classes about chess, meditation, role playing, languages and so on. And that’s why I felt encouraged about starting my own classes and sharing with others one of my favourite activities in the world: drawing.

I never really see myself as a teacher. Too shy, too introvert, definitely not suitable for teaching. Nevertheless the last years working as a graphic designer and my eternal love for drawing and art gave me enough confidence to propose this project to my mentor and to the principal of the school. They accepted immediately.

So here we are, it’s my first day as a “teacher” and I’m quite nervous. I spent the last days (not to say weeks) thinking about a possible schedule for the whole course, that will take place every Tuesday, while supplies last.

I come to atelier a bit early. There’s just a couple of students waiting for the class. I feel almost relieved not to find a big crowd; on the other hand I’m a bit sad that my class may be a complete flop. But minute after minute students keep coming and taking a seat. Eventually there’s a dozen students in the room. I can finally start.

I begin by introducing the course and the principles of drawing, then I talk about drawing tools, perspective… I keep talking and drawing until I feel like I exhausted all I know about the subject. I take a look at the watch. My lesson lasted around ten minutes.

I then saved the day proposing some still life drawing. But that day I learned a precious lesson about the importance of time management.

For the next classes I tried to be more structured and proposed different drawing related topics, such as human figure drawing, composition, quick sketching techniques. Some students joined along the way, some other left. When this happens it hurts a bit, you can’t help but start questioning yourself, am I good enough for this? But I guess that’s just how things goes. What’s sure is that it was funny and rewarding to share my knowledge and passion about something I like, and seeing the slightest improvement in my student’s practice. It was also exciting noticing the differences of attitudes among my students: some more analytics and structured, some more extravagant and creative. I think the role of a good teacher should be to respect those peculiarities and let them flourish.

The drawing classes were not the only challenge I faced during my stay at Scenekunsthøjskolen Snoghøj. The drawing class was actually a collateral activity. My main task was to make ads both for print and screens, and to record with photos and videos the amazing performances of the students. But before coming to Snoghøj I barely know how to turn on a camera. So the first times I studied a lot, read the instruction manuals, watched tutorials on youtube and went around Snoghøj taking picture of the beautiful nature just to learn the craft. After a year taking pictures and videos feels like second nature. Of course there’s so much to learn about the aesthetic and technique of photography and video making, but still I think I learned a lot and enhanced my ability to manage pictures and composition.

But even more than teaching some drawing trick and handling a fancy camera I learned to leave together with almost sixty amazing human beings. Life in a foreing country can be hard, expecially in the first times. But I never really felt alone during this year. Quite the opposite.

Being a volunteer in an Højskole is like living in a limbo between the students on one side and the teachers and staff on the other. It can be a strange feeling, and sometimes you don’t really know who you are or what you are supposed to do. But that’s also a great opportunity to observe the functioning of a Højskole from almost every angle.

The Højskole method deserves to be acknowledged and adopted also outside of the borders of Denmark. It’s a model that’s more adherent and respectful to human nature than any other educational environment I’ve experienced so far, and I can see it in the students, in how much and how easily they learn and improve themselves. I wish I went to Højskole when I was younger!