Cartooning for Peace took part throughout the 2024-2025 school year in the artistic and cultural education project implemented by the Île-de-France region as part of its cultural and educational policy, aimed at secondary schools and apprenticeships, coordinated by the Château de Versailles education department.
The objectives of this programme were for the students to develop an argument on a current social issue, echoing a civic commitment made by artists and authors contemporary with the construction of the Versailles Congress.
To do this, the students were accompanied in the creation of their arguments and their discovery of the Château de Versailles by artists, actors, public speaking professionals and press cartoonists. The aim was to get them to think about what can be considered as social progress (any progress that aims to make society a better place) by reflecting on various themes (social progress, ecological progress, technological progress, democratic progress …. ).
As part of the project, each secondary school received the ‘Cartooning for Peace’ exhibition. Cartooning for Peace then organised debates and practical workshops with Yas and Truant, Cartooning for Peace press cartoonists, for the 24 classes in the 12 schools involved in the project.
On Monday 28 April, in the Salle du Congrès at the Château de Versailles, each class presented an argumentative text on their topic, based on a 19th-century literary text and a work from the Château’s collections.
A press cartoon drawn by the students accompanied each class’ argument.
At the start of each session (morning and afternoon), the press cartoonist Yas, who accompanied the young people throughout the process, drew a live cartoon on the themes of the project.
