#reinventingBeethoven. A creative Educational Challenge

250 years ago, on 16 December 1770, Ludwig van Beethoven was born in Bonn, Germany. To celebrate his anniversary, cultural heritage institutions around Europe organized concerts, exhibitions, talks, and the #Beethoven250 event to celebrate the anniversary and to commemorate the Ode to Joy from the choral movement of Beethoven’s 9th Symphony as an anthem of European fraternity and the official anthem of the European Union. As a powerful network between cultural heritage institutions and educational sectors, the Europeana Education community in October 2020 launched #reinventingBeethoven – a creative educational challenge for students in primary and secondary schools inspired by Beethoven’s life and work. The challenge aimed to encourage students’ creativity with cultural heritage resources from the Europeana website, to introduce music as a powerful educational tool in the classroom for all subjects, and to make students aware of people with disabilities. We invited teachers to introduce Beethoven’s life and work to students and coordinate the creation of an artwork, with prizes for the most popular pieces. To help teachers and engage students, Europeana staff published a new gallery called 'Life and Works of Beethoven', two blog posts 'Beethoven's Ode to Joy: a cultural kaleidoscope' and 'Geniuses and their (dis)abilities' and a Historiana’s source collection.