Chain foundation

The Chain (Cultural Heritage Activities and Institutes Network) project began, at the end of the first Socrates period (1998), as a pilot network to connect educational activities in the field of cultural heritage. From the very start, project development work was combined with organising in-service training courses, to 'keep the feet on the ground'. In the two successive LLP-periods (2000-2014) the network has organised about 120 (comenius and grundtvig) courses on many different locations, from Cyprus to Iceland and from the Azores to Estonia. These courses combined (1) cultural heritage content - in a very broad sense -, (2) integration of content and (English) language training, (3) the use of advanced and interactive ict techniques and (4) various forms of artistic production (drama/theatre, visual arts, poetry and literature). All course activities have been documented in a general and public accessible database: the 'virtual book'. The courses were a stimulus to the rise of a large number of 'school partnerships'.
Under Erasmus+ the project has continued its activities under the independent and 'not-for-profit' Chain Foundation, which has 'anbi' (general benefit) status under Dutch law. Mission of this foundation is to organise, promote and support activities around European heritage education.