Gdansk nov 2009

Barnas Hus /The Childrens House

Politics, Methods, Examples

Culture- pass it on.

As I understand, this conference deals with the questions

• of access for new public groups,

• of distribution of art/culture and

• of equality and democracy in the field of

• art and culture.

Democracy and politics of culture.

• 1. Democratization of culture.

• 2. Cultural democracy.

• In the first position there is a question of bringing culture/art out to people. There is an idea of a certain unity of culture that needs to be distributed to all. A kind of educational program for the ”masses”.

• In the second position there is question of many cultures and many qualities. An acceptance of differences.

• We here can talk of workers culture, of youth culture, of ”street” culture – all with their own qualities.

This position is less vertical, more horizontal/equal in view of values and qualities.

Cultural Policy of Norway

• Politics of culture in Norway was after WW II dominated of the first position:

democratization of culture: The Travelling Conserts, TheTravelling Exhibitions and The Travelling Theatre are examples.

During the 1970ies we see a shift to the second position and a recognition of differences in culture. Now there were political will to recognize rock music, popular music, establishing different industrial museums and so on.

Today

• Today we probably have a situation where both these understandings of culture live together? We see means of financing both rock music and popular cultural festivals and The Cultural Rucksack, which aims to present professional Art to every school child in the country.

• And we see more and different kinds of cross over:

Cross over different gengres and over ”high” and ”low” culture.

Traditional Art Institutions

more and more focus their audience and public groups.

They do this, probably because of their own interests and not because of nice ideas of the rights of every one.

In a modern democracy it is probably not possible to ignore the question of visitors – in the long run. If you are not able to create interest, knowledge and participation, you sooner or later will have to close down?

Children – a public goup.

• The Children`s House /Barnas Hus is a part of the Department of Culture of the City of Bergen.

The task of the Institution is to increase the participation of children in the field of art and culture.

Barnas Hus works in the ”crossroad” between the city`s whole field of Art and Culture on one hand–and the schools and kindergardens on the other.

The core of a Cultural Policy towards Children

• In the Schools we meet all the Children and in the Kindergardens we meet most of the Children. (distribution)

• A Cultural Policy for Children has to make Art and Culture a part of Everyday Life of the Children

Children have the rights to...

• Take part in the ordinary field of Art and Culture,to meet work of art and the knowledge of art where it is: in the Art Institutions.

• Bergen city has large resources on art and culture, the problem is that these are not presented to children

• UN – on Childrens Rights:

The child was seen also as an individual on it`s own right, not only as part of the family.

This gave incitaments to ask about Children as Citizens....

Programmes.

• Barnas Hus initiate and produce programmes on art and culture – to be used by the schools and kindergardens, in their educational and pedagogical work.

• And we produce programmes in cooperation with museums and art institustions to ”ease” the childrens way into the art institutions.

Our visitors

• From Monday to Friday /during the week children come together with their teachers to work in Barnas Hus or on programmes we give in/together with other institutions.

• In the house of Barnas Hus we present exhibitions, workshops and theatre performances/concerts that are specially designed for children.

Smaller children and families.

• Now we try to focus the youngest children, since art institutions seldom put up programmmes for the smallest children.

• And The Cultural Schoolbag means large recourses to school children

• At week ends/saturdays we present programmes for families: Children and parents/grandparents together.

• We also cooperate with art institutions to design programmes that will welcome families with small children into the institutions.

The Childrens Weekend of Culture

• Once a year we organise a cultural weekend for children• Many of the art institutions and museums participate. • Barnas Hus has the initiative and coordination, pay for

the PR and take responsibilities of activities out in the open places of the city.

• Such a weekend gives focus on the families as a public group,gives an opportunity to present the family programmes of the institution and through common PR/information increace the number of visitors. The families can easely find a lot of programmes designed for them and can go ”shopping” in art and culture

• Perhaps do they find an activity or an institution/museum that has just something in it for them? And will come back again and again?

• A win win situation for all.

Defines as a resource center

• Much of our work and programmes do not take place inside Barnas Hus, but elsewhere: in different city spaces or art institutions/museums.

• We take care so we do not ourselves develop a kind of museum or gallery only for children.

Important to reflect on:

• How do we think of art..what is art for? What is art for children?

• How do we think of childhood...how is the childhood of postmodernism?

• How do we think of learning....how do we learn?

When planning art programmeswe find it important to...

• Create a focus

• Create an incitament..a motivation ..to start the own investigation/research/creation of the child

• To make a ”contract” with the teachers...on roles and participation

• Exs: ”The Challenge of Conteporary Art” in Bergen Kunsthall.

• Developmental work.

• We cooperate with an institution for several years – often a time span is of tree years.

• We experience and try different methods on mediating art to children

• The ”challenge programme” lasted from 1997 to 2000 and 90 teachers and 2200 pupils followed the program over the periode.

• We learned how to work to make teachers feel comfortable when presenting contemporary art.

• Today Bergen Kunsthall is running their own presentations for children

• In Edvard Grieg Museum, we developed a guide for children and families:

• Follow the Frog!

• The frog as a childrens guide in the museum...

...where is the frog now?....

European Cultural Capital of 2000: what about the childrens

participation?• My town-Our towns.• 1998 -2000• International-local• Inspiration/invitation• Educational materials• The city through the eyes of children:• Children as citizens• 61 of 100 schools/21 000 of 30 000 pupils

Bergen as Story Teller

• After 2000 educational programmes on the city was made permanent.

We now run tree programmes on the city for school children:

• 1. The City Detectives• 2. The Mediaval City• 3 The World Heritage Site: Bryggen• For kindergardens: Bjørgvin 1281. And from 2008 also a new programme Tree

Ruins

The Queens Crown -a touring exhibition

• Touring to kindergardens and schoolclasses.

• About 2 weeks• Drawers with stories,

different materials for activity

• Transported in a private car

• Presented by a ”crown guardian” the 1.th day.

When teaching children about art..........

• -how is it possible to preserve the integrity of both the children and the art?

• -what happens when the focus shifts from the artist`s intention or the artwork`s autonomy to the child`s encounter, here and now, with art in the gallery space?

• The artist as teacher?

• Barnas Hus has created series of exhibitions/programmes using striking exhibition design as a key tool for presenting contemporary art.

• Like scenography on stage or an installation, our exhibition room has been transformed in order to emphasize key aspects of the art works.

Our goal is two-fold:

• -to allow children to meet art in an unexpecting setting, and to allow artworks to meet children on the children`s own terms.

• -Art need time. Children need time.• -Our exhibition design create a room for

experience and reflection: The faculty of perseption is sharpened and

the hole body is used.

Design for dialoge..

• An exhibition design can require a differentiated pattern of movement, a contrast between motion and stasis, it may entail looking at art from different angles and under varied lighting conditions, or that certain details are emphasized in order to initiate a conversation.

The ”thinging” of things..

• In ” the Origin of the Work of Art” Martin Heidegger points out that a thing`s actuality or being, is not noticable until it is used or ”put to work”. Applying this insight to how artworks are presented in our context, we could perhaps rephrase it by saying that artworks must be used in order to bee seen,

or at least have been used at some point in the past in order for the child to grasp its use. We want to bring art to life, to put it in contact with the user, the child.

A challenging exhibition design triggers curiosity and the desire to discover new things – children use artworks and the space around them – the things acquire meaning/new meaning.

• When the goal is to help children perceive art, to use it, the exhibition design can emphasize any one of an infinite number of ways to think about art. The gallery space challeges perception.

• Our art educational program is based on dialoge - art converse with the space around it / the exhibition design. The educator and the children converse.

• The setting create a space for wonderment and experience. We discuss art in the room, what we see, what we do not see and things we can imagine – imagination ruptures the physical framework.

• The artwork is handmade, it contains stories and affects us when we confront it, when we use it as a part of a creative process – when reflecting over it or working in the workshop.

Dialoge and workshop

• An artwork can be the springboard for a discussion that leads back to the artwork or it may lead to a more generell discussion, the meaning of which is determined by the children themselves.

• Not everybody is good at taking part in the dialoge. Not all children think and speak aloud. Some experience through actions.

• Some experience through actions:

simple workshop activities related to the artworks.

The finished object is less important than the process – to try out possibilities and conversely: to recognize limitation. The instructions/assignments are challenging despite their simplicity:

the children have to make choices

Touching the World

-The hands want to see, the eyes want to caress. J.W.von Goethe. (As quoted by Lauretta Viniciarelli:

Watercolors. 1998)

- The Dancer has his ears in his toes. Friedrich Nietzsche. (So Sprach Zarathustra)

-The Eyes of the Skin Book title by the architectJuhani Pallasmaa

Kom i Form med Gunnar S. Gundersen

• The stage setting is ”outer space” – abstract shapes and razor-sharp precision: How is it possible to give children an immediate experience of an artist`s pictorial universe?

Drama and Story telling

• Where are the Books and Stories coming from?

• The Theatre Walking in Closet/

The Walking in Closet of the Theatre

• Playing with Shadows

• Aurora Borealis /Aurora Julealis

Aurora Julealis

• Aurora Borealis is a frame for a story telling festival in desember.

www.bergen.kommune.no/barnashus

• Programmes per season

• Budgets –around 4 mill NKR/125 000Euro

• Staff: art history,architecture,story telling and art. Permanent: 4,6

• 25 000 visitors per year

• The Cultural Rucksack

• The Cultural Cengurusack

DKB

• The cultural kindergarden sack is runned by Barnas hus- a project of art for pre school children. Established 2006.

The Cultural Cenguru BagThe Cultural Kindergarden Sack

• The City Council decided Desember 2005 to put on a ”Cultural kindergarden bag” for preschool children.

• The project was settled for tree years and the first programmes in the kindergardens was on August 2006. From 2009: running for tree new years

• The project is administered by Barnas Hus. The board: both department of culture and of kindergarden and schools

• The project is a cooperation between the department of culture and the department of kindergarden/schools, to implement a focus on small childern in the cultural department and a focus on art in the department dealing with kindergardens.

The Objectives are two:

• -increase artistic work in kindergardens and develop kindergardens that work with art integrated in the ordinary /running daily work.

• -to cooperate with artistic and cultural field of the city, to implement small children into their repertoir and programmes: both productions and methods of mediating art for children 0-5 years old.

The Head of the Project

• -is educated both in art and pree school pedagogy and have experiences from both fields.

• ”Pilot kindergardens” was choosed:10 the first year and increased to 15 the second year.

• A ”Bank of Artist” was built up: Art Institutions and Artists have been

invited to participate...

• Artists wanting to work in the project are ”selected” and ”paired” with ideas of programmes of the kindergarden.

• Artists will write out the project content, methods etc – after meeting with the pedagogical staff. This will secure the artistic intentions in the projects

• Art Institutions are producing performances /concerts both on a professional stage and work with the children in the kindergardens. Either before the professional meeting/experience or after.

• Some ”models” of how artists, children and pedagogical staff can work together in a creativ process:

1.

• Professional dancers or musicians give a performance. Either in the kindergarden or in the theatre/conserthall.

Afterwards parts of the ensemble works with the children over some time in the kindergarden.

2.

• The kindergarden visist the artist in the studio to see how the artist is working or visit the artists exhibition in the gallery.

Afterwars the artist is working with the children in the kindergarden for some time.

3 and 4.

• The kindergarden visit the Art Museum for a special programme, the museum pedagogues or artists work with the children and the staff in kindergarden afterwards.

• The kindergarden work with an artist over time, and make a performance/

exhibition in a professional arena together with the artist

All Artistic Fields

• The first year focus was on dance, visual art and Grieg07.

• But now we work in all the artistic fields. It is impossible to regulate artistic genres, when working with small children you have to work across artistic gengres:

The projects in the kindergarden have to live their ”own life”, and develop in line with the childrens work and interest

Focuses

- On the Child: childrens interests and questions as the developing motor...

( obeservation and listening..)

- The Artist: Focus on the artistic process and also focus on the child

- How to document childrens learning processes?

• The Staff: How to cooperate with artist coming in – in a field you feel so insecure of as art?

• How to plan, organize and share knowledge and competence on art and on children in this cooperation?

• ”Pilot Kindergarden” - pilot over a year or a longer run? The board realized that the pilot periode had to be at least tree years.

Statistics year 2: 2007-2008

• 15 pilot kindergardens with • 918 children and 251 adults• 68 artists and a philosopher• 14 professional productions from 14

ensembles/institutions• NKR 1,1 mill public money and in addition

some private funds for cooperating programs exs: BIFF – administration and salary project leader not included

Exs:Themes of projects

• The weather – the sound of weather• Dolls/drama- travelling the world• Creating form/figures on geometry and

matemathics• Sculpture work. ( Kandinsky, astonauts, the

statue:Red wind)• Feets as music instruments• Hands in focus• Story/ book on the moving of the kindergarden

to another house- the mouse.

• Tall Ships Race – adoption of a ship• Picasso – portraits in Art Museum• Nicolay Astrup/Nature-Art Museum• Dancing feets.• Hands in painting and sculpture• Sampling and composition: sounds of nature-

playing with the musicians on a festival• Ekspressing emotions:Edvard Munch. Art

Museum

A Museum Guide for Children

developed in cooperation with Bergen Art Museum:

• To get aquinted with some art works in the museum: look, work, read, play

• To make the visit to the museum more exciting –and find ”your own” art work again...

• All ”pilot” children has got its own guide..

Childrens BIFF

• In cooperation Bergen International Film Festival developed a Childrens program for preschool children.

• The Programme presented quality film for small children and

• Workshop on how to work on animation and film in the kindergarden.

• Many of the pilots kindergardens now work on moving pictures with the children

Permanent institutions and festivals:

• BergenFest Music Festival• Borealis- festval og contemporary music• Bajazz- childrens jazz festival• Mini Midi Maxi- festival on childrens theatre• The focus on contemporary art and the

actual art scene of today: Not the ”traditional” small, nice art for small

children – traditional songs and plays....

DKS

• The Cultural Rucksack is also administered by Barnas Hus

The Cultural Schoolbag/rucksack

In 2001/2002 a National programme was established: The Cultural Rucksack.

A national sceme for professional art and culture in schools: to help pupils from 6 to 16 years to become acquainted with all kinds of professional art and cultural expressions.

The Objectives are:

• - To help ensure that pupils in the primary and secondary school are offered a professional art and culture programme.

• - To help pupils to get familiar with all kinds of artistic and cultural expressions, to develop a positive attitude to art and culture and experience encounters with artist.

• - To incorporate artistic and cultural expressions in the fulfilment of the schools learning objectives.

• The Cultural Rucksack is mainly funded by profits from The Norwegian National Lotto:

• 160 – 180 mill NKR annually. 20 % of the funds is located to central initiatives and 80% is distributed by regional authorities

www:denkulturelleskolesekkken.no

• The programme is primarly organized through the regional administrative/political level (the county) and distributed to the schools by touring/travelling artists, performances/concerts and exhibitions.

• The model we choosed in Bergen . Is called ”a city model of the schoolbag”. It is based on the resources of art and culture in the city.

Theatre experiences only inthe school`s sportshall?

• A performance prodused for travelling to schools is limited because of the facilities/context of the school: the sport hall and the class room.

• Why shall not the pupils experience theatre performances in the Theatre and conserts i the Consert Hall and art in the Art Museum?

Bergen

• We had since the establisment of Barnas Hus in 1992, focused on bringing into life an interaction between the city`s art scene on the one hand and kindergardens and schools on the other hand.

• Therefore the ambitions and experiments from the work in Barnas Hus was a natural starting point when the city council was to plan the contents of the cultural schoolbag in Bergen.

The questions posed were:

• - Can the city and the cultural resources of the city be an extension of the classroom and be an arena for learning?

• -Can the Art Institutions become exiting and challenging arenas for children?

• - Can well established, traditional institutions develop new ways of passing on the knowledge of art, so that children are invited to take part in a creativ process?

The Objects for the Cultural Rucksack in Bergen is:

• -For children to become participants in the Art Scene of the City and

• Become aquainted with the city`s cultural arenas and artists.

Therefore the cultural schoolbag must contain the artistic resources of the city and make these accessable to children

A close cooperation with Art Institutions will...

• Supply us with new knowledge of what characterizes good art for children

• Will give us an opportunity to develop means of art education, where participation is a coer principle, where children can meet artist in the class room as well as in all the professional arenas of art.

Quality

Artistic quality.

Pedagogical quality

Quality in organizing the work

Children`s Conception of quality

in art has, symptomatically, seldom been investigated in a systematic

fashion.What we know from the field of

practice is

Participation is a key word.

• That children thinks it ”stupid” or boring when adults talk for too long and of items they don`t understand. And when the adults are not interested to listen to them.

• When the youngsters can contribute – when they are actively investigating their surrondings and their experiences are valued, they think the activity is ”cool”, ”good”, fun.

The City of Children`s Culture

• Exs:• BIT20 Ensemble• The new Opera• Film• Carte Blance –contemporary dance

www.kulturskolesekken.no

Organization and Transport

Annualy 4 mill NKR –National Lottery

Annually 4 mill NKR –Municipal Budgets

2007-2008

• 38 000 pupils met all artistic gengres:

• Opera: 2 produsers/4583 pupils/15 schools

• Litterature: 3 produsers/1387 pupils/28 schools

• Dance: 4 produsers/1815 pupils/28 schools

• Music: 5 producers /5931 pupils/58 schools

• Arcitecture/history of culture: 2 producers/3280 pupils/39 schools

• Design: 1 produser/384 pupils/8 schools

• Film: 1 producer/743 pupils/10 schools

Culture of the world:

5 produsers/3686 pupils/46 schools

• Festivals: 2 produsers/6728 pupils/44 schools

www.bergen.kommune.no/barnashus

English version of The City of children`s culture....shows ways to work.