Kindermuseum workshop process

The first two workshops were running by an artist Madelinde Hageman. We called it “The mind opener”. The purpose of those workshop was to inspire children, to show them a different perspective on looking into the art. Madelinde wanted to proof them that art doesn’t have to be just a painting, sculpture etc hanging in a museum. Art can be everywhere, you just have to look around! Use your imagination and senses.

After second workshop I (Hanna Szpil) took the stere of the workshops leadership. When I was thinking about this workshop I knew that I really want them (children) to express themselves. Don’t give them boarders, rules, advices, just start with something that they are crazy about, something they want to work with. The full expression! I started with checking their state of mind, to check what they think, what they know. Furthermore I asked them to bring their collections. To share it with us and to listen to their stories. So they did, their brought: coins, tickets, flowers, pieces of pencils, comics, footballs cards etc.

There were four groups working around four themes: COLOR, MONEY, OV-CHIPKAARTEN, NATUUR. During the first part of the workshop they suppose to answer the questions I prepared for them. I wanted them to start thinking about their idea. To make them more AWARE of their choices. The children had to answer the following questions: What is the title of your exhibition? Why? Why is your exhibition interesting for others? How do you want to convince people to come to your museum/exhibition? During the second part of this workshop they did work with different kind of materials to create a 3D an art piece (PET bottles, cardboards, pipes, egg’s boxes etc.) so they could learn to work with different kind of materials and different dimensions. During the next workshop it was for the next step: I gave them advices, tips and worked on framing their concepts. Each group had to work with their mentor; a person who will help them to give the right shape and direction to their work. They get a special box with tasks, tools and materials to work with.

During the last workshop there were still some things to do. I decided to give them 4 tasks of 15 minutes each. They had to 1) finish their space, 2) prepare a speech for the opening, 3) find out the titles of their works and 4) give an interview (with Mira de Graaf). The interviews were very useful. Once again we asked them questions like: What is your exhibition/museum about? What is interesting about it? How should your next exhibition/future museum look like? What is the concept behind your exhibition? It gave us a good view on their ideas and opinions. After one hour of workshop, it was a time for the opening. Many children, parents and other guests came to support the young curators and artists. The opening went very good. Each group gave a short speech about their exhibition. After that there were special attractions: The Muppet Show, ice creams and our movie about the workshop process.