Photo: Silke Bauer

“Space and Time: NOW!” is an early-childhood cultural education project targeted at children between the ages of 4 to 8 years. The project will introduce 320 Berlin children to museums as places of activity where their opinion counts. The citywide project is designed to encourage artistic action. The children work together to shape situations as they imagine them – action as an expression of opinion and design as a means of shaping the social reality of the world.

What kind of actions would children like to plan? What ideas will they express in their encounter with the museum environment? What kind of analogue and digital tools and what materials will they want to use in their creative endeavours? How do pretending and reality, past, present and future all relate to one another? What would they like to show, and who do they wish to reach with their actions?

The participating museums offer places, images, objects and stories as points of reference which can serve as a bridge to the everyday lives of Berlin’s preschool children.

Using artistic approaches that kickstart investigative and creative processes, the project offers children opportunities to intervene, comment on and rethink their opinions. Not only does this require courage, individuality and common purpose, but also space, time and a safe environment. The project encourages the children to develop their own positions and explore democratic processes of negotiation, thereby strengthening such processes and presenting them as the foundation of political cultural education. The children in this workshop series carry out artistic actions in the museum environment and the social sphere. Promoting self-determination in children plays a central role in this project with respect to being permitted to also shape our society: NOW!

Seven state-funded museums, the Pestalozzi-Fröbel-Haus and educational facilities in eight Berlin districts have teamed up with the Jugend im Museum association to create a citywide network of cultural and social venues which children can explore creatively and help shape. The Bauhaus-Archiv, Berlinische Galerie, Bröhan-Museum, Georg Kolbe Museum, Käthe-Kollwitz-Museum, Stiftung Stadtmuseum Berlin and Werkbundarchiv- Museum der Dinge are partnering with sixteen daycare centres, family centres and all-day childcare facilities.

Partners
Jugend im Museum e.V.; Bauhaus-Archiv / Museum für Gestaltung; Pestalozzi-Fröbel-Haus; Berlinische Galerie; Bröhan Museum - Landesmuseum für Jugendstil, Art Deco und Funktionalismus; Georg Kolbe Museum; Käthe-Kollwitz-Museum Berlin; Stiftung Stadtmuseum; Werkbundarchiv-Museum der Dinge; Fröbelkindergarten Schatzinsel Berlin; Kinderhaus Waldschulallee e.V.; Kita am Schloß, Kita Barbarossa; Kita Belziger Straße; Kita Gartenstraße 107, Kita Kastanienallee; Kita Schloßstraße; Kita Wunderkinder – blu:boks; Familienzentrum Mehringdamm; all-day childcare programme at the Schule am Fliederbusch; all-day childcare programme at the Schinkel-Grundschule; Kita Sonnenschein; Kita kleine Grünschnäbel III ; Kita Ritterburg; Kita Haubachstraße; Familienzentrum Ritterburg; JugendKulturZentrum PUMPE

Project manager
Jugend im Museum e.V. (Anja Bodanowitz)

Coordination team
Silke Bauer (Pestalozzi-Fröbel-Haus)
Anja Bodanowitz (Jugend im Museum e.V.)
Friederike Holländer (Bauhaus-Archiv / Museum für Gestaltung)