Amsterdam Museum thinks about the city museum of the future together with children
Appeared on:
di 17 oktober 2023, 10:00 hour
During the period 2023-2025, Amsterdam children at the Amsterdam Museum will have the opportunity to help think about the city museum of the future. The ELJA Children’s Museum Lab project consists of eight annual meetings in all city districts, exhibitions and a children’s sounding board group and director. With this, Amsterdam’s city museum aims to gain insight into what the ultimate museum for and by children looks like, especially in the march toward the city museum of the future. This multi-year project is made possible in part by the ELJA Foundation.
Amsterdam Museum Camp
In the second half of 2023, editions of the Amsterdam Museum Camp for children between the ages of 9 and 12 will be organized in all seven districts of Amsterdam and in the Weesp area. During these sessions, under the guidance of education and museum experts, they will work with the question of what children need when they visit a museum. The young participants will also work with a professional artist to create a collaborative artwork that will become part of the Amsterdam Museum’s collection. Furthermore, the children visit the Amsterdam Museum on the Amstel. The sessions have a different theme each year; in 2023, the focus will be the commemorative year surrounding the history of slavery. The lab sessions will take place this year at various locations of the OBA, Jeugdland, Tolhuistuin, De Kazerne Reigersbos, MidWest and the Van Eesteren Museum. The participating artists are Yasser Ballemans, Anouschka Boswijk, Marlou Fernanda, Malou Sumah, Noémi Beyer, Tessa Hendriks, Janne Igbuwe and Carmen Schabracq.
Exhibition
The artworks created during the eight lab sessions this year will be exhibited from December 9 to April 28, 2024 the Amsterdam Museum, also with an active role of the participating children. They will be actively involved in the set-up, with space for visual art, performance, theater, music, dance and design. A festive opening will take place on Thursday, December 14, during which all participating children will be put in the limelight.
Viewing route
Already before, from November 4 to 19, 2023, a viewing route will be laid out through the city along all participating partner locations. Along this route, children and other interested parties can view each other’s artworks first. This presentation moment provides an opportunity to introduce the children to the other locations and participants, and is also the first chance to show their artwork to friends, family and other people in their social circle.
Children’s sounding board group and director
In addition, the Amsterdam Museum is putting together a sounding board group of children who will spend the next three years thinking about the Amsterdam Museum as the children’s museum of the future. A children’s director will also be installed, chosen from participating children in the lab sessions. The children’s panel and children’s director will meet once a quarter to respond to the museum’s plans. The children’s director and children’s sounding board group change each year.
Purpose
The goal of this project is not only to increase connection with the Amsterdam Museum for children from all parts of the city, explains Gonca Yalçıner, manager of Education & Participation at the museum. ‘We want to invite children to reflect on themselves, their surroundings and the world. This project is the perfect vehicle for that: art can introduce children to themes bigger than themselves from an early age. The ideal museums introduce them to that in an accessible way.’
ELJA Foundation
The above activities are funded by the ELJA Foundation, a philanthropic fund that supports innovation in the fields of music, dance and the visual arts, helping children and young people from different walks of life become better prepared for their future and more interconnected. The Arts Education lectorate of the Amsterdam School of the Arts supervises and researches the ELJA Children’s Museum Lab.