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Preface
Minister for Culture Brian Mikkelsen
I am very pleased to introduce Children and Culture in Progress. In this publication you can read about the results of Network for Children and Culture in 2007 as well as the plans for the years 2008 and 2009.
The network started as a collaboration between agencies and institutes under the Ministry of Culture, and the efforts initiated by the network have meant that an increasing number of national cultural institutions are placing focus on children and their families.
The inclusion of the Ministry of Education and the Ministry of Family and Consumer Affairs, whose place has now been taken over by the Ministry of Social Welfare, has made it possible to think and work more broadly with culture in the places where children actually move.
The Municipal Reform has given municipal policy a great lift within the area of children, culture and the arts as well as other areas. The field of children, culture and the arts is an important element in many cultural agreements between municipalities and the Ministry of Culture. The Network has been ready with inspiration and guidance, and the local environments have made good use of both. It is naturally a great pleasure for me to listen to frequent positive comments about Network for Children and Culture when visiting the municipalities up and down the country.
The dialogue between state and municipality is fundamental for the model experiment which a number of municipalities find themselves in the middle of right now. Dialogue generates models and methods to upgrade the field of children, culture and the arts locally.
The Network's offers of inspiration and knowledge sharing via conferences, seminars and publications have had the desired effect, and more and more children in Denmark are meeting culture and art of high quality. In the end, the experiences are passed on to all Danish municipalities so that all children can benefit from them.
Minister for Education Bertel Haarder
Danish children of today spend much of their time in day-care centres, schools and leisure centres. The institutions provide excellent frames for art and culture constituting an active and engaging factor in the every-day lives of children and young adults. Basic general education, moreover, gives us the chance to introduce art and culture to more or less every child in the country.
One of the themes in the model municipality experiment is in fact 'Culture in the school' with focus centred on art and culture in the Danish Folkeskole (primary and secondary school).
What do we do to strengthen practical as well as art subjects at school?
In order to examine this question I appointed an advisory group in 2007 with representation from the Danish Folkeskole and the art and culture sector. The group chose as their starting point professor Anne Bamford's report The Ildsjael in the Classroom, which calls into question whether the Folkeskole to a sufficient degree exploits its resources regarding art subjects and whether pupils get the maximum benefit from the instruction in these subjects.
The advisory group's work resulted in a number of recommendations as to which ways to strengthen practical and art subjects in school education, and how we might encourage the collaboration between existing cultural institutions and the school. The recommendations deal with designation and extent of the subjects, evaluation and tests in relation to these subjects, interdisciplinary cooperation between subjects, pedagogical qualifications, cooperation between cultural institutions and school as well as research and knowledge sharing.
Network for Children and Culture can help furthering many of the advisory group's suggestions. Interplay between the school sector, art education programmes and the cultural sector is one of the Network's action lines.
The wish for pupils at schools and upper secondary schools to meet artists in their own every-day lives is also one of the action lines of Network for Children and Culture. Initiatives such as the "In-house artist scheme' can here provide a strong incentive to give the pupils a vibrant and authentic meeting with an artist and with creative activity.
Network for Children and Culture offers many possibilities for creating better frames for children and young adults' meeting with the great diversity of art and culture. We must make sure that these possibilities blossom and bear seeds. We can each of us do a great deal. Together we can do much more.
Minister for Social Welfare Karen Jespersen
Dance and drawing create joy and well-being. And a visit to the theatre when as a child you get involved in the creation of a play can give you an experience for life.
Art and culture are important to everyone - young as well as old. I am, therefore, very happy that the Ministry of Welfare is part of Network for Children and Culture. The Network's many exciting and fine initiatives will undoubtedly help making art and culture a natural part of children's every-day lives.
The good and close contact between the country's municipalities and Network for Children and Culture is important. It strengthens the cooperation between state and municipality so that the extra focus on art and culture can be seen and felt in our daily lives, because it can support the pedagogical learning plans in day institutions and thereby contribute positively to the work with disadvantaged children and integration.
The world of art and culture can provide children with some very good experiences. But art can also inspire children to express themselves in new ways and to develop and challenge their creative abilities.
We have come this far
A new era in the promotion of children, culture and the arts began in 2002 when the Ministry of Culture established Network for Children and Culture: Before the work with children, culture and the arts took place in successive councils and various contexts, but with the Network children and culture has become a common task for all institutions under the Ministry of Culture.
Network for Children and Culture has two main tasks:
- To ensure that all the Ministry of Culture's institutions prioritize cultural offers to children and assume joint responsibility for developing the field of children, culture and the arts.
- To ensure the synergy between the various activities so that the largest number of children and young adults benefit from the resources we spend on children, culture and the arts.
The Network's efforts cannot stand alone:
Our strategy for initiating activities all over the country is to share knowledge, inspire and advise all the many players involved in children, culture and the arts. And to qualify and coordinate the many activities within this field that take place both locally, regionally and nationally. In this way we create dynamics, development and synergy.
A very visible result of the Network's efforts is the broad contact and dialogue with the municipalities which we have been working determinedly at in 2006-2007. The municipalities are vital players if we are to ensure that all Danish children have access to qualified, local cultural offers.
The Network's first five years
Over the first five years Network for Children and Culture has made considerable strides towards realising the vision which we in 2002 decided had to be the objective in the work with developing children, culture and the arts.
- All children must meet art and culture
- All cultural institutions must contribute
- All art forms must be included
The vision has been the guiding principle in our first two action plans The Art of Mediation - Action plan 2004-2005 and Children, culture and the arts nationwide - Action Plan 2006-2007, and it continues to be our overall objective in the present action plan for 2008-2009. We have chosen the title Children and Culture in Progress, and the most important task over the coming years is to consolidate and spread the results we have achieved.
Many more children now have the chance to meet art and culture
The Municipal Reform has provided the municipalities with better frames and larger scope for developing their cultural offers to as many children as possible. At the moment the Network is conducting a close dialogue with more than 2/3 of the municipalities in the country, and we are striving to include the last 1/3. It does not mean that all children in a municipality are soon ensured access to a varied cultural offer in their daily lives. But dialogue can create the basis for a broad and versatile activity in the local areas where the children live.
In 2007 several of the Network's partners - Danish Agency for Libraries and Media, Danish Film Institute and Danish Arts Council/Arts Agency - have also made great progress in terms of advancing their offers in relation to children, culture and the arts to all municipalities. This applies both to permanent schemes with offers of theatre, dance and music and special initiatives such as the Love of Reading Campaign, Going to the cinema with the school and the "In-house artist" arrangement, which have made an impact in more or less the entire country.
All children also mean children of all ages: The pedagogical learning plans in the day-care centres make it possible for pre-school children to experience art and culture in their everyday lives. In the Network's new model municipality experiment both pre-school children and families with children are specific action lines together with culture in the school.
All cultural institutions contribute
All state institutions today have children and young adults listed as a particular focus area in the performance contract with the Ministry of Culture. Private and municipal cultural institutions are also developing new offers for children and families at the present time.
For example, the Danish Agency for Libraries and Media is working on new strategies for children's libraries, and in the museum area the Cultural Heritage Agency has established new financial pools for projects that i.a. support mediation to children and young adults.
The Network has also taken the initiative to a new experimental course for cultural facilitators, focusing on the new challenges associated with mediation to children and young adults.
All art forms are included
Music and sports were previously often the only leisure time opportunities for children. Today that monopoly has been broken, and many more art forms and cultural expressions have appeared on the scene - lately dancing has won general favour locally.
In 2006 the Network published a number of 'manuals' which might inspire the players in the field of children, culture and the arts to new partnerships across subjects and institutions. The books aim the focus at all art forms - also those without a long tradition in children, culture and the arts.
In 2007 the Network also placed architecture and design offers to children on the agenda - two art forms which tend to be overlooked in traditional children's cultural offers. The Network has appointed a working group with representatives from professional institutions and organisations, and over the next few years we shall be making a particular effort to develop new children's cultural offers in relation to architecture and design.
Our next step: Stabilizing and qualification
The all-important task in the Network's action plan for 2008-2009 it to disseminate, develop, improve and secure the new local cultural offers for children, which the Network and the municipalities together have launched.
We wish to strengthen the cooperation between state and municipality in relation to children and culture, and we wish to direct more attention towards children, culture and the arts so that it becomes a natural part of children's everyday lives. It is not enough for children, culture and the arts to become a natural element in municipal cultural policies and children's policies - we must
also in practice work to qualify the art forms which children are introduced to.
What we are going to do in 2008 and 2009
All the activities which we are going to launch during 2008-2009 are rooted in our vision that all children must experience culture and the arts, that all cultural institutions must take part and that all art forms must be included.
The activities are based on the three themes which we introduced in the action plan for 2006-2007:
- Culture in day-care centres
- Culture in the school
- Culture in the family
In all the activities we have considered the progressive perspectives as outlined in the status report for 2006:
- Children and culture nationwide
- Learning, creativity and innovation
- Danish culture in the world and world culture in Denmark
We are also going to make a particular effort to strengthen competences and networks in all players involved in children, culture and the arts.
The three themes
There continues to be a great need for development within the three action lines:
Culture in day-care centres, Culture in the school and Culture in the family.
In 2008-2009 we will therefore strive to ensure that children all over the country are guaranteed cultural offers of high quality in day-care centres, school and the family's leisure time, i.a. in connection with the model municipality experiment and the mediation activities we have launched during 2006-2007.
Culture in day-care centres
The Network's work with culture in day-care centres in 2006-2007 has already now provided experiences in several municipalities which can be inspirational in other parts of the country and which we will help to spread.
Day-care centres have many years' experience of dealing with creativity and children, culture and the arts. They are also bound by law to base their work on the pedagogical learning plans, which i.a. put the focus on Language, Body and Movement as well as Cultural forms of expression and values. And they must document their physical, mental and aesthetic environment according to this law.
In practice children's cultural activities and the individual work methods vary greatly - from municipality to municipality and from one day-care centre to another.
- Passing on the good experiences
This difference means great diversity with many valuable experiences in a number of day-care centres which we will disseminate to other such institutions in the country in order to inspire them to new ways of dealing with children, culture and the arts. Some institutions work e.g. very systematically with children, culture and the arts or a certain art form, some have scenarios with artists, quality films, children's theatre, kindergarten concerts, dancing and other art forms, and others give the children the opportunity to experience art in local or national cultural institutions. Kindergarten libraries and book parcels also belong in a popular category.
- Inspiration and knowledge sharing
We are going to disseminate the experiences via information material, meetings, seminars and conferences. We will also mediate concrete examples of how to include children, culture and the arts in the pedagogical learning plans - partly via information material, partly via pedagogical further education and partly via articles in professional journals and information on the net. We will furthermore look into the possibilities for developing inspiration material about the day-care centres' environmental appraisals, with best practice examples.
We will also build on our good experiences in connection with using conferences and seminars to share knowledge and inspire to new activities, and we will develop specific courses for certain target groups - e.g. courses for pedagogues on qualifying and mediating children, culture and the arts in day-care centres.
Finally, we will invite the municipalities to contribute with papers and to participate in major local conferences and meetings to discuss how the municipality can develop its cultural offers to children.
- New areas of development
The first sketches for cultural kindergartens are on the drawings board, inspired by the sports kindergartens and music kindergartens established over the past few years. The idea is that the different art forms are the central element in the cultural kindergarten.
We are keeping a close watch of the development and will help 'advertise' the initiatives and disseminate experiences and ideas.
Culture in the school
In 2006-2007 we have i.a. placed the focus on culture in the school by way of our two-year model municipality experiment, and many model municipalities are doing projects that involve school or SFO (after school leisure scheme).
The school is a central partner in the mediation of art and culture to children, and it carries a great joint responsibility in relation to children meeting both live culture and the cultural heritage in all its diversity.
More and more teachers also wish to include art in everyday life at school. Their growing interest in cooperating with cultural life bears witness to this. Both the In-house artist scheme and the Love of Reading Campaign have made a considerable impact in schools all over the country.
At the moment the minister for culture and the minister for education are discussing the possibility of launching activities to bridge the gap between school and cultural life.
An advisory group has i.a. suggested a strengthening of the practical art subjects by giving the schools more scope for providing special experiences, by strengthening the schools' cooperation with cultural institutions, by school and cultural life being provided with more information about existing offers and cooperation possibilities, by teachers and cultural facilitators getting better educational opportunities and by strengthening research and knowledge sharing.
The Network has contributed with ideas to the advisory groups, and we will try to include them in our future work when the result of the ministers' deliberations is available.
- Inspiration and knowledge exchange
We will also continue to develop the cultural dimension in school in our other activities. Among other things, in our cooperation with the individual school and institution, by inspiring to new cultural offers to SFO and by mediating experiences and inspiration to interested schools, SFOs and cultural players.
Experience shows that there are great possibilities for implementing cultural offers in the SFO's daily life, which will benefit a lot of children. At the same time many SFO-employees would like to tackle this particular area.
We will therefore collaborate with the Ministry of Education in mediating good examples of how leisure time institutions can work with art and culture with the help of existing possibilities and resources.
We will use the web portal for children and culture www.boernogkultur.dk and other relevant net services to mediate the ideas.
- Exchange of ideas and experience
We will examine the possibilities for holding conferences and seminars together with the Ministry of Education and the Ministry of Culture, where teachers, SFO-workers, cultural players and administrative people get the chance to create binding networks that can develop new activities and support local initiatives nationwide.
We will help the new networks getting off to a good start, and we will develop various offers for them to use in the further process.
Culture in the family
Modern families with young children are a broad target group and many different interest groups wish to appeal to them. Quite a few of these families are also very conscious of how they spend their time together, and they are very interested in participating in experiences for the whole family in their leisure time - e.g. cultural experiences. It is therefore still important to develop a broad range of cultural offers that appeal to the modern family with young children.
It requires a knowledge of the families' conditions and their possibilities for doing things together. The ideal thing would be to develop special family offers from the children are very young and right up until the tween-years, so that the family gets the chance to create a good tradition of common cultural experiences which enrich adults as well as children across generations.
In future we will therefore focus on how to develop new offers for the family.
- Highlighting best practice
Many cultural institutions and municipalities are already making a great effort to create purposeful frames and concrete activities to offer children and adults shared experiences. We will highlight their experiences as to which initiatives work and the special cultural needs that a family with children have.
We also want to mediate new experiences from the projects in our model municipal experiment that are dealing with the theme Culture in the family. Among other things we will share our knowledge via the webportal for children and culture www.boernogkultur.dk, and we will focus especially on this subject at conferences and seminars. We also offer ourselves as sparring partners for all players who see offers to the family as an exciting and challenging part of the field of children' culture.
- New networks of cultural institutions
We will make the cultural institutions aware of how important it is to develop offers to families with small children, and we will offer anyone interested the possibility of participating in networks where they can exchange experiences and ideas that can improve the offers to the family. For example, a network of cultural institutions that have selected the family as a specific action line, or have some experience of cooperating with associations, schools and cultural players in creating cultural offers to the family.
The experiment in the municipalities
14 model municipalities and 18 monitoring municipalities participate in the Network's experiment in the municipality, which started on 1. September 2007 and finishes on 31. August 2009.
The objective of the experiment is to develop models and methods in the municipalities' work with children and culture within the three main themes in the action plans for 2006-2007 and 2008-2009:
- Culture in day-care centres
- Culture in the school
- Culture in the family
The experiment has therefore been entitled "Children and culture in the municipality - new ways and methods in the work with children, culture and leisure".
The experiment in the municipalities also puts the focus on how to qualify, organise and anchor the municipalities' work with children and culture.
Activities
The Network is sparring partner for the municipalities in their work with developing and anchoring local projects, with financial support from the Network.
We also arrange conferences and meetings for both model municipalities and monitoring municipalities: In November 2007 we launched the experiment with a conference for the model municipalities.
At the beginning of 2008 we invited model municipalities and monitoring municipalities to a conference which will be focusing on network creation and knowledge exchange. We will hold a midway conference in 2008 and a final conference in 2009.
We also have the possibility of holding smaller meetings with selected municipalities about specially chosen themes.
Mediation
The Network sees the model municipal experiment as a unique opportunity to develop and enhance models and methods in the work with children and culture. We, therefore, prioritize current mediation of the experiment highly.
We will i.a.:
- Exchange knowledge and experiences on the Network's homepage www.boernekultur.dk, where you can find information on all participating municipalities and in the portal for children, culture and the arts www.boernogkultur.dk
- Run a blog where all participating municipalities can communicate with each other, write observations and present relevant material to inspire each other.
- Publish an electronic newsletter for the municipalities to use as a tool, which supplements the blog and sums up what has been happening so far, so that other interested parties are kept up to date.
- Publish a report to wind up the model experiment.
Perspectives
The model experiment is the Network's concrete strategy to back up local development work in the country as a whole. The basic idea is that local cultural policy is best dealt with locally, but that the state can support local initiatives and help secure an overall perspective for cultural initiatives nationwide.
The 14 model municipalities which form the core of the experiment offer a multitude of activities for children of 0-16: A large number of cultural institutions and art forms are involved in the many projects which are built up around interdisciplinary collaborations between various mediation groups, institutions and administrations.
Some projects also develop methods in user-driven innovation and user-oriented development, rooted in children's knowledge, thoughts and experiences. A field of great potential within children, culture and the arts.
The Network sees the model experiment as part of a long-term strategy for upgrading the field of children, culture and the arts in the country as a whole and for strengthening the collaboration between state and municipality by collecting, analysing and implementing the new models and methods developed by the model municipalities. Methods and models with innovative and creative potentials which can set new agendas for the entire field of children, culture and the arts.
Evaluation
In order to secure an overall accumulation of knowledge during the entire experimental period, the Network launched an external evaluation in the spring of 2008.
Current development, learning and knowledge sharing will be process-evaluated, and the final evaluation is intended to mediate methods and results.
We work closely together with the evaluator on a number of the activities, i.a. conferences and seminars. Our comments on the model municipal experiment on the Network's homepage are also part of the evaluation material: Applicability is a keyword in the evaluation. It is therefore part of our strategy for knowledge sharing and open, useful exchange of experiences.
Focus on communication
Mediation of art and culture to children and young adults was a specific action line for the Network in 2006-2007, where we turned our communication strategies into concrete activities.
Diploma programme for cultural facilitators
In September 2007 30 facilitators of children and culture from all over the country started on the new experimental two-year diploma programme in cultural mediation to children and the young at Odsherred Teaterskole.
The Network has taken the initiative to develop the programme together with eight educational institutions under the Ministry of Culture, because we realise that facilitators of children, culture and the arts within all subject areas have a growing need for getting further qualifications:
- Several new large municipalities prepare cultural action plans and employ cultural facilitators.
- School libraries have obtained a broader function and importance as culture mediating authority.
- The public libraries implement development programmes in order to meet children's new mediation requirements.
- The Danish Arts Council's In-house artist scheme gives the schools the opportunity to include artists in their teaching. It levels new demands at both artist and teacher's ability to mediate.
Stronger connection between the Ministry of Culture and the Ministry of Education
Interest in the experimental education programme has been overwhelming with 90 well-qualified applicants. The Network is therefore at the moment examining the possibility of launching new educational programmes in September 2008. An evaluation firm has written a halfway report on the process which will be taken into consideration.
The Network's idea is for the Ministry of Culture and Ministry of Education to work together on the educational programmes: One can create synergy between the cultural area and the school area and encourage the growing cooperation on children and culture, if the Ministry of Culture's educational institutions enter into an equal partnership with the Ministry of Education's Centre for Adult Education (CVU).
Several CVUs have already declared their interest. It makes it possible to strengthen the pedagogical aspect of the mediation programme and to offer this education elsewhere in Denmark.
Promotion of architecture and design to children
Architecture and design should be encouraged as art forms in the world of children. In 2006 the Network therefore took the initiative to get together a project group with representatives of cultural institutions, educational institutions, professional organisations and networks wanting to strengthen mediation of architecture and design to children.
At a series of meetings the project group has been discussing how to further mediation of architecture and design in relation to children. Architecture and design are unknown art forms in most children's everyday lives, and both are also composite art forms with as yet many unexplored possibilities. The project group has therefore directed focus at concrete initiatives with a view to developing the area in 2008:
Working seminar on development of visions and strategies
The project group has invited experts from the world of architecture and design to a working seminar in order to formulate goals and visions which schools, cultural life, institutions and organisations can use as their basis for developing strategies, tools and offers.
Four theme seminars in 2008
The results from the working seminar are to be mediated to and discussed with a larger circle of stakeholders at four theme seminars, which the Network will arrange in different areas of the country. The target group is partly professionals within architecture and design, partly representatives from municipalities, institutions and organisations.
The objective of the theme seminars is
- charting and strengthening the area
- gathering broad inspiration to develop an architecture and design policy for children
- forming functional networks
- examining the basis for new ideas in the meeting between culture representatives and creative architects and designers
- developing models for mediation of architecture and design in the Folkeskole, in cultural institutions and in urban environments.
Experiences, visions and strategy
We will mediate the experiences gathered in an idea and debate book. The book will provide an overview of the area and elaborate on visions and strategies for how to strengthen and develop the mediation of architecture and design to children. The target group is teachers, pedagogues, architects, designers, mediators and employees in the state or municipal sector who wish to work with this particular area - and politicians who wish to support it.
Children, culture and the arts on the Internet
Since its first action plan, the Network has focused specifically on how we can use the Internet to make children, culture and the arts more visible to both children and grown-ups.
We have also developed a prototype of a narrative search engine, Artriks, intended for children of school age, and we have started preparing an overall strategy for mediation of art and culture to children via the net.
Net strategy for children, culture and the arts
The Network's goal is to formulate a collective strategy for how the large national cultural institutions can mediate children, culture and the arts on the Internet - in an interchange with the Network's partners and existing web sites.
The strategy will be finalised during 2008 where we will decide how to put it into operation. It will contain suggestions for new initiatives, inspired by work with the narrative search engine, Artriks and other Danish and foreign projects.
Other special activities in 2008-2009
The Network will also be making a particular effort to develop competence programmes and new networks which will anchor and qualify the entire field of children and culture.
Development of new networks
The municipalities need to develop special networks in the field of children, culture and the arts. This has become very apparent after the Municipal Reform came into force.
Many municipalities realise the need: Among the municipalities applying to join the model municipal experiment, several have in their applications put forward concrete proposals for strategies to develop networks.
We accept this challenge by focusing on the development of new networks in 2008-2009. We wish to pinpoint the type of network which is particularly suited to developing the work with children, culture and the arts - interdisciplinary networks, new organisation forms and networks within certain professional groups and sectors, networks across municipalities, informal networks etc.
Development of competence
That everyone involved in children and culture needs new competences to develop and mediate this culture has also become apparent via our dialogue with the municipalities.
The Network will therefore offer interdisciplinary courses and courses for specific professional groups which will focus on general topics within children, culture and the arts and on specific themes. The courses will also provide the participants with actual tools, which they can use to develop their work.
In connection with the model experiment it is also necessary to arrange brief, decentralised competence courses. We will develop a model for how the courses can be held at existing educational institutions, financed via user's fee.
Tendencies and perspectives
The Network is aware of a number of specific needs within the field of children, culture and the arts.
We are aware
- of the need to consider as far as at all possible disadvantaged children and young adults with a need for integrated cultural offers. We will make ourselves available as sparring partner for municipalities and others who work with cultural offers in this field, but will also point to possible initiatives in the longer term.
- of youth culture as a specific area of cultural policy. We will therefore examine the possibility for extending the Network's target to also include young people of 14-18 years and consider which new initiatives we might profitably launch.
Disadvantaged children
In the present action plan we consider which current activities are suitable for disadvantaged children and where they fit in naturally and also draw the attention of this group to seminars and conferences. Apart from this we are considering how to make a special effort in the longer term in order to support the municipalities in their work with creating cultural offers which will give disadvantaged children the chance to develop as individuals and understand the world around them better despite their social, physical and psychological handicaps.
Teachers and pedagogues may find it difficult to reach the disadvantaged children via those strategies that work with other children, but artistic and cultural experiences often appeal more strongly to disadvantaged children than they are used to because they are surprising, pleasurable, physical, sensuous etc.
This makes cultural offers a special resource that can put children on an equal footing whatever their background and give disadvantaged children new experiences and new spaces for reflection where not only intellectual disciplines set the agenda.
We need to collect experiences as to how we can create more local cultural offers to disadvantaged children by being particularly aware of
- projects and activities which disadvantaged children can profit by.
- projects and activities in municipalities that make a special effort to include disadvantaged children in cultural activities and which have experience of how art and culture can put children on an equal footing whatever their backgrounds.
- how the Network can share knowledge at conferences, seminars etc.
- how to launch special activities that involve disadvantaged children and mediate the experiences to other interested parties.
Integration
The Network will also consider the possibilities in the longer term to make cultural activities with focus on integration a specific action line.
Art cuts across ethnicity and nations: Artistic forms of expression have different local characteristics around the world, but the fundamental story that art tells us is the same the world over. It is therefore possible for art to create a common understanding across ethnicity.
Dance is e.g. an art form which is not based on language, but on the movements of the body. This makes it possible for children from other ethnic groups to show talents which they cannot usually do during ordinary classes. Being able to show their hidden potentials can give children greater self-confidence and a more equal distribution of roles and dynamics in the class.
By providing children with an insight into the diversity of global art one can also widen their knowledge, experience and understanding of art and of others ways of thinking and experiencing the world. Although the expressions of art forms cut across ethnicity and nationality, people in other countries can express themselves in other ways which depend on local traditions and norms.
We will therefore consider how the Network can possibly create better opportunities for children, culture and the arts to be used as a viable path to strengthen the integration of children from other ethnic groups.
Youth culture
The Network's target group is children from 0-14 years, but many of our partners feel that young people between 14 and 18 ought to be part of this target group.
There is a need for a cultural policy for, with and by the young - and for a strategy for how to turn the policy into concrete offers which the young would be interested in using. The Association of Children and Culture Principals is among those who have suggested a framework for youth culture that will give the young a chance to make their voices heard, to examine and experiment with new cultural offers and to create informal networks around cultural activities.
The Network is in no doubt at all that a targeted effort to provide better frames for youth culture is a good investment in the personal development of the young.
The Network is therefore going to examine the possibilities for extending the Network's target group to include the 14-18 year-olds.
How we work
One of the Network's main tasks is to create dynamism, synergy and innovation in the cultural offers to children - both locally, regionally and nationally. This is why we back initiatives and ventures all over the country, making ourselves available to all the players in the field of children, culture and the arts with inspiration and sparring. And also when new activities must be developed, anchored and mediated to other local areas.
We coordinate activities, too, and make a special effort to create sustainable networks across professions, institutions and municipalities, so that the players in the field are given optimal possibilities for sharing experiences and inspiring each other in every way.
To make sure that the Network sees the cooperation with the local partners through, we currently employ consultants who are involved in certain experimental schemes or other activities launched by the Network. The consultants are sparring partners for the local players and ensure competence, visibility, continuity and mediation of new knowledge and experiences.
Advising
The Network offers partly general information and advice on children and culture to all players in the field of children, culture and the arts, partly guidance and sparring to certain target groups.
In 2008-2009 three target groups in particular are in focus:
- National cultural institutions
Families with young children are one of our action lines in 2008-2009, and it is a considerable challenge to develop future cultural offers to the modern family with children. Therefore we wish to work more closely together with cultural institutions that offer activities to children and their families.
- Agreement with the Cultural Regions
Children, culture and the arts are an item in the agreement with the cultural regions and the Ministry of Culture. The Network will therefore suggest itself as sparring partner in the municipalities' actual work with the development of new cultural activities for children - both to the municipalities that already have a cultural agreement and those that are about to get one.
- Experiments in the municipalities
In 2008-2009 the Network will be focusing on developing local children and culture in the experiment "Children, culture and the arts in the municipality - new ways and methods in the work with children, culture and leisure".
The 32 model municipalities and monitoring municipalities participating in the experiment can over the entire period use the Network's offer of advice, sparring, inspiration conferences, meetings and evaluation that mediate experiences and results from the projects.
Knowledge exchange
One of the Network's main tasks is to spread knowledge and ideas to all interested parties.
We do this first of all via the Internet, by publishing various reports etc. and via our conferences and seminars.
In 2008-2009 we shall be working particularly with:
- Web portal and homepage
The portal of children, culture and the arts www.boernogkultur.dk and the Network's homepage www.boernekultur.dk continue to be spearheads in the Network's knowledge sharing.
We have updated the homepage with the development in the Network's actual initiatives and with our partners' activities within the area of children and culture.
We are currently updating the web portal with the latest news, events and initiatives within the field of children and culture. In 2008-2009 we will present actual cross-sectional themes across borderlines, in cooperation with our partners' web masters.
The Network's secretariat also provides material for Nordic Council of Ministers' children and youth culture portal Valhalla, Valhalla.norden.org. Valhalla gives an overview of what is going on within children, culture and the arts in the North and our contribution means that the players within our field in the other Nordic countries are being kept informed about the most important news and events in Denmark.
Publications
The Network plans to publish several reports etc. during the period covered by the action plan. Among other things, the results of the municipal experiment and about mediation of architecture and design to children.
All our publications are free of charge and can be ordered in printed form or downloaded at www.boernekultur.dk
Conferences and seminars
In 2008-2009 we will invite people to a number of conferences and seminars. I.a. a conference about children's unique culture, and how it differs from the culture adults would like to introduce to children. Four seminars on architecture and design are also on the agenda.
We support larger networks within the field of children and culture, and we offer a number of thematic courses - at a fee - to particular target groups such as pedagogues, librarians and artists.
Documentation
We will continue to mediate research and research results about children, culture and the arts to anyone interested via the Internet, theme meetings and conferences in 2008-2009.
Our close collaboration with researchers and research environments ensure that all new relevant knowledge about children, culture and the arts is mediated.
We will also focus specifically on:
Research on children, culture and the arts
Research on children, culture and the arts must be more conspicuous, i.a. on the portal of children, culture and the arts www.boernogkultur.dk. With this in mind we are working on a special strategy together with the researcher network at the Royal School of Library and Information Science.
We also cooperate with a number of research institutions to carry on and develop a research network within the area of children and culture - so far the participants are the University of Southern Denmark, the Royal School of Library and Information Science and Roskilde University Centre. The plan is for the collaboration to include all interested research environments.
Facts about children, culture and the arts
The Ministry of Culture's fact sheets on children, culture and the arts are being revised currently by the Network's secretariat, our partners and the Ministry of Culture. From now on we will each year be publishing the latest facts about children, culture and the arts and the list of government grants to children, culture and the arts so that the actual figures are available to all interested parties.
Statistics of children, culture and the arts
Statistics of children, culture and the arts are given a prominent place on the Ministry of Culture's new platform for cultural statistics, which the Network helps to develop.
International cooperation
Over the years the Network has established close contacts with a considerable number of European organisations, institutions and interest groups, with whom we exchange ideas and experiences, and use to develop networks and cooperation forum about children and culture with kindred partners, particularly in the North and the EU countries.
In 2008-2009 we will develop the cooperation within selected areas:
EU Network
Civil servants in Ministries of Education and Ministries of Culture of the European Union are part of a network working with art and culture in education programmes for children and young adults.
The EU Network meets twice a year where Network for Children and Culture represents the Ministry of Culture.
The purpose of the meetings is to share knowledge and to provide inspiration. At the same time the EU Network gives us a good chance to take a short cut to creating new international contacts and coordinate European initiatives.
Nordic cooperation
Nordic cooperation is an important catalyst in the development of the field of children, culture and the arts in the Nordic countries, as their common tradition in terms of children, culture and the arts provides good opportunities for mutual inspiration and getting together in joint projects.
The Network endeavours to encourage this cooperation via contact networks and cooperation groups dealing with relevant themes such as art and culture in the school. In this way we can ensure knowledge sharing of initiatives of interest to all the Nordic countries.
Exchange of ideas and experiences
The Network keeps an eye on how children, culture and the arts develops in other countries via our contacts, networks and other information sources, and we mediate information to relevant persons and organisations in this country.
An international or Nordic conference is also a possibility for us to consider.
