25.01.2011, Berlin | What can be accomplished by out-of-school courses and educational programs that are open, without application, to children and youth? Where children from a variety of backgrounds can come and participate as they please? How is it actually possible to structure and plan such programs and courses? In light of the current public and political debates about the effectiveness of education, providers of open education programs put their work up for discussion: During an expert forum entitled “Art is open: Arts and cultural education programs in the contexts of emancipation, social work, and art education,” the Jugend im Museum e.V. association and the Berlinische Galerie – State Museum of Modern Art, Photography, and Architecture will join initiators and promoters of arts and culture education for children and youth, artists, museum staff, teachers, and educators to discuss the individual and emancipatory qualities of open arts and cultural programs.

Under the moderation of Shelly Kupferberg, the conference participants will compare and evaluate open arts education programs in museums and other social spaces. The expert forum aims to highlight common themes and characteristics beyond local, heterogeneous project conditions, and identify successes as well as failures.

The conference is occasioned by the “Offene Atelier” (Open Studio), a creative, free-of-charge educational program that, with support from the Schering Stiftung, has successfully run for more than five years at the Bunte Jakob Studio, the children’s and youth studio of the Berlinische Galerie. At the Open Studio, up to twenty participants of various ages and cultural backgrounds get to know modern and contemporary art and reflect on their lives in the north of Kreuzberg and in Berlin.
The conference takes place as part of an exhibition about the “Offene Atelier” and the “Bücheratelier” (Books Studio), which presents the program’s methods, processes, products, and actors to a broader public.

By supporting the expert forum, the Schering Stiftung is particularly interested in the question of to what extent open-studio structures can contribute not only to aesthetic education, but also to personal development and thus to solving social conflicts. The Foundation also supports the exhibition of the artworks that have been created as part of the “Offene Atelier.” This exhibition is not only important in terms of the personal recognition that it provides to the participating children and teenagers, but also in broader social terms, since this is frequently the first time that the families of the participants get to know the work of the museum, or the visual arts.

Expert Forum

March 4, 2011, 10 a.m.–4:30 p.m., at the Berlinische Galerie

Exhibition Opening

March 4, 2011, 4:30 p.m.
Exhibition Dates: March 5–14, 2011

The forum will feature lectures and presentations by Beate Gorges, Atelier Bunter Jakob; Karin Heyl, Crespo Foundation, Frankfurt/Main; Florian Haas and Andreas Wolf, finger, Frankfurt/Main; Nora Sternfeld, büro trafoK, Vienna; and others.
Moderator: Shelly Kupferberg, journalist and public broadcasting host

Participation fee:   20 euro (includes lunch and refreshments)
Registration deadline: February 21, 2011
Registration under info@jugend-im-museum.de

The pdf of the invitation card (in German only) you can download from here.

The expert forum and the exhibition is organized by Jugend im Museum e.V. and the Berlinische Galerie in cooperation with the Schering Stiftung and with support from the Berlin Youth and Family Foundation.

For more information, please visit the Websites of Berlinische Galerie and Jugend im Museum.

Photos: Monika Baecker, © Berlinische Galerie