The diversity of the independent performing arts is particularly evident in the area of theatre for children and young people. The network meets once a month. The focus is on networking, presence of the independent children's and youth theatre scene, cooperation with educational institutions and institutions of cultural education.
Looking back:
The Family Day at the Zentrum für Kunst on 14 April 2024 from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. was a resounding success. Thanks to all the participants and the numerous spectators who made this day so unforgettable.
The "TOURENDE BÜHNE für Junges Publikum" (engl. "TOURING STAGE for Young Audiences") was launched in 2022 as a pilot project of the ‘Young Audience Network’ in the State Association of Independent Performing Arts. The project was aimed at primary and secondary schools in the state of Bremen and aimed to bring pupils together with the theatre arts. Thanks to funding from the Senator for Children and Education and the Senator for Culture, 50 schools in Bremen and Bremerhaven were able to book free performances - reaching around 11,000 pupils in 2023.
The project promoted cultural participation, especially for schools in socio-economic need. Art and culture offer young people new perspectives and contribute to democratic education. TOURENDE BÜHNE had to pause at the end of 2023 due to a lack of funding. The resumption in summer 2024 as part of the Startchancen programme no longer corresponded to the original concept. Unfortunately, a sustainable solution could not be found.
The LAFDK would like to thank everyone involved for their commitment, which has emphasised the importance of this project for Bremen.
Photo credits: Ana Rodriguez
THE AG KINDERTHEATER DEMANDS THE RIGHT FOR BREMER'S CHILDREN AND YOUNG PEOPLE TO ART & CULTURE (as of June 2022):
1. children and young people have finally been able to experience culture again in recent months and educators, families, politicians and actors have seen and experienced this: They need the encounter with art now more urgently than ever!
Every child has a right to cultural education - this is implicit in the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, which celebrates its 30th anniversary in Germany in 2022: with its rights to participation in cultural life, to play and to age-appropriate media use. Compliance with these rights contributes to social cohesion in Germany and is also an important driver of integration in our society.
3 Culture, cultural education processes and cultural participation are not a luxury and not only for good times. Especially in difficult times, culture can be the place that examines society in the most diverse contexts, holds it together and enables open conversations even on complex issues.
Art opens up worlds, gives space for humour, for utopia, for questions, experiences and imagination. Cultural offerings strengthen and support young people, and thus also families and educational institutions, who find themselves in a permanent state of overload and uncertainty. Theatre visits here are not simply leisure time, but they are multi-layered encounters and confrontations with art and culture that are part of young people's (learning) everyday life. 5.
Artistic processes and their own artistic activities offer many opportunities for profound social discussions. Within the school or day-care centre, these opportunities must be created by artists: Theatre in the schoolyard, mobile guest performances in the facilities, workshops, analogue-digital interactions and artistic research in the everyday environment of children and young people.
Cultural and educational administrations must work together NOW to create models that are viable and offer sustainable and reliable framework conditions for all participants so that cultural participation can be experienced in practice.
The Good Childcare Agreement between the Federal Government and the State of Bremen includes the promotion of child development, health, nutrition and exercise as well as the promotion of language education in fields of action 6 and 7.
With the development of the education plan for 0-10 years, didactic concepts are currently being developed for a continuous and compatible education time between day care centre and primary school and tested in alliances between day care centre and primary school. The first step is in the areas of language, mathematics and aesthetic education.
The Bremen actors in the independent scene for young audiences are ready to help shape these models with their knowledge and qualifications. So that every child and every young person in the state of Bremen can realise their right to cultural participation.
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