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Cultural Education with Schools at Austrian Federal Museums
This Concerns Me, Too!
Museums are not necessarily places that young people flock to in droves in their spare time. When young people go to museums, they seldom go on their own, but rather with their parents or as part of a school field trip. And when they are inside a museum, the question they frequently ask (or think) is “What does this have to do with me?”
An educational project by the Belvedere in the context of the exhibitions “Prinz Eugen” and “tanzimat” shows that there is a connection between the world of the museum and the world “out there”. In the project “Das geht mich was an!” (This Concerns Me, Too!), pupils with and without migration backgrounds are asked to look for connections between the Belvedere and their personal environments, then document the things they find, for example as photos on their cell phones, and present them in their own exhibition at the Belvedere. Brigitte Hauptner, a cultural educator at the Belvedere, says: “With this project, we’d especially like to demonstrate to young people with migration backgrounds that the Belvedere definitely has something to do with them and their sphere, and that Austrian culture is a composite of elements from many other cultures and countries.” In the context of the project, the pupils are explicitly requested to put together their own guided tour for parents and friends in their native language, taking into account their own cultural background – a request that combines the appreciation of different cultures with the promotion of diversity and difference.
In order to make museums more attractive for broad segments of the population, KKA organised, on behalf of the Federal Ministry for Education, Arts and Culture – after the introduction of free admission for persons up to 19 years of age at Austrian Federal Museums – the initiative “Cultural Education with Schools at Austrian Federal Museums 2010”. There were four categories for submitting projects: diversity, multipliers, large distances and media. An independent advisory committee selected, in addition to the aforementioned project, 16 other projects to be granted a subsidy in the first half of 2010. In selecting these projects, committee member Renate Goebl explains, the criterion of diversity was taken particularly into account: “Cultural education must fulfil numerous requirements. Dealing with a variety of perspectives is of central importance, because it encourages young people to reflect upon what they learn and express independent opinions”. She also emphasises: “It must become clear that even the knowledge generated by museums is not final and incontrovertible, but is continually being redefined by new approaches and questions.”
The cultural education initiative “Cultural Education with Schools at Austrian Federal Museums 2010” gives Austrian Federal Museums the opportunity to offer a broader spectrum of target-group-oriented educational activities.
