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When a Secondary School Gets Involved in Wiener Festwochen – A Pilot Project
“Longterm” is the keyword for ten cultural institutions which, with the support of KulturKontakt Austria, are entering into lasting partnerships with schools this spring.
Eight pilot partnerships have been in progress since 2008. One of them is between Vienna’s traditional music and performing arts festival Wiener Festwochen and the university-entrance secondary school GRG Parhamerplatz. These pilot projects, which are being financed through KKA’s p[ART] programme, are highly diverse. The school may develop its own school culture profile; young people obtain insights into artistic production or become acquainted with the cultural institution as a workplace. Museums, theatres and other institutions learn more about young audiences, which helps them to tailor programmes to these target groups. For Almut Wagner, the head dramaturge of Wiener Festwochen, this is a way for public institutions to fulfil part of their cultural education mission. “And we would like to see interested, open-minded and well-educated audiences.”
For some weeks a rapprochement “in very small steps” has been taking place, relates Antonia Kneissl, a pupil at GRG Parhamerplatz. The excitement of working with a renowned cultural institution like Wiener Festwochen was considerable. And so were the tasks that had to be accomplished by both partners. After numerous talks, it was decided that three working groups would be formed: a “Turkish working group” that would cooperate with the Turkish artists appearing in Vienna in June with their piece “Hässliches Menschlein” (Ugly Little Person); a group focussing on hip hop in cooperation with Bruno Beltrão, and a documentation team. In order to make these decisions, the school had to learn more about the operation of Wiener Festwochen, so as to be able to help define the procedural steps. “We attended the press conference, where we made a video. And a programme presentation was organised at the school, in order to introduce the project to all the classes and pass on information about the exciting productions,” Kneissl explains. Soon the actors and director Maral Ceranoğlu met with the young people to discuss “Hässliches Menschlein” in the context of a workshop. Various forms of dramatisation were discussed – “by professionals and young hopefuls”, as Kneissl describes it. The cooperation encompasses a variety of school subjects, such as history – focussing on Turkish history, the role of women, or a field trip to Turkey. “It would be interesting to find out whether the cultural scene operates differently in Turkey,” Kneissl believes.
According to Almut Wagner, the big challenge is approaching in the autumn, “when we will try to put all the subject areas together in one project”. What this will look like is still unclear. Wiener Festwochen is opening up.
