Off to the Museum!

A Wide Range of Educational Programmes at Austrian Federal Museums

For the first time, in the context of the initiative “Cultural Education with Schools at Austrian Federal Museums” , the Federal Museums have put a focus on the development of programmes that specifically target children and young people who have previously taken little advantage of the possibilities offered. Concurrently with the introduction of free admission to the eight Austrian Federal Museums in Vienna for young people up to the age of 19, the Federal Ministry for Education, Arts and Culture entrusted KulturKontakt Austria with the coordination of the initiative “Cultural Education with Schools at Austrian Federal Museums”.

50 projects for all school levels and types are being funded during the period from January 2010 to June 2012. The range of programmes receiving funding is reflected in the submitted projects as follows:

The educational initiative has taken into account the fact that about 40 percent of Viennese pupils have a mother tongue other than German, by funding seven language-oriented programmes.
Consideration is being given to the learning needs of physically challenged children and young people in eight projects.

Four projects focus on the issues of accessing museums and taking advantage of what they have to offer, thereby helping children and young people with migration backgrounds and their relatives to develop museum competence.

Four programmes have been specifically devised for vocational schools, which are attended by 42 percent of Austrian young people. (source: Wirtschaftskammern Österreichs (ed.:) Lehrlingsstatistik 2009 [statistics on apprentices in 2009, published by the Austrian Economic Chambers]).

Two projects offer specific tie-ins to the programme “Wien-Aktion” (“Vienna Initiative”), in the context of which approximately 35,000 pupils spend a week in the federal capital each year.

Approx. 90 percent of Austrian schools  are so far away from Vienna that the time and expense involved in visiting a Federal Museum present serious obstacles. For these schools, the provision of educational material in the Internet offers an interesting alternative. In addition, two projects will go on tour to the other provinces. (Austrian schools in 2009/2010 with the exception of Vienna, source: Bundesministerium für Bildung, Kunst und Kultur (ed.): Zahlenspiegel 2010. Statistiken im Bereich Schule und Erwachsenenbildung in Österreich, Vienna: December 2010)

The initiative also finances the production of high-quality educational material, which is available to the pupils free of charge for their museum visits.

An Initiative with Long-Term Effects

Most of the programmes offered have been oriented towards sustainability: some of them have been made a part of the museums’ regular programmes, some can be utilised as models by other museums, and others place a particular emphasis on multiplier effects.

Descriptions of all the projects can be found at www.kulturkontakt.or.at/bundesmuseen.

KKA, Eva Kolm