| Programme | Local Development and Culture |
| Selection | Open project |
| Competition title | Second round of the open call “Support for the Creation of Professional Art and Cultural Products for Children and Youth” |
| Donorstate/international project partner | Fargefabrikken, Norway (https://fargefabrikken.no/) |
| Project national Nr. | EEZ/2022/2/25 |
| GrACE project Nr. | LV-LOCALDEV-0035 |
| Contract No. | 4.3.1-12-19 |
| Contract Date | 23.09.2022 |
| Project title | Art on Wheels |
| Project promoter | Association “Mākslas centrs NOASS” (http://www.noass.lv/en/) |
| Start of project eligibility | 01.11.2022 |
| Project end | 30.04.2024 |
| Total eligible costs | 242 962.00€ |
| Grant financing | 206 517.70€ |
| National co-financing | 36 444.30€ |
| Project status | In implementation |
| Project goal/description | Project summary: Within the project, 2 partner organizations, one from LV and one from NO, will join forces to co-create a traveling contemporary art exhibition for school-age children, in which at least 4 artists (from LV and NO) will participate with newly created, interdisciplinary, innovative, artworks, with a common topic - creativity in a digital age, artworks will be created (co-produced) together with pilot-group of pupils from Riga. During the project, the exhibition will tour up to 50 locations in Latvia, as well as visit at least 2 locations in Norway. The tour will be accompanied by a well-considered educational program that will stimulate children's creativity, encourage their expression and explore the creative process (especially in a digital era), in a supportive and encouraging way (the program will be run by art mediators). Additionally at least 2 informative days for teachers about the project and methods of use of contemporary art (based on the example of works in the traveling exhibition) in the teaching process will take place.
Project objective: In the framework of this project 2 project partners will cooperate in a production of a new product of contemporary culture - the travelling contemporary art exhibition with an accompanying education programme that is exclusively created and targeted for an audience of school-age children (6-18 years). The exhibition will be mobile, and able to travel to remote areas of Latvia (schools in regions) and locations in Norway. It will arrive to kids with a feeling of festival and celebration similar to a travelling circus show, with a joint programme, that can be repeated many times.
The travelling exhibition and its accompanying education programme will travel (in several separate tours) to children in 2 vans. One of the vans will be adjusted to serve as an exhibition space and home for at least 4 newly created artworks and artwork groups created by Latvian and Norwegian artists (co-produced together with children from the pilot-school in Riga), and with their unifying theme - creativity in the digital age, but the second van will serve as a creative workshop and education area. Both vans will be adjusted in a manner that allows making a festive and welcoming environment in the schoolyard (e.g. a feeling of a travelling circus or show) easily – objects, tents, umbrellas, screens, flags, posters, bean bags etc.) The exhibition and the creative workshop that is in the vans “unfolds” near them. The exhibition and education vans themselves will be repainted and adjusted thus becoming one of the artworks of the exhibition and serving as an additional advertisement of the project. The exhibition design will be created by an architect Kriss Zilgalvis, and the design in its creative process will be tested together with the children from the pilot-school, thus ensuring that it will be kid-friendly, easy to navigate and clear (See annex 5 of the project). In each location, children will be invited to create a sticker that can be put on the vans similar to the ones that are used to place on the backs of the car or suitcases, when going abroad.
The participating artists will be chosen by both project partners together with a professional art curator of the exhibition in a closed competition (by invitations). Among the criteria for the artworks will be: artistic quality, interdisciplinarity, fun, use of creative innovative methods and a possibility to implement the artistic idea further with the participation of a group of school children (up to 30 children together) from a pilot-school in Riga. Artists who work with installation, animation and moving images, design, game development and new technologies will be invited to participate in the competition. For example, such Latvian artists as Oskars Pavlovskis https://pavlovskis.lv; Līga Spunde: https://ligaspunde.com and others). Selected artistic ideas will have an allocated budget for production expenses and implementation of their artistic ideas for the travelling exhibition.
The exhibition and the accompanying educational program will be created by the team of the art centre NOASS together with the partner from Norway `Fargefabrikken`, using wise techniques and methods of contemporary art and technology to address the young audience, that link to the exhibition’s program and the theme “Creativity in the Digital Age”.
Audience development and methods (target group school-age children):
The materials accompanying the exhibition will play an important role in the exhibition as a single product of contemporary culture. In this exhibition, we will provide explanatory materials, concepts of artworks, artists' bio with the help of video interviews (the children of the pilot school will be involved in creating the videos interviews), while the children of the pilot school will explain the curatorial concept (informative, explanatory part. What is the curatorial concept? What is the concept of this exhibition?) in their own words to their peers - the exhibition visitors (also with the help of a video media). Thus children who will take a part in the co-production of the project will also be introduced with the steps of a creation of a contemporary art exhibition. Their participation is also essential in testing a new audience development method, which has so far been little used in Latvia. This method is exciting and engaging and especially important for addressing the audience (e.g. children in regions) who are not frequent visitors of contemporary art events. We anticipate that the informal atmosphere and the children's own stories would ease the barrier, prejudice and shyness that the children might have against visiting contemporary art events, encouraging openness and the joy of learning about the multifaceted nature of contemporary art and creativity in general.
Audience engagement activities and elements:
The program will create new content and a new environment, using exciting interactive techniques and tools (for example, objects, screens, digital presentations, informative games, 3D glasses, etc.) giving the children an opportunity to learn about the diversity of contemporary art, the methods and techniques of creating artworks, and most importantly to get inspiration! The program also includes elements of participation, where children - visitors will be invited to get involved in the creative process. The aim of the program is to introduce children to ways in which different media and techniques can be used, including technologies available today around the world to create new creative content and develop creativity, including the application of science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) skills acquired in the learning process.
Method of operation of the travelling art gallery and creative workshop:
The accompanying mediator will act as a mentor and will conduct tours, introducing the content of the exhibition and the work of art. Afterwards, the children will be asked to ask questions that the mediator will answer. Mediators - a professional who knows the field of contemporary art. In the continuation of the tour, children will be invited to participate in the prepared interactive activities, the class will be divided into smaller groups of 4-5 children each. At the end of the tour, the mediator will talk to the students, inviting them to share their experiences and thus provide feedback.
Training of the art mediator, the creation of the education programme and workshop's content and the methodology will be monitored by the Norwegian project partner `Fargefabrikken`, that has more than 15 years’ experience in this field, and considers direct work with children to be one of its priorities, emphasizing the creative potential of each child (without highlighting just most skilled and talented children), as well as promoting argumentation and expression skills.
Considering that for many children, the visit to this exhibition will be one of the first encounters with contemporary art (30% in Latvia according to the statistics mentioned in the studies below), one of the main tasks of the project is to create an environment that is safe and inviting for children in the process of artistic cognition, participation, reflection (before and after the visit to the exhibition) and creativity, thus becoming a positive first encounter with contemporary culture. The project also plans to promote public involvement in cultural activities, increase children's creativity in the digital age and increase the general joy of life after the period of isolation of Covid-19 and against the background of the war in Ukraine.
The travelling exhibition will travel to at least 50 places in Latvia in several separate tours (primary schools, city festivals, festivals and events, summer camps) The travelling exhibition will travel to at least 50 places in Latvia in several separate tours (primary schools, city festivals, festivals and events, summer camps) and at least 2 locations in Norway (negotiations are currently underway with the Animation Festival in Fredrikstad and the project partner, Oslo Art Gallery, Fargefabrikken - Kulturhuset Qulthus). Travel to schools will take place in the spring (April) of 2023, will continue in the fall (September) of 2023 up to till the end of April 2024, and city events and summer camps will be attended in the summer of 2023 (June, July, August). In spring 2023 the exhibition will be presented to teachers. |
| Implementation place | Visa Latvija |
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