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"4plus - Children in the Museum": Staatliche Museen zu Berlin and FRÖBEL kindergartens launch new project for early childhood education
Press release from 05/17/2023
Children between the ages of four and six are at the centre of a new educational project entitled "4plus - Children in the Museum", in which the National Museums in Berlin of the Prussian Cultural Foundation want to work together with Berlin's FRÖBEL kindergartens in the long term. "4plus - Children in the Museum" aims to help promote children's creative thinking and artistic expression skills and to support the development of emotional and social competences. Other aspects that the co-operation partners would like to strengthen together are the participation of children and their families in cultural activities, the promotion of participation and the alleviation of educational disadvantage.
The core of "4plus - Children in the Museum" consists of five consecutive workshops with 20 nursery groups, one of which takes place in the nursery and four in the Alte Nationalgalerie, the Altes Museum and Haus Bastian - Centre for Cultural Education. Around 200 children will be able to take part this year and next. The work in the day-care centres will be supported by a specially developed method box. Teachers and students from the FRÖBEL Academy will take part in accompanying training courses.
The accompanying training programme not only contributes to the development of professional skills in the field of cultural education in kindergartens and museums, but also to the development of cross-institutional networks. Last but not least, action days for families are organised, which invite children and their adult companions to Haus Bastian, independently of the formal daycare context.
SPK Vice President Gero Dimter says: "Cultural participation is a prominent theme in the educational and outreach work of the National Museums in Berlin. The aim is to open up the institutions to a broad public. With '4plus - Children in the Museum', special emphasis is placed on early childhood education, which we want to expand more strongly. Our aim is to get as many Berlin day-care centre children as possible interested in the treasures in our museums. I am very grateful to FRÖBEL that we were able to launch such a pilot project together."
Heike Kropff, Head of the Department of Education and Communication at the National Museums in Berlin, adds: "After a pilot and consolidation phase and possible follow-up funding, 4plus - Children in the Museum should be accessible to all kindergartens and daycare centres in the city and can be transferred to other SMB museums."
Stefan Spieker, Chairman of the Board of FRÖBEL e.V., emphasises: "Offers for children of nursery age are still rare in the museum landscape. Yet museums in particular are very valuable places for telling stories and providing all children with low-threshold access to cultural education - regardless of their family background. I am therefore all the more pleased that we have been able to establish this important project together with the National Museums in Berlin and will continue to do so."
