The Water Drop project is a cross-sectorial project bringing together partners from the educational and cultural sector in Iceland, Denmark, Finland and Estonia. The partners consists of both schools and museums in the municipalities of Kopavogur (IS), Odense (DK), Tampere (FI) and Haapsalu (EE) including renowned museums such as The Moomin Museum and Hans Christian Andersen Museum. The project will consists both workshops, exhibitions, a publication, website and training program. A drop of water in a big pond might not seem like much. But the ripples it creates can be felt far beyond the initial impact. The Waterdrop is a cross-sectorial collaborative project drawing on the classics of Nordic children’s literature to teach children and adults, in Europe, about the UN Sustainable Development Goals and values in an interactive and participative manner. The Water Drop wants to empower children to create their own ripples – and start to understand themselves as active participants in social and cultural life. From Tove Jansson’s Moomins to Astrid Lindgren’s Pippi Longstocking, Nordic children’s literature has had an immeasurable impact in shaping the values and ideals of countless young generations across the world. These stories impart timeless lessons about friendship, love, equality and environmental protection, and the characters are powerful role models for young children. The Water Drop project seeks to put new methods into action and build bridges across Europe from Iceland in west to Estonia in east and thereby set an example of European citizenship and stimulate European awareness in the partner countries and beyond. In a time where the cultural sector, education and international cooperation is highly affected by covid-19 the project suggests new ways to gather and connect both locally and across borders during covid-19 and beyond. Needs In late 2019 the partners first came together and formed a network to exchange knowledge and experiences. From meetings in Tampere and Odense where the partners met it became clear that all partners had a desire to work more with children's involvement - when looking at the children's activities in each partner museum it was clear that children has very little involvement in creating their own content as it was mostly made by adults. The partners identified this need and at the same time expressed an interest in taking part in an ongoing international collaboration to raise the standard of each individual partner by acquiring new skill sets, take part in developing methodology and create new and innovative formats. It quickly became clear that each partner could learn from each other and that they together, in working transnationally, would be able to pull their resources and develop new and innovative methods they would not have been able to do alone. The projects main target is children of all social and cultural backgrounds aged 8 to 13 in the partner cities. The objectives of the Water Drop project are: # To create a cross-sectorial collaboration between education and museums. # To foster and develop new methodology of children's involvement in museums and thereby empower children to become co-creators. # To apply the stories of the various museums (Hans Christian Andersen, Tove Jansson and Astrid Lindgren) and the UN Development Goals. # Equip young children and the staff members with tools to develop new skill sets and new methods. Between March 2021 and February 2023 the following outcomes can be expected # Setting up a Young Curators working group across the four partner countries with the help of the school partners. This will be online and in real life meetings. # Invite the Young Curators to develop the first ever children made exhibitions in an international museum (with professional support from from a team of curators) taking inspiration in the themes of UN Sustainable Development Goals and values portrayed in the classic Nordic children's literature. # Develop a publication about the process and methodology to disseminate the project and methodology for other schools and cultural institutions to work with. # A dialogue based training program to upgrade team members skills sets. Target groups 1. Children in the age of 8 to 15 living in Iceland, Denmark, Finland and Estonia and especially around the cities of the partners. 2. Parents of children in the age group in the same locations. 3. Young people and adults interested in the thematics. 4. Schools and educational institutions. 5. Museums and cultural institutions. Message # Everyone can be an innovator # Everyone has the power to create change # Social inclusion through arts # Dialogue based collaboration and communication # Link school children with cultural institutions # Support the creative potential in children # Give children access to decision making in some of the leading cultural institutions in Northern Europe through a carefully planned creative project.
We wanted to make a project that other museums could use, publish the methodology implemented in this project to support teachers, staff of the museums and cultural institutions a training program (based on the children's work and views). We wanted all the partners to connect and work together and learn from each other. We wanted to achieve a new type of teaching and training material based on the Nordic children's literature and UN Development goals and we wanted to learn from each other, from each partner.
We wanted to connect with our Nordic sister cities' museums to get schools and children involved in the museum's work, having children's voices heard in connection with exhibitions and museum work, based on the UN Development goals and Nordic children's literature. We wanted children of all backgrounds to be given the opportunity to become co-creators of a cultural program including serious of workshops, training programmes and exhibitions. And we wanted to learn from each and every museum involved in the project about their ways to work with children.