'Kids tell pros what to do’ – young people co-produce arts and culture in Umea, Sweden

"If grown-ups no longer can teach  children everything, why not simply  do it the other way round. Use what the children know and what the  grown-ups know. Use the ideas of children and young people and let professional adults make the most of them. Let kids tell pros what to do.”                                                               

Umeå will be the European Capital of Culture in 2014. In this case study the city shows you a different way to ‘do culture’ with children and young people.

Tony Bovaird was lucky enough to visit Umea in 2007 as an Assessor of the European Public Sector Awards (EPSA) and was deeply impressed by the way arts and culture projects were targeted at children and young people in the city and were based on co-production methods. Not surprisingly, Umea won the EPSA Innovation Award in 2007.

So if you think that it’s too risky for children to be involved in co-production, have a look at how Umea uses co-production to make learning for children more creative and fun.

The City of Umea aims at making learning more creative by involving school pupils of different ages in arts and culture projects which they co-produce.

The City set up Kulturverketas a new cultural unit in 2005 to implement a new approach to children services, learning and arts and culture. “Kulturverket” literally means ‘department for culture’, which emphasis the important status of the department within the local council. Its overall objective is to give all children in the municipality access to cultural experiences and to integrate creative learning processes into the everyday work of the schools.

Most projects start in the schools but end up being presented professionally – e.g. in the Opera, in theatre venues or in the Museum of Contemporary Art in Umea.

In Sweden, schools are a local government responsibility, which makes it easy for local councils to co-operate with schools to improve learning outcomes.

All around Sweden there are schools for music and the arts. The Swedish schools for music and arts started in a modest extent in some local areas during the 1940s. There was a strong growth in the 1960s when local music schools became more frequent. Before the growth of the local music schools youth could only get instrumental lessons from military musicians, through local bands or through the church. Private lessons were a chance for those who could afford it.

In Umeå we also have a music school run by the municipality. We also have other cultural activities for children and young people, also funded by the city. In 2005 the city council decided to investigate if it was possible to reach an even greater number of children, in particular, those  who never came in touch with arts and culture.  In Sweden there is also an ongoing discussion about the learning process in schools, and how to deliver different ways of learning. The assignment was given Arne Berggren, former actor, director and theatre teacher, who during this period was the headmaster of Umeås aesthetic gymnasium. Arne came to the conclusion that during school hours we reach all the children in a school class, not only those who already have an interest in arts and culture. Involving arts and professional artists from different areas could also open up for new ways of learning – for pupils as well as for teachers.

Kulturverket is one of many activities for children and young people within the municipality of Umeå. What makes it different from the other local activities for culture and leisure in Umeå and Sweden is that Kulturverket does not employ public managers but it brings in artists from many different fields: filmmakers, musicians and composers, librarians, artists within animation, photography and technology. Kulturverket also co-operates with other professionals in arts and culture projects; symphony orchestras, hip hop artists, dancers, actors and so on. This means the children and young people work with practising artists and cultural workers of all kinds in its projects.

Since it started in 2006, Kulturverket has developed two approaches, financially supported by the National Heritage Fund in Sweden. Both approaches are used in its on-going projects and are still developing, based on what the children and young people want to do, and how the professional artists are involved.

Kids tell the pros what to do – is an approach that Kulturverket has used in all its projects so far. The children’s ideas, thoughts and creative work are developed together with older pupils, students and “the professionals” (practising artists and cultural organisations). The children and young people are the creators, and take an active part at professional exhibitions, shows and concerts but it is grown-ups with their experience, knowledge and resources that actually make it happen by implementing the ideas. The children and young people tell the pro’s what to do!

Where’s the art in research? This is the second method that is frequently used in Kulturverket projects – it brings researchers, artists and school children together in the classroom, where research is turned into art. Kulturverket invites scientists or researchers to give lectures to children of different ages. They then have a discussion about what the research is really all about. When this has become clear, the pupils turn their new knowledge into art, together with the artists from Kulturverket. This way new learning processes are developed, using arts as a learning tool.

Projects co-designed and co-delivered with children include:

FAIR GAME – A FOOTBALL MUSICAL http://donkey.humlab.umu.se/kulturverket/en/category/fair-game/

Kulturverket has been working with children with long-term health issues, their families and local schools since 2012. Together we have created characters, music and lyrics for a football musical.
 
This artistic material will be interpreted by professional artists, choreographers, playwrights etc and performed in Umeå on 6 June 2014. The professionals are mainly from Umeå, but we also cooperate with composers in Italy and artists from other parts of Sweden.
 
The Football Musical Fair Game is a unique mix of sports, arts and music and will attract a wide range of audience.

Fairground – A Hip Hop Performance
http://donkey.humlab.umu.se/kulturverket/en/category/fair-ground/

This is a hip hop project where kids of different ages have composed beats, written rap lyrics, learnt graffiti, danced and made films. The artistic material of the participating kids will be interpreted and performed in Umeå October 2013, by Swedish artists Promoe and EmBee. They will have great support from the Symphonic Orchestra of Norrlandsoperan, performing the music according to what the children have created.
Opening 8 October 2013!

FAIR OPERA
http://donkey.humlab.umu.se/kulturverket/en/category/fair-opera/

Fair Opera is a five year long project, initiated by Kulturverket, involving children, students, music academies, a symphony orchestra and professional librettist and composer. The production opens in Umeå 2014.

Four subjects from the Convention of the Rights of the Child form the base for the project. The four subjects are Expression, Progress, Justice and Dignity. These are transformed into music, dance and lyrics, by children and young people in Sweden, Italy and Portugal. The material, created by the children, is then handed over to professional artists, who will put together a full scale opera, by interpreting and being inspired by the children’s work.

The process started in the autumn of 2010, with children aged 5-8 years, who together with their teacher discussed the meaning of the four subjects mentioned above. They then had to create rules for “fair music”, and make music, based on these rules. Creating the music they used computers and music software, and the results of this work now form the base for the entire project. Older children, aged 9-16 (music students), developed the younger children’s work, but they had to obey the rules the younger children had come up with for creating “fair music”.

During the autumn of 2010 we also arranged for a national short story competition, where the four subjects, Justice, Expression, Dignity and Progress, were the theme. We received over a 100 short stories, and passed these on to the University of Umeå, to the Script for TV and film Program, where the students transformed the short stories into librettos._In the third face of the project, May 2011 – May 2012, the music created by the children, and the librettos based on the short stories, were sent to music academies in Riga, Piteå, Rome and Perugia. The students at these academies created, according to the “fair music rules”, 10 minutes opera per city.

In June of 2012 the material from the music academies was delivered to internationally acclaimed composer Jan Sandström, and librettist KG Johansson, who will compose/write a full length opera. The same rules for “fair music” apply! In 2014 the opera opens in Umeå, and hopefully digitally in the participating cities around Europe. 

Further information about our projects can be found at www.cultumea.com

Kulturverket works with about 1000 – 1500 children aged 6 – 19 every year.  The testimonials show how the co-production approach has positively changed children’s lives for the better:

“It is rewarding to broaden your horizons, and look what is outside the school building. I also find that meeting professionals with other backgrounds and using them within our projects is extremely rewarding and educating for me as a teacher.” 
Teacher participating in New Nordic Starry Sky.

“When Kulturverket was introduced at my children’s school things started changing. The project took the focus off the illness, and instead the children focused on what happened in their classrooms. Especially for xx this has meant a lot. His text was the starting point for the creative work in the classroom, and eventually turned into a film! XX is very proud to be the protagonist in all this creative work. I can only say that what Kulturverket did with my children is one of the most beautiful things that happened to us in an otherwise very dark and difficult period.”
Parent of children participating in Healing Art.

”I didn’t know you can learn mathematics in so many different ways and I enjoyed most of it. Above all I very much liked film making. During the show I was in the chorus - it was fun and not as embarrassing as I thought it would be.”
Pupil participating in Fair City.

The overall quality of the ‘Kids tell pros what to do’ co-production approach was recognised in 2007 when the City of Umea won the Innovation Award of the European Public Sector Award.

The jury commented:

“The project ‘Kids tell pros what to do’ breaks new ground in Europe in showcasing the artistic ideas of young people through professional performance, including song concerts, dance performance, and opera, and a computer game, giving people throughout the city the opportunity to see their ideas presented at the highest quality level.”

The municipality contributes with around 4 000 000 Sek every year ( aprox £400 000). On top of that we constantly look for other kinds of funding. One good partner in our activities has been the Swedish Heritance Fund, which during the years has supported us with around 2 000 000 Sek a year (aprox. £ 200 000). Other funding come from Nordic funds, the Swedish Arts Council etc. 

The City of  Umeå has been delighted that its work has been so successful and has engaged a great many children – and has also been recognised in other parts of Sweden and abroad.

It believes that one of the key success factors has been the way that it brings cultural institutions and the local university together with school classes in its projects. This partnership has created unexpected networks and relationships, and combined resources in imaginative ways.

It suggests that the most important success factors in co-producing arts and culture with children are: 

• Maintaining ambitious goals for each project, making sure each project has a proper “ending ” e.g a show, concert, exhibition, with opportunities for the kids to see what happened with their ideas and artistic material.
• Sticking to the ideas of children in the project work, without compromise or over-simplification. Children and young people are able to recognise their own words, music and pictures, even after the professionals have worked them up into their final shape. For our activities and projects it is important that the involved professional artists see a benefit for their own artistic development in their work with children. This way the kids benefit from meeting and working with professionals, giving a new dimension to their school work, and at the same time the artist working with the pupils is inspired in a new creative process.

Finally, it is important to keep reminding ourselves to think in new ways and not get stuck in old patterns, even where those patterns seem to work just fine at the moment. ‘Kids tell pros what to do’ continually prods professional artists and cultural organisations to find new ways of working and helps to keep their own curiosity and creativity alive!

http://vimeo.com/kulturverket

This is Kulturverket:
http://cultumea.com/en/