Design Museum will become a cultural sponsor for children born in Helsinki in 2023. The Culture Kids programme, managed by City of Helsinki’s Culture and Leisure Division, offers events for more than 11,000 children in Helsinki, sponsored by 32 arts and culture organisations.
All children born in or after 2020 who reside in Helsinki are assigned a cultural institution as their cultural sponsor. The children are invited to at least two events annually by their sponsors. The events are designed to support the child’s developmental stages and promote the well-being of the whole family. The events are free-of-charge for the families. In 2023, the Cultural Kids programme features the theme of Cultural Heritage.
Educational Curator of the Design Museum, Hanna Kapanen, tells more about the sponsorship.
Why did the Design Museum decide to join the Culture Kids programme?
Architecture and design belong to everyone. Learning about and gaining experiences of architecture and design can help strengthen the experience of belonging in their environment for children and their families. It is never too early to start. At the Design Museum, this was seen as a great opportunity to establish long-term relationships with children and families. The sponsorship continues until the child starts school. The sponsorship also supports the families’ relationship to design and cultural heritage that is inherent to design.
The programme has common goals for all the partners, based on which the activities take place, and we find this an inspiring aspect of the project. We are constantly seeking for new types of ways to provide better service for our young museum guests and families. For us, the question lies in taking advantage of user-oriented design and offering better services and learning environments for guests of all ages.
What does it mean for the museum to become a Cultural Kids sponsor?
The museum finds it important to be able to support children and their families’ involvement and offer opportunities for it. Cultural Kids will be invited to two events offered by the sponsor organisation until they reach school age. These events include free-of-charge visits to arts and culture organisations for families with children.
The programme introduces children in Helsinki to culture at a young age. The children and their families are invited to engage in cultural activities together. As the invitations are sent through child health clinics, they reach nearly all children in Helsinki. If art and cultural activities are taken up in childhood, they are more likely to continue when children grow up. Children are also viewed important actors in this moment. We set out to discover what kind of education in architecture and design would best suit the youngest family members.
What will Design Museum offer for Culture Kids?
The activities will take place both at the museum and beyond it. In the spring of 2023, we will invite babies born in 2023 and their families for an architecture and design workshop that will be set amidst one of our topical exhibitions. This workshop will approach the world with various senses, and the guests can meet other babies and their families.
In the autumn of 2023, we will meet families with children in activities that extend outside the museum building. The theme will be ‘good immediate environment’. These encounters will offer valuable insight on the importance of our daily surroundings and encounters, from the point of view of a growing child. Operational methods relevant to these topics will be offered to support interaction between the baby and the people close to them. Involvement in a social activity together also brings out the importance of meeting other parents and children with the same situation in life and interaction during a cultural experience.
The cultural sponsors of children born in 2023 include, in addition to the Design Museum, the Helsinki City Museum, Helsinki University Museum, National Museum of Finland, Museum of Finnish Architecture and Association of Cultural Heritage Education of Finland. Children born in and after 2020 living in Helsinki can be registered into the programme on the Culture Kids website. The Culture Kids programme receives support from the Jane and Aatos Erkko Foundation.
Visit the City of Helsinki’s website to learn more about the Culture Kids programme
