LIST OF CONTENT
MISSION
ARTWORK ABOUT PARTNERS
OBJECTIVES
MORE ARTWORK PROGRAM
YOUNG CURATORS AT WORK
CHILDREN‘S INVOLVEMENT
GUIDING PRINCIPALS
EXHIBITION OPENING
FUNDING STRATEGY
VISUALS
MISSION
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-disciplinary, joint Nordic project drawing on the classics of Nordic children’s literature to teach children in Iceland, Denmark, Finland and Estonia about the UN development goals and Nordic values in an interactive and participative manner. The Waterdrop wants to empower children to create their own ripples - and start to understand themselves as active participants in social and cultural life.
“If you look through a microscope at a single drop of ditch water, you will see a thousand odd-looking creatures, such as you never could imagine dwelled in water. They do no look unlike a whole plateful of shrimps, all jumping and crowding upon each other. So fierce are these little creatures that they will tear off each other’s arms and lets without the least mercy, and yet after their fashion they look merry and happy.”
- from The Waterdrop by H.C. Andersen, a fairytale that merges the wonders of nature with science and social observation.
ARTWORK
Tove Jansson, An illustration for the book Moominland Midwinter 1957. Photo: Jari Kuusenaho, Moomin Museum (c) Moomin Characters TM
Lorenz Frølich, The Little Mermaid, ca. 1860
lon Wikland, The Brothers Lionheart (with the horse), 1973. Collection of Ilon‘s Wonderland
Tove Jansson, An illustration for the book Comet in Moominland, 1951. Photo: Jari Kuusenaho, Moomin Museum. (c) Moomin Characters TM
ABOUT
From Tove Jansson’s Moomins to H.C. Andersen’s fairytales, Nordic children’s literature has had an immeasurable impact in shaping the values and ideals of countless young generations. These stories impact timeless lessons about friendship, love, forgiveness, equality and even environmental protection, and characters are powerful role models for young children. Many of those values can be directly connected to the United Nations Development Goals such as goal 1 on ending poverty, goal 5 on gender equality, goal 13 on climate action, goal 14 on lie below water and goal 15 on life on land.
The Waterdrop project between the Kópavogur Municipality (IS), Odense City Museums/H.C. Andersen House (DK), Moomin Museum /Tampere Art Museum (FI) an Ilon’s Wonderland (EE) is the first international cross-disciplinary cultural program that combines the classics of Nordic children’s literature with teaching children about the UN Development Goals.
Between 2020 and 2023, the large-scale cultural production invites Icelandic and other Nordic school children of all backgrounds to become co-creators of a cultural program of exhibitions and events in collaboration with the project partners and invited guests - natural scientists, contemporary children’s authors, and artists working with nature, among other informal educators. The Young Curators will be selected through Open Calls that value their unique ideas and self-expression. The goal of the children’s involvement is to make a broad range of Nordic children feel heard and begin to understand themselves as part of a united Nordic region that they have the opportunity to shape with their own ideas and activities.
In this interactive way, the project aims to teach the children about important values such as ecology, equality, sustainability, and tolerance, which are represented not only by the UN goals, but also frequently found in the stories o Nordic children’s literature. In addition, the project wants to encourage cultural institutions to share ideas, skills, and resources for children’s involvement in cultural production. The goal is to empower more Nordic institutions to develop cultural programs that use an innovative combination of informal education and cultural events to introduce children to shared humanitarian values.
“It is very appropriate to revive the message of these good writers who emphasised sustainability environmentalism, gender equality and respect for everyone, regardless of age and beliefs. These are all issues that are at the top of our society today”.
Soffía Karlsdóttir, Director of Culture, Kópavogur Municipality, Iceland.
ABOUT
The Waterdrop was launched with Young Curators workshops in January 2021, followed by opening of the exhibition they curated together: “Life is full of kind creatures. Life is full of trash”.
The program directly involves children through workshops and public events, that allow them to shape and co-create the project and it exhibitions and through the exhibitions and interactive online educational material developed during the program, knowledge about Nordic children’s writers and the UN Development Goals will be made widely accessible to children of all ages across the Nordic region.
At the end of the project, the learnings and development material from the program as well as the networking phase will be disseminated to other Nordic partners. A publication about the project will be produced to be disseminated to school children, museums and municipalities. These activities will result in preserving new transferable methods that an be applied in other contexts and projects.
The network’s ultimate aim is to promote children’s involvement in cultural production and inspire new cultural programs that take a joint Nordic approach to work with Nordic children’s literature, Nordic values, and the UN Development goals.
Odense City Museums /H.C. Andersen House finds the project very important in terms of developing new ways of working with children on how to communicate the relevance of classic Nordic children’s literature in the context of UN Development goals. The project will bring important insight and experience on this subject and strengthen the understanding of our famous authors and their relevance in a modern setting.
H.C.Andersen House
PARTNERS
The core partnership includes the municipality of Kópavogur (IS), H.C. Andersen House (DK), The Moomin Museum (FIN) and Ilon’s Wonderland (EE). All partners are cultural institutions of different scale and specialty, differing in their set of skills and resources. Throughout the project scientist, artists, educators, schools, cultural managers, children and young people from across the Nordic region will be invited to participate as equal partners, sharing their shills and knowledge.
Kópavogur (IS)
Gerðarsafn - Kópaogur Art Museum, Natural History Museum of Kópavogur & Kópavogur Public Library
Representative: Head of Culture, Soffia Karlsdóttir (IS)
The five main cultural institutions of Kópavogur operated under one main organisation that is the initiating partner of this project. The three locations involved in the project will be the contemporary art museum Gerðarsafn, the Natural History Museum and the Library. The proximity of the five cultural houses in Kópavogur has allowed for a cross disciplinary program to be developed over the years and hence the cultural houses have a great deal of experience in working across genres e.g. with science and art. A skill that will prove valuable in this project.
Odense City Museums (DK)
H.C. Andersen House
Representative: Museum director, Henrik Harnow (DK)
The institutions involved from the Odense municipality are the H.C. Andersen House and the superordinate Odense City Museums. The team of the H.C. Andersen House has several years of experience in working with children’s involvement and applying new approaches to both the curation and dissemination of H.C. Andersen’s work. The program developed in the Waterdrop will be partly shown in the museums’s new bespoke “Children’s Universe” and reflect the museum’s new direction of involving children to an even higher degree. The staff of the Odense City Museums have worked on developing unique children’s activities and will bring their skills to the public program in the Waterdrop.
Tampere Art Museum (FI)
Moomin Museum
Representative: Museum director, Taina Myllyharju (FI)
The Tampere Art Museum is the contemporary art museum of Tampere, which runs a separate department, the Moomin Museum, dedicated to the work of author and artist Tove Jansson. Both institutions will be closely involved in the networking project. The Moomin Museum features a learning department for both children and adults, and the museum team has several years of experience in working with new methods of learning and inclusion. The Moomin Museum not only shows exhibitions in its museum in Tampere but also curates and organises traveling exhibitions in places as remote as Japan and China. “The Moomin & The Sea” opened this spring in Tampere.
Ilon’s Wonderland in Haapsalu (EE)
Representative: Museum director, Anton Pärn (EE)
The museum dedicated to world-famous illustrator Ilon Wikland of children’s books such as Pippi Longstocking and Astrid Lindgren’s books will participate with select representatives.
Ilon’s Wonderland is a museum located 200 km outside of Estonia’s capital Tallinn in a small seaside resort named Haapsalu. Haapsalu is the place where Ilon Wikland, illustrator of many of Astrid Lindgren’s stories, grew up and drew inspiration for her imagery. The original drawings will play part in the project’s exhibitions. The museum has a substantial children’s section and has several years of experience in developing children’s programs.
OBJECTIVES
The objectives of the project are three-fold:
Thematic Objectives
• Promote classic Nordic children’s authors to a young audience and it’s educators.
• Deepen the public’s understanding of children’s literature and the UN Development goals
• Create a cross-disciplinary cultural program that merges literature with art, science and social and political engagement.
Professional Objectives
• Share and promote experiences, ideas, methodology and perspectives on children’s involvement in cultural production
• Produce a publication and educational material on the project outcomes and methodology
Pedagogical Objectives
• Implement on and promote the goals of the CRC
• Share best practices on children’s involvement in cultural projects with other institutions
• Give children a sense of purpose and authorship and encourage them to understand themselves as active participants of social and cultural life
• Involve children in all stages of the project
• Promote children’s involvement in cultural production across the Nordic region
MORE ARTWORK
Salvador Dalí, The Little Mermaid, 1967.
Svend Otto S., untitled, ca. 1950.
Tove Jansson, An illustration for the book Moominland Midwinter, 1961. Photo: Jari Kuusenaho, Moomin Museum (c) Moomin Characters TM.
PROGRAM
The outline of the project program was developed by the partners in three meetings in late 2019 and early 2020 - this research and development of the project was supported by The Nordic Culture Fund and Nordic Culture Point. The cultural program will be further developed and refined in several meetings and workshop sessions between the project partners, and workshops closely involving the children and young people. Children from Iceland, Denmark, and Finland will help curate the exhibitions in Kópavogur and connect it to the UN Development Goals through an interactive workshop phase conceived and led by the partners.
In 2021 an exhibition opened in Gerðarsafn in Kópavogur: “The sea is full of kind creatures. The sea is full of trash”, focusing on environmental and sustainable themes of the Moomin tales, H.C. Andersen fairy tales and Ilon Wikland´s drawings. The exhibition is curated by children from our Young Curators project from the participating museums and has been supported by a series of public events such as workshops, talks and more.
In 2022 workshops and events will follow to deepen the work and connecting the dots further between the Nordic children’s literature, UN Sustainable Goals and environmental & sustainable themes. The Waterdrop conference in Kópavogur in October 2021 will develop the concept further.
In 2023 the project focuses on spreading the outcome of the project across the Nordic region. This strategy includes the production of a publication which will serve as a documentation of contents and methods, and a tour of other cultural and educational institutions across the Nordic region by the project managers and select children and young people who have participated in the program. This is also the phase in which an extensive evaluation of the project will be carried out, both externally through feedback sessions with the children and the general public - and internally over several meetings of the project management team.
From the interaction between the exhibitions and the public program, a publication and other teaching material are developed and distributed among educators and cultural institutions in the Nordic region.
YOUNG CURATORS AT WORK
CHILDREN’S INVOLVEMENT
The children’s active engagement I shaping and participating in the cultural program is key to its successful implementation. That’s why we chose to involve children as active participants in all parts of the program, but especially the Young Curators workshops.
For each workshop, local children aged 8-15 will be selected through an Open Call, selected by a jury consisting of the project partners and collaborators. Children can apply with a drawing, video, audio, text or other creative submission they can express their interest n the project in a way that suits them and already gives the project team an idea of their interests and talents.
The workshops will invite the children to become co-creators of a public cultural program implementing the UN Development Goals as well as providing short term vocational training. Throughout the workshops in Iceland, Denmark and Finland the “Young Curators” selected children will be actively involved in shaping and developing the exhibitions. The participating children will engage with local school children, visit the local cultural institutions involved in the project and have direct exchanges with the curatorial and project management of the Waterdrop. During the workshops, we will be implementing the pedagogical values that also guide the CRC program.
After the exhibitions there will be a meeting with all Young Curators and an evaluation feedback sessions with all children involved.
The project’s goal is to set an example of how children can be involved to a higher degree in cultural and public work, relevant for future cultural productions in the Nordic region and abroad.
“It would be awful if the world exploded. It is so wonderfully splendid.”
- Snufkin
GUIDING PRINCIPALS
The municipality of Kópavogur has in recent years worked extensively with and around the UN Development Goals, using the to shape their own cultural and social sectors. The “Kópavogur model” has gained both national and international recognition for being innovative in the implementation of the development goals. Kópavogur also received the highest rating among its inhabitants nationally when the 19 largest municipalities in the country were asked how the town’s performance culturally in 2019.
Kópavogur has also become the second city in Iceland to participate in the international Child Friendly City project a devised by the CRC (Children’s Rights Council) to Unicef. In early 2019, the cultural centers of Kópavogur received grants from the Children’s Cultural Fund to hire a project manager to reach families of foreign origin and introduce them to a variety of cultural activities.
Both the UN Development Goals and CFC/CRC guidelines will shape the Waterdrop project activities. A special focus lies on the values of gender equality, sustainable development and inclusion of children and young people.
FUNDING STRATEGY
The Waterdrop is a three year project taking place in Iceland, Finland, Estonia and Denmark.
Due to the scale of the project and the several level of activities funding has been almost secured and applied for from both local, regional, national, Nordic and European funding instruments.
The project phases are split into three and the following funding has been secured / will be applied for:
Phase 1: Research & Development of the three year project (October 2019 to June 2020)
Received funding: Opstart Sort Term Network Funding (NCP, 2019/2020)
Phase 2: The Waterdrop exhibition and cultural program (2021).
Received funding:
Nordic Culture Fund
Kópavogur Art and Culture Fund Nordbuk Nordic Culture Point
Applied funding: Letterstedtska Association for part of the Waterdrop conference in October 2021.
Phase 3: Workshops, exhibition and pedagogical outcome.
Received funding:
Icelandic Children’s Cultural Fund Erasmus+
Applied funding: Nordisk Kulturfond for four exhibitions and public program 2022.
Further fundings will be applied for in connection with phase 3.
VISUALS T HEWATERDR PO
For further information please contact:
Soffía Karlsdóttir
Head of Culture
Kópavogur municipality
soffiakarls@kopavogur.is
Digranesvegur 1
200 Kópavogur
Iceland
