3rd Annual Congress “CHILDREN TO OLYMPUS!”

On 28 and 29 June 2007, the Cultural Foundation of German Länder (Kulturstiftung der Länder) and the German Federal Cultural Foundation jointly organized the third CHILDREN TO OLYMPUS! congress based on the motto "Taking Art to the Children - The educational mission of culture" at the Saarland State Theatre in Saarbrücken. The project's cooperative partners were the PwC Foundation Youth - Education - Culture, the Federal Agency for Civic Education (Bundeszentrale für politische Bildung) and the Saarland state government. The congress was part of the youth action group CHILDREN TO OLYMPUS! (www.kinderzumolymp.de (external link, opens in a new window)) which has increased public awareness of aesthetic-cultural education in Germany since 2003 and will be included as part of the cultural festivities in the "Luxembourg and Greater Region - European Capital of Culture 2007" programme.

The organizers of the congress placed special focus on concrete examples of educational involvement of cultural institutions and artists. What kind of educational concepts should be developed today? Should artists be expected to explain their own art? What challenges face cultural organizations and institutions of cultural education in an age of all-day schooling? How can art colleges and institutes be better integrated into educational concepts? To what extent is the media fulfilling its mission to communicate and educate the masses regarding culture?

The prominent guests at the congress attempted to answer these questions in lectures and podium discussions, as well as proposed structures that can encourage cooperation between kindergartens and schools with cultural partners in order to establish aesthetic education on a daily basis.

The congress was aimed at cultural organizations and artists who wish to explore new methods of cultural education, teachers and educators who hope to provide new impulses for schools and kindergartens with good artistic programmes, journalists who can communicate these innovative ideas to the public, and educational planners and politicians who are in the position to intensively and systematically realize cultural educational goals.