Explore! The 9th Hands On! International conference

Joint Lecture: Let‘s Cooperate! Traveling exhibitions, partnerships and the will to succeed together

Stefan OstermeyerAlice – Museum for Children, Berlin

Exploring the World of Traveling Exhibitions. by Stefan Ostermeyer, Alice Museum for Children, Berlin, Germany

Dear colleagues,

The ALICE – Museum for Children is a small institution.

We are basically three colleagues who get new exhibitions organized – starting with raising funds from public or private sources ...right through to the daily business of running a children‘s muse-um.

Considering these limited resources it seems a little peculiar that we even bother lending out our exhibitions to partner museums. But that wasn‘t actually planned.

Let me tell you how our exhibition rental began – what we achieved in terms of cooperations over the last ten years and which conclusions we draw for the work of children‘s museums in general:

In 2002 we planned the exhibition “Let‘s talk about death”. A thematic exhibition about very basic things: age, time, immortality and ideas of the hereafter.

Let‘s Talk About Death

Hereinspaziert

Projektskizze

2014, im Jahr des hundertjährigen Ju-biläums des Jugendstil-Waldfriedhofs, gestalten wir die ehemalige Feuer-bestattungshalle für ein Thema, das mitten ins Leben gehört: “Sterben – Tod – Begraben – Trauern – Leben“. Ab Mai 2014 werden für die Sommer-monate auf 600 m2 spannungsvolle Rauminszenierungen für das Publikum geöffnet werden.Wochentags werden Schulgruppen von Theaterpädagogen und Schauspielern durch diese Räume begleitet werden, um sie zu verführen, spielerisch mit diesen Themen in Kontakt zu kommen. Am Wochenende ist geöffnet für inter-essierte Bürger, Familien, ...

Für dieses Vorhaben sammeln wir Mittel: Geld und andere Zuwendungen

Wir wollen junge Menschen inspirieren, sich mit dem Tod zu befassen – für ein lebendiges Leben.

Festival Darmstadt 2014 (License)

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rbb, State TV of Berlin/Brandenburg

Bielefeld, Natural History Museum

Lörrach, Municipal Museum

Berlin-Mitte, Parochioal Church

Luxembourg (Variation)Cultural City of Europe 2007

Hannover, State Museum of Lower Saxony

Alice Traveling Exhibitions - “Let‘s talk about death”

Some funding came from the Francke Foundations in Halle – a 2 hours drive away from Berlin. In exchange for their commitment we agreed upon a second presentation after Berlin in their premi-ses. In the meantime we made contact to a Berlin based funeral home. They promised to sponsor some of the then following presentations.

After 4 more presentations we lost our sponsor – fortunately our clients accepted by now the full price we asked for a full loan service. We gave the exhibition to some children‘s museums (Munich, Dortmund, Frida and Fred in Graz and ZOOM in Vienna) as well to museums and institutions of all kinds:

There was the museum of knifes and blades in Solingen (Deutsches Klingenmuseum) or the mu-seum for sepulchral culture in Kassel. The State museum in Hannover, the Cultural City of Culture 2007 in Luxembourg or even the State Television company rbb of Berlin and Brandenburg.

By the end of 2105 we will have had 18 presentations of “Let‘s talk about death”. Let me show you on a map of Germany how this traveling exhibition developed over the years...

Neu-Ulm

Hamburg

Kassel Dresden

Dortmund

Munich

HannoverOldenburg

Lörrach

Solingen

BielefeldBerlin

Friedrichshafen (2015)

Halle (Saale) Francke Foundations

Graz

Vienna

Luxembourg

Alice

Traveling Exhibitions

Let‘s Talk About Death

18 Presentations2002 - 2015

Alice Traveling Exhibitions - “Let‘s talk about death”

Let‘s Talk About Death

What did we do for this success?

A. Choosing the right subject – not only for childrenMuseums are looking for exhibitions from children‘s museums that compliment their own collec-tions and special exhibits. Their departments of education are happy to present a full grown exhibit that is especially made for young visitors and allows bridges of communication to the “real” coll-ection for youngsters and grownups.We always tried to choose topics that are interesting for all ages. The exhibition‘‘s communication – its language – has to fulfil the needs of children – but adults appreciate the unexpected approach from a child‘s perspective. In “Let‘s talk about death” we even noticed a dialog between the gene-rations – children involved their parents into conversations, grandparents shared their concerns and emotions with their grandchildren.

B. Being a partner for all kind of museumsOur exhibitions try to widen to the visitor‘s horizon. We include and mix up aspects of classical museum content (cultural history, science, literature etc.) This makes it attractive for all sorts of museums to borrow for example “Let‘s talk about death”.

C. Understanding the needs of a partner museum

We see our lending cooperations as real partnerships. If a museum wishes additions to the stan-dard scheme we try to find a solution. We always offer a full service: there will be a specialized and experienced team to install the exhibitions.

D. Being different and unexpectedMany museum professionals told us that they found the topics of our traveling exhibitions unique – very different from many offers on the market. They are unique because they pick up the big questions which preoccupy our society, which are “in the air”.

E. Improving the public relationsMany museums are looking for exhibitions by searching the internet. A complete and website with various information makes it easy to find you. If you can post press coverage and a long list of references the better chances to get a phone call from a future partner.

What could be the benefit of lending traveling exhibitsfor a children‘s museum?

A. PublicityEspecially in Berlin there is little press coverage about the activities of a children‘s museum – it is much more in smaller places. A prophet has no honour in his own country.

B. Long term partnerships

Museums accept your role as a specialist in museum education for the younger generation after one successful transaction. They might order a second and third exhibition later on. That worked for us at least.

C. Better opportunities to apply for funds

The more exhibitions you are able to present in well known places the better for your image. Public or private Foundations have to make sure that their money is spent effectively. They appreciate many visitors and a good media presence.

Exhibitions after „Let‘s talk about death“:

After the success of „Let‘s talk about death“ a series of five new traveling exhibitions followed.

Watch out shopping! With a giant supermarket in it‘s center. Children could „shop“ all kinds of astonishing and useful information about the quality of goods and services.

All About Pounds and Pennies. An exhibit as financial education in a playful way: from printing money, earning, spending it or saving the money on your special bank account.

Brokers, Bears and Bulls - The Stock Market Game - 13-15 year olds could learn in a practical way how the financial markets works. They have to make disissions and develop products that succed on the market.

Watch Out Familiy: a labyrinth of family constellations, from patchwork to lesbians with a desire to have children. From a „SOS Children‘s Village“ to the „ordinary“ 2 parents, 2 kids family.

Tell Me More About the GDR: In 2009 we launched an exhibit about the German Democratic Republic. A historical topic full of stories from original children’s diaries. They tell us about their experiences, about daily life in a past socialist Germany - a historical view from the grass roots!

The map shows the development of travelling exhibitions from 2002 - 2015 in Germany:

Neu-Ulm

Hamburg

Kassel Dresden

Dortmund

Munich

Halle (Saale)

Hannover

Nuremberg

Hofheim am Taunus

Erlangen

Oldenburg

Lörrach

Solingen

Bielefeld

Stade

Berlin

Friedrichshafen

Esslingen

Graz

Vienna

Museum Schwedenspeicher StadeHelmsmuseum Hamburg-HarburgEv. Gemeinde Oldenburg Niedersächsisches Landesmuseum Hannover, Museum August KästnerNaturkunde-Museum BielefeldHistorisches Museum BielefeldFranckesche Stiftungen Halle (Saale)Kindermuseum mondomio,DortmundKlingenmuseum Solingen Japanisches Palais Dresden Deutsches Hygiene Museum Dresden Museum für Sepulchral-kultur Kassel Stadtmuseum Hofheim a.T.Stadtmuseum ErlangenMuseum im Koffer NürnbergMuseum Industriekultur, NürnbergStädtische Sammlungen EsslingenEdwin Scharff Museum, Neu-UlmKindermuseum MünchenZeppelin Museum, FriedrichshafenMuseum am Burghof, LörrachZOOM Kindermuseum Wien Kindermuseum Frida&Fred, Graz

7 Exhibitions 33 Presentations

2002 - 2015

Alice

Traveling Exhibitions

Lets Talk About Death

Watch out Family!

All About Pounds And

Pennies Brokers, Bears

and BullsWatch Out!Shopping!

Tell me More About the GDR

Acoustic Lab

Watch out Family

Watch out Family

Watch out Family

All About Pounds and Pennies

All About Pounds and Pennies

All About Pounds and Pennies

All About Pounds and Pennies

Brokers, Bears and Bulls - The Stock Market Game

Brokers, Bears and Bulls - The Stock Market Game

Watch Out! Shopping!

Tell Me More About the GDR

Tell Me More About the GDR

Tell Me More About the GDR

The next step:

Longterm Cooperations For us the lending activities let to a couple of long term partnerships with children‘s museums. In 2011 we initiated the exhibition project Welcome@HotelGlobal. We asked Edwin-Scharff Museum in Neu-Ulm, ZOOM in Vienna and Frida&Fred in Graz to join an international exhibition project:

Welcome@HotelGlobal. This exhibition is about the big and incomprehensible topic of „globali-zation“. The children visit hotel guests of Hotel „Global“ and take over their jobs; as captain on a container vessel, a chocolate maker with worldwide connections or as a environmental activist.

All partners agreed to present the exhibition in their museums over the next 4 years. This is an enormous advantage for describing the project to a funding institution. It shows the applicants‘ ability to make up networks and discuss the topic of the exhibition in a broader and context.

Lisbon

BERLIN: ALICE – MUSEUM FOR CHILDREN

Luxembourg

Vienna

Graz

Neu-Ulm

All About Pounds And Pennies (Licence)

Let‘s talk about death (Cultural Capital of Europe 2007)

Welcome@HotelGlobal

International Cooperations

Welcome@HotelGlobal Berlin, Neu-Ulm, Wien, Graz

Welcome@HotelGlobal

Welcome@HotelGlobal

Welcome@HotelGlobal

Welcome@HotelGlobal

Conclusion:

Alice – Museum for Children started with traveling exhibitions in order to acquire a reputation – in order to qualify (get the money) for bigger projects. This is a feasible way for a small museum. But it takes some time and is stressful.

It seams more effective to engage directly into cooperations with other children‘s museums or even classical museums.

Cooperation means: increasing your financial resources; exchanging ideas, methods and techniques etc.; being a reliable partner for all kinds of donors and institutions.

That is definitely our intention for the future.

Thank you very much