On Monday 19 September, Minister of Culture Ane Halsboe-Jørgensen will visit Emilie Kindergarten in Hjørring, where she will play with art together with children, educators and artists.

It will probably be a slightly different working day that awaits Minister of Culture Ane Halsboe-Jørgensen when she is on the floor of the Emilie kindergarten in Hjørring on Monday 19 September. She will be playing with soap scum and colours with children, teachers and artist Lina Franke, who has been a regular guest at the nursery for several months as part of the LegeKunst project.

During the visit to Emilie Kindergarten, the Minister of Culture will experience what happens when an artist works with educators and children to explore how art and culture can promote play and education in day care.

”Vi er overbeviste om, at Kulturministeren med et enkelt besøg vil opleve, hvad det gør ved børn, når de får lov til at udfolde sig kreativt og kunstnerisk. Vi håber derfor, at Kulturministeren ved at være en del af den kreative stund sammen med børnene, pædagogerne og kunstneren vil opleve, at kunst og kultur gør en stor forskel i børns hverdag og kan være med til at løse en række af de udfordringer, som vi ser hos vores yngste med ensomhed, for lidt leg, sproglige og motoriske udfordringer, fejlslagen inklusion og fravær af fællesskab,” siger Ulla Voss Gjesing, der er centerchef ved Institut for Børnekultur, der står bag LegeKunst.

LegeKunst is currently Denmark's largest children's culture project with the participation of municipalities throughout the country and affects 20,000 children, 2,000 educators, 8,000 student educators and approximately 100 artists and cultural mediators.

 

Arts and culture can help fight child and youth deprivation

In recent years, there has been a greater focus on the importance of play and creativity in children's everyday lives. Play and creativity are included in the objectives of the Day Care Act, and both the Primary School Act and the recently adopted new teacher training programme focus more on practical and musical subjects. Recently, the Confederation of Danish Industry has presented a proposal with seven measures to promote Danish cultural life locally and nationally, and especially the youngest citizens, for example a Schools' Culture Day and a special pool targeted at primary schools, SFO, leisure and club facilities, so that children from an early age can experience culture as a regular element in their everyday lives.

Der er brug for at satse endnu mere på nationalt plan, hvis alle børn i Danmark skal sikres at møde kunst og kultur i deres hverdag, er Institut for Børnekulturs vurdering.

"If arts and culture are to really work, we need a new paradigm where arts and culture are not just entertainment, but a practical profession. That's why we need to look at how we get it up on a national level. LegeKunst is a concrete example of how to support the good that emerges in a time-limited project, so that the experience and knowledge created during the project's lifetime are not lost, but become part of a municipal and national strategy with anchoring, dissemination and structure," says Camilla Høg, project manager in LegeKunst.

Flere undersøgelser viser, at et stigende antal børn og unge oplever mistrivsel i form af ensomhed, stress, angst og depression. Her kan kunst og kreativitet ifølge Institut for Børnekulturs erfaringer understøtte indsatsen for at stoppe denne udvikling ved at skabe præstationsfrie rum, inklusion af alle børn, nye vaner, trivsel, dannelse og motivation. Mange års erfaringer fra dagtilbud i hele landet og de syv tilknyttede forskningsprojekter viser, at forløb som eksempelvis LegeKunst styrker børns møde med kunst og kultur og dermed adgang til kulturoplevelser og til det at udtrykke sig gennem kunst og kreativitet.