Børn i Region Midtjylland kan godt begynde at finde deres forestillinger og drømme om fremtidens bæredygtige barndomsbyer frem. For regionen har netop sendt 700.000 kroner afsted til Institut for Børnekultur og bakker derfor op om projektet FUTURAMA, der giver børn i Region Midtjylland mulighed for gennem eksperimenter, kunst og arkitektur at arbejde med, hvordan de forestiller sig og drømmer om, at deres fremtidsbyer og lokalsamfund kan se ud.

Bevillingen til Institut for Børnekultur fra Region Midtjylland er en del af kulturpuljen for regional udvikling. Udvalget for Regional Udvikling kan dermed bringe godt nyt til i alt 13 kulturprojekter i Midtjylland, som samlet set modtager 4,701 mio. kroner fra kulturpuljen til udvikling og oplevelser.

– Vi er både taknemlige og stolte over, at Region Midtjylland endnu en gang støtter op om børnekulturen. I FUTURAMA bygger vi videre på de erfaringer, som udspringer af de seneste års regionale projekter, SANGE TIL VERDEN (2019), NORDLYS (2020) og KUNST PÅ TVÆRS (2021), som alle har stillet skarpt på kunsten og kulturens potentiale i grundskolens arbejde med bæredygtighed og FN’s 17 Verdensmål, fortæller Ulla Voss Gjesing, Centerchef ved Institut for Børnekultur.

Focus on children's curiosity and experimentation

FUTURAMA's main focus is to create artistic, sensory-aesthetic and architectural experiments with the theme of the SDGs: Sustainable Cities and Communities. The aim is to give children the opportunity to challenge habits, see the world with new eyes, reflect on and imagine what has not yet been created. FUTURAMA will, for the first time, target children in school after-school and club hours.

- It is our opinion that the involvement of external artists and cultural mediators in an interdisciplinary collaboration with educators in SFOs and club offerings could contribute with new energy to the school leisure area, by inspiring new initiatives and activities. The experiments are created together with the children, who work together on how their experiments can be disseminated and involve people other than themselves. In this way, the project is not only about the children's co-creative encounter with art, but also about how the children can process, communicate and stage their own investigations, discoveries and stories for others, says Ulla Voss Gjesing.

Children's culture and the SDGs in focus

Although the projects work in very different areas and with very different interventions, the characteristic of the projects supported is that the majority focus on development and the future. Sustainability, the SDGs and children's culture are some of the themes that recur in several of the projects funded. Also common to the projects is the broad cooperation across stakeholders, sectors and municipalities.

- Sustainability and the SDGs are top priorities in virtually every industry - including the cultural sector. They are essential parameters when working on development. It is also an agenda we see in many cases among the projects granted. In general, the projects awarded embrace many of our cultural policy areas, such as children and young people, well-being and health, and rural areas," says Vice-Chair of the Committee for Regional Development, Henrik Qvist (Ø) in a press release.

FUTURAMA er et samarbejde mellem Institut for Børnekultur, BUM – Netværk for Børne- og Ungekultur i Region Midtjylland, Svalegangen/United Change, Det Store Ståhejgilde, Rumgehør og fem midtjyske kommuner, Ringkøbing-Skjern, Syddjurs, Horsens, Holstebro og Viborg.