Stedelijk Museum Annual Report 2012

Education
Overview
After months of developing plans for new programs and public spaces, and
recruiting and training volunteers, tour guides, and Blikopeners, the moment finally
arrived: the opening. It was a day the Education Department had long been
anticipating.
In 2012, response to the museum’s educational activities was overwhelming. Many
thousands of students, families, and young people flocked to the reopened Stedelijk
Museum. For some it was their first visit, for others an exciting opportunity to see
the building and beloved icons of the collection in a new light. Visitors took part in
interactive tours and activities, exploring the historic building, the new wing, works
from the collection, and temporary exhibitions.
A total of 9,791 students visited the museum during a span of three months. They
explored the museum on their own, took a custom guided tour, or participated in
one of the 20 education programs, often taking a workshop in one of the new
education studios. The special Stedelijk pass for teachers allowed education
professionals free admission to the museum, which they took advantage of either to
prepare classes or seek inspiration. This year, the Education Department was an
inspiring and fertile learning and working environment for seven interns and seven
MAS placements (secondary school students who perform some 30 hours of
volunteer service as part of their school curriculum).
Families
In the reopened museum, there are more activities than ever for families to enjoy.
Family trails, guided tours for families (which attracted 225 participants), and an
interactive family audio tour with visuals invite visitors to look at and talk about art
together. Families now have a space of their own, the Family Lab designed by Niels
van Eijk and Miriam van der Lubbe, located beneath the famous grand staircase in
the historic building. The Family Lab is a place for families to get to grips with
questions such as, “What is movement” They can watch a video or take part in
hands-on activities. Families and other visitors with children are welcome to visit the
Family Lab throughout the day.
Children’s Workshops Given by Artists
Every Sunday afternoon in 2012, the museum’s two brand new workshop rooms
played host to activities for curious visitors between the ages of 6 and 12. Artists
and designers such as Jasper Krabbé, Job Koelewijn, Floortje Zonneveld, and Jan
Rothuizen gave 15 unique workshops here. They provided inspiration to the 285
children who participated and were in turn inspired. Writing in the November 14
edition of het Parool about the workshops he gave, Jasper Krabbé says: “Children
have unbridled powers of imagination. For them, reality is a magical realm. And the
red goat, the woman with the floating head or man with seven fingers in the painting
by Marc Chagall are completely normal. And there is nothing at all strange about
Picasso’s lady wearing a fish for a hat.”
For Young Children: Atelier of Light
During the Christmas holiday, more than 4,900 people visited the Atelier of Light in
the education workshop rooms of the Stedelijk. Young children were given the time
and space to explore the many facets of light from projection to phosphorescence,
and color mixing to color splitting. The atelier was a collaborative project bringing
together art and science and offered children an opportunity to experiment and form
hypotheses, create compositions, question their own and other people’s ideas about
light, and talk about it. The assistants on hand encouraged the children to
experiment and arrive at their own conclusions.
Elementary Schools
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