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Kulturverket
City of Umeå
Sweden

The Problem

To provide all children in the municipality access to cultural experiences and integrate aesthetic learning processes into everyday school activities.
Initiate and carry out projects where art plays the central part and where children literally
“Tell pros what to do”. Ideas of children are taken over by professionals or older children or students who touch them up and enhance them. They all cooperate in the final presentation of their work, which may be a concert, an exhibition, or another type of performance.
Our projects all start in the schools, but they end up being presented in institutions like the opera or the Museum of Contemporary Art.
All projects are carried out in collaboration with institutions such as the universities and colleges, museums, the opera, libraries, etc.

Solution and Key Benefits

 What is the initiative about? (the solution)
Children and their ideas are taken seriously; their self-confidence is strengthened.Young people profit from teaching younger children. Teachers are inspired by the professional support they get from artists engaged in the projects.

Institutions involved are eager to reach new generations and Kulturverket delivers new audiences by opening them up to children, and their parents who come to see what their children perform or see what they have achieved. As the school is our basis, we reach all children irrespective of their family backgrounds, something which leads to greater diversity.
Ca 2 000 children from 29 schools have been involved in projects initiated by Kulturverket.

The great advantage of this organisation is of course that budgets are used more efficiently.

There are great gains in the fact that Kulturverket can make use of already existing administrations and the administrations all profit from the work of Kulturverket and do not all need to organise and finance the work themselves.

Co-operation is built on the assumption that all parties involved take their share of the costs and invest in the project which means that the sum of money invested by the municipality is very small if you compare it to what is received in return in the shape of performances etc. Our budget is approximately 450 000 euro/year
This is really a win-win situation for all involved.

Actors and Stakeholders

 Who proposed the solution, who implemented it and who were the stakeholders?
Kulturverket started in august 2005 after the upper secondary school administration, the pre-school and compulsory education admininstration, the cultural affairs administration, the recreation and leisure activities admininstration and the three municipal districts and their committees had decided to join forces to coordinate their resources to give all children in the municipality access to cultural experiences but also to integrate aesthetic learning processes
in the everyday work of the schools.

Behind the decision lay not only the curriculum of the Swedish school but also the UN resolution about the rights of the child. A limited budget made common use of already existing administrations, networking and collaboration with institutions a necessity for the very existence of Kulturverket .

(a) Strategies

 Describe how and when the initiative was implemented by answering these questions
 a.      What were the strategies used to implement the initiative? In no more than 500 words, provide a summary of the main objectives and strategies of the initiative, how they were established and by whom.
Kulturverket is organized as a flexible network with only 4 people in the regular staff. The model “Kids tell pros..” and ideas for projects stem from discussions within Kulturverket where professional artists, musicians, composers etc. are employed ;People who are actively involved in their own careers but also interested in pedagogy and working with children and young people.
The administration enjoy great liberty when it comes to planning what projects to engage in . Pedagogy and art practise are equally important . We have dared start projects convinced that if the ideas are good enough we will find ways to realise them although we cannot from the start know exactly how. So far we have succeeded in delivering 100% of our projects to the satisfaction of all involved.
Co-operation is built on the assumption that all parties involved take their share of the costs (invest in the project ) which means that the sum of money invested by the municipality
is very small if you compare it to what is received in return in the shape of performances etc.
Our budget is approximately 450 000 euro/year

Bloggopera.se –a project to illustrate the method Kids tell pros what to do

Together with the opera in we decided to write a new opera; libretto as well as music. In collaboration with HUMlab, a department for the humanities and IT-technology at the University of Umeå a website was created to make it possible to involve a large number of upper secondary school students in creating the story.
400 students contributed 100 words each on any topic they found interesting .A professional
writer sorted the 40 000 words, added only 9 words of his own in the libretto of 9 000 words.

The libretto was taken over by students at the municipal school of music where students aged
9-16 set about composing the music. Teachers from the academy of music lead the work together with their students who later orchestrated the music supervised by Kulturverket’s artistic leaders.

Other pupils contributed suggestions for scenography and clothes; Finally the music as well as these ideas were taken over by the professionals at the opera, scenographer, director, symphony orchestra. Professional singers were employed. Parallell to this students at the Academy och dance in Rome, Italy had created dances inspired by the blogs. They arrived in Umeå two weeks before opening night on November 9 2007 and were part of the 11 performances.

The bloggopera was the first example of Kulturverket making use of collaborative authorship.Kulturverket is currently developping cultumea, a website and community that enables collaborative authorship in a variety of mediums related to text, image, sound or video. It is designed around the idea of working together in projects but also offers tools for creativity through play. The collaborative concept is enforced by the social possibilities of the community. Users have direct access to each other and can share anything from creative ideas to social networks. The platform is designed for several types of users, children as well as professionals. It gives all participating individuals and groups an overview of the processes and the results. The work is carried out in collaboration with HUMlab at the University of Umeå just as all projects are carried out in collaboration with institutions such as the universities and colleges, museums, the opera, libraries, etc.

(b) Implementation

 b.      What were the key development and implementation steps and the chronology? No more than 500 words
Ideas of children are taken over by professionals or older children or students who touch them up and enhance them. They all cooperate in the final presentation of their work, which may be a concert, an exhibition, or another type of performance.
Our projects all start in the schools, but they end up being presented in institutions like the opera or the Museum of Contemporary Art.

(c) Overcoming Obstacles

 c.      What were the main obstacles encountered? How were they overcome? No more than 500 words
A very limited number of people have to perform many different tasks. Multiple skills are necessary. Certain vulnerability due to the limited number of people employed: three full-time staff, one part-time, and a number of people employed for restricted periods of time depending on project. Cooperation is the basis of the organization and responsibility for the projects is shared with partners such as the university, the opera, etc.

(d) Use of Resources

 d.      What resources were used for the initiative and what were its key benefits? In no more than 500 words, specify what were the financial, technical and human resources’ costs associated with this initiative. Describe how resources were mobilized
EUR 216 000 from Umeå’s administration committees and the municipal executive board. External funding: grants from the Swedish State Inheritance Fund EUR 270 000 2006/2007 and EUR 216 000 2007/2008.

Sustainability and Transferability

  Is the initiative sustainable and transferable?
Confidence in Kulturverket is strong and it has increased as positive results have been reported. As a result of the pilot project the larger institutions have expressed a desire to cooperate even without more explicit descriptions. The municipality has increased the budget for Kulturverket and an external financier the Swedish State Inheritance Fund is using Kulturverket as a good example and inspiration for other projects. It wants this model to spread nationally. The methods can be emulated and used by others. The municipality of Umeå is submitting an application for European Capital of Culture 2014 and Kulturverket is frequently pointed out as an important argument for granting Umeå nomination as a candidate. Kulturverket is making use of the inernet and work to create a stable cultural platform, Cultumea where young people can work together in projects nationally as well as internationally.Cultumea can also be used as an archive and place to market previous projects and methods.

On November 13, 2007 Kulturverket received the European Public Sector Award (EPSA) for Innovation in the Collaborative Governance cathegory for the project Kids tell pros what to do. Below you can read the Jury’s motivation
The project "Kids tell pros what to do" breaks new ground in Europe in showcasing the artistic ideas of young people through professional performances, including song concerts, dance performances, an opera, and a computer game, giving young people throughout the city the opportunity to see their ideas presented at the highest quality level.

Lessons Learned

 What are the impact of your initiative and the lessons learned?
Stick to the children’s ideas the entire way. These ideas should not be compromised or simplified. Maintain high goals in each form of art. Children recognize their own texts, music and pictures even after they have been given professional expression. Good ideas of course and networking where all parties gain from the collaboration.

Contact Information

Institution Name:   City of Umeå
Institution Type:   Public Organization  
Contact Person:   Margareta Ling
Title:   Project administrator  
Telephone/ Fax:   +46 90 16 32 27
Institution's / Project's Website:  
E-mail:   margareta.ling@umea.se  
Address:   Umeå kommun
Postal Code:   901 84
City:   Umeå
State/Province:  
Country:   Sweden

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