MOBILE STUDIO IN SCHOOLS AND NEIGHBOURHOODS
DAS FLIEGENDE KÜNSTLERZIMMER (FLIEKÜ: THE FLYING ARTIST’S ROOM)
Most activities connected with cultural education are located in large urban areas, which means that pupils and artists in the countryside have very few venues where they can meet up. That’s where the ‘flying artist’s room’ (fliegendes Künstlerzimmer, or FlieKü) comes in, functioning as a mobile live-in studio in rural schoolyards. The title of the project was inspired by the classic children’s book by Erich Kästner, ‘The Flying Classroom’. Even on the outskirts of towns, universal cultural participation is by no means a foregone conclusion. That’s why the FlieKü opened its doors in a district of Frankfurt for the very first time in 2023.
For whom?
Artists and pupils in rural areas; children, teenagers, adults and institutions in a specific urban district
Aim
Meeting artists and generating artistic ideas that stimulate personal development as an integral aspect of improving schools and city districts
Duration
Two years per school and district
Location
Schools in rural Hesse, districts in Frankfurt
FlieKü in schools: a space for realising creative processes
Equipped with a stipend, artists live and work in the FlieKü as school artists-in-residence for up to two school years. The artists try out various artistic approaches in lessons with pupils and teachers, experiencing open studio situations and developing projects together.
‘As far as we’re concerned, it’s mainly about getting pupils closer to a “what if” mode of thinking, while also having an exciting and inspiring time with each other.’
FlieKü in the neighbourhood
FlieKü is located in a public part of the neighbourhood, offering artists space where they can live and work for up to three months. They establish networks with local institutions, enabling people of all ages but particularly children and teenagers to participate directly in art and cultural education, with a special focus on digitalisation.
‘I feel that Preungesheim is the perfect setting for the FlieKü. There are curious, diverse and active people here who want to share their knowledge and collectively make the district come to life.’
Creative flights of fancy in urban and rural settings
The Crespo Foundation has run the FlieKü since we first designed it in 2018. Having started with a single studio at one school, only four years later we were able to expand its scope.
Since the 2022/2023 school year there have been six mobile studios at schools and from the start of 2023 onwards the FlieKü in the neighbourhood programme has been making a guest appearance on Gravensteiner Platz, a square in the Frankfurt district of Preungesheim. In the summer of 2022, the FlieKü stopped off for a hundred days at the documenta fifteen art exhibition in Kassel, where it served as a workspace for the Art Educators-in-Residence programme as part of the ‘CAMP notes on education’ communication platform.
FLIEKÜ IN NUMBERS
over 4.000
pupils and 16,000 residents
7
6 participating schools and 1 district
15
artists
2
supplementary formats
“It’s a bit of a crazy place where you can unleash your creativity”
“It’s a bit of a crazy place where you can unleash your creativity”
PARTNERS
Das fliegende Künstlerzimmer an Schulen (FlieKü in schools) is a Crespo Foundation programme in cooperation with the Hesse Ministry of Culture, HKM, the Hesse Ministry of Science and the Arts (HMWK), and the municipalities and schools.
Das fliegende Künstlerzimmer im Quartier (FlieKü in the neighbourhood) is a Crespo Foundation programme in cooperation with the Jugend- und Sozialamt der Stadt Frankfurt am Main (Frankfurt Youth and Social Welfare Office), the Preungesheim neighbourhood management scheme as part of the city’s Frankfurter Programm – Aktive Nachbarschaft programme run by Diakonie Frankfurt und Offenbach, the German Children and Youth Foundation (Deutsche Kinder- und Jugendstiftung) and NODE Verein zur Förderung digitaler Kultur e.V.
CONTACTS
‘A very special relationship based on trust can develop between pupils and artists in the FlieKü programme.’
‘A very special relationship based on trust can develop between pupils and artists in the FlieKü programme.’
FlieKü in schools
Laura Kurtz
Crespo Foundation
‘FlieKü is both an artist’s studio and a place for meeting people. It creates a space where participating in culture is possible.’
‘FlieKü is both an artist’s studio and a place for meeting people. It creates a space where participating in culture is possible.’
FlieKü in the neighbourhood
Jana Weyer
German Children and Youth Foundation