MOBILE STUDIO IN SCHOOLS AND NEIGHBOURHOODS
DAS FLIEGENDE KÜNSTLER:INNENZIMMER (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. 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.
About the FlieKü
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, there are now seven FlieKü studios.
In the 2025/2026 school year, five mobile studios will be hosted at schools in rural Hessen. At the beginning of 2023, we extended the concept to the urban context: the first FlieKü in Frankfurt ‘landed’ on Gravensteiner Platz in the district of Preungesheim. Since October 2025, a second FlieKü has been located in the district of Ginnheim.
For whom?
Artists, pupils and schools in rural areas; children, young people, adults and institutions within a neighbourhood.
Objective
Encounters with artists and artistic inspiration as a fixed part of school and neighbourhood development, fostering the growth of individual personality.
Duration
Two years per school and neighbourhood.
Location
Schools in rural Hessen; neighbourhoods in Frankfurt am Main.
15
Artists
7
5 participating schools and 2 neighbourhoods
over 4,000
Pupils and two Frankfurt neighbourhoods
FlieKü in schools
A space for realising creative processes
Equipped with a stipend, artists live and work in the FlieKü as artists-in-residence at schools for up to two school years. Together with pupils and teachers, they explore artistic approaches in lessons, experience open studio situations and develop joint projects.
In 2025, the artists-in-residence of the FlieKü – Janosch Feiertag, Dawid Liftinger, Sophia Mix, Ghaku Okazaki and Damaris Wurster – will present their works in the exhibition ‘Zwischenlandung’. As ‘flying artists’, they reflect on the changing relationship between their own artistic positions and the rural environments in which they work.
FlieKü in the neighbourhood
A public part of the neighbourhood
In the neighbourhood, the FlieKü is located in public space and becomes a meeting place for the entire district. As artists-in-residence, artists work in the mobile studio in close cooperation with the local neighbourhood management. They connect with local institutions and initiate participatory processes with residents that foster creativity and self-efficacy and strengthen the sense of community within the district.
Quotes
‘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.’
‘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.’
‘Many people live in Preungesheim for whom traditional art formats, museums or theatres are not free of barriers due to social exclusion and disadvantages. FlieKü aims to enable participation in art and cultural education and can thus form a bridge that creates new access and different experiences. That's what the neighbourhood needs!’
‘Many people live in Preungesheim for whom traditional art formats, museums or theatres are not free of barriers due to social exclusion and disadvantages. FlieKü aims to enable participation in art and cultural education and can thus form a bridge that creates new access and different experiences. That's what the neighbourhood needs!’
Film
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 Künstler:innenzimmer im Quartier’ (FlieKü in the neighbourhood) is a Crespo Foundation programme in cooperation with the Jugend- und Sozialamt der Stadt Frankfurt (Frankfurt Youth and Social Welfare Office) and the neighbourhood management schemes in Preungesheim and Ginnheim as part of the city’s ‘Frankfurter Programm – Aktive Nachbarschaft’ (Frankfurt Programme – Active Neighbourhoods), run by Diakonie Frankfurt und Offenbach and IB Südwest gGmbH.
CONTACTS
‘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
Crespo Foundation
‘The FlieKü is an extracurricular place of learning on the school grounds: artists, teachers and pupils can find new forms of design together, experiment with them and discover their own creativity.’
‘The FlieKü is an extracurricular place of learning on the school grounds: artists, teachers and pupils can find new forms of design together, experiment with them and discover their own creativity.’
FlieKü in schools
Erik Gebbert
Crespo Foundation