In this series of stories, we present the Culture for Everyone services of the City of Espoo, the aim of which is to promote equality and the accessibility of cultural services by making culture available to residents of all ages. In the second part of the series, we explore Culture Call.
Culture Call is an operating model that brings culture to early childhood education. All children from Espoo aged 3 to 5 can enjoy Culture Call in the city’s day-care centres.
Culture Call forms a part of early childhood education and is implemented in collaboration with cultural organisations. Art and culture professionals visit day-care centres to perform or guide activities planned for children, and some day-care centres will receive a circulating material package.
Now, with the coronavirus, Culture Call is being carried out outdoors or remotely. Policies have been developed quickly and creatively to respond to the challenges of the pandemic period.
Children from the Maakirja daycare participated in a Culture Call workshop with Theatre Ilmi Ö in November 2020. Photo: Olli Urpela.
One of the 25 organisations involved in Culture Call is Seikkailutaidekoulu. “This autumn, we have enjoyed organising workshops on location and physically, rather than relying on remote connections. Working outdoors throughout the workshops has been quite straightforward for us, as we specialise in teaching outdoors and in camping and adventure with children,” say Satu Sipilä and Verna Kuntsi from Seikkailutaidekoulu.
“When the coronavirus situation hit us, we had a very challenging time. In the cultural sector as a whole, work ended instantly and we feared for the continuation of this project. However, there has now been a strong hope in Culture Call that the children’s cultural events could be organised. That is why we have been delighted that Culture Calls have now been held,” say Sipilä and Kuntsi.
Development of Culture Call started in 2018 in the form of a pilot project. There has been a KULPS! Culture and Sports Trail operating in Espoo since 2008, allowing comprehensive school children to experience and create art, use the diverse possibilities of libraries and familiarise themselves with various sports and sports facilities in a diverse manner. With the pilot, the aim was to expand cultural education to include early childhood education.
Culture Call Coordinator Kaisa Koskela has been involved from the start in developing the operating model. Koskela says that Culture Call is unique nationwide.
“In the pilot project, which later became Culture Call, it was important from the very beginning that art should be seen as a playful activity, stripped of elitism,” Koskela says.
Children from the Maakirja daycare participated in a Culture Call workshop with Theatre Ilmi Ö in November 2020. Photo: Olli Urpela.
An important part of the values of Culture Call is improving children’s inclusion. “It is not so much a question of children deciding what kind of performances they want, but rather that children can feel that their voice is heard through creating art and that their opinions matter,” Koskela says.
Inclusion also plays a central role in the early childhood education plan. Early childhood education staff therefore have a responsibility to ensure that children’s inclusion is taken into account and supported. Culture Call brings art and culture methods and tools to early childhood education to support children’s inclusion.
“The values of inclusiveness, artistic and pedagogical quality and sustainable development in operations have been emphasised for the cultural organisations of Culture Call. It has been great to see how they have been able to implement them. Ideas about learning and childhood are changing and developing rapidly in general, and cultural organisations are required to be able to absorb new information,” Koskela says.
As part of Culture Call, there are also Culture Calls for Educators, during which art and cultural organisations encourage staff to utilise the opportunities provided by art in early childhood education in new ways. “Culture Calls are also happy events for the staff. Community spirit, laughing together and playing together can give employees strength,” Kaisa Koskela says.
According to Satu Sipilä and Verna Kuntsi from Seikkailutaidekoulu, the Culture Call workshops have been well received by children.
“We have had really great partner day-care centres where there have been nice and active groups of children. Our workshop involves a lot of play, activity, art, a story that serves as a framework and even some surprises,” Sipilä and Kuntsi say.
“It seems that we have succeeded in our goal of bringing a little magic to children’s everyday excursions to nearby forests in our workshops!”
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Are you an artist or art organisation interested in the activities of Culture Call? Would you like to offer activities or programmes and be part of Culture Call? Send e-mail to kaisa.k.koskela@espoo.fi.