The Learning Institution

To promote an artistic discourse at eye level for and with a young audience, the KinderKunstLabor offers spaces for children’s own activities, for encounters with art, for movement, exchanges, and dialogue, for snacks and recreation, both inside the building and outside in the surrounding park. An openness to different forms of use also entails accommodating functions that are not primarily cultural. Ideally, the KinderKunstLabor is a “one-stop-shop” where everything can happen in one place (cf. Ross 2023). Above and beyond its reputation as a pioneering exhibition venue, the aim is to establish the institution as a social third place (cf. Oldenburg 1989) in the city of St. Pölten and the State of Lower Austria. In order to tailor the activities and the programme at the KinderKunstLabor accordingly and to account for intergenerational audiences, we must cultivate reflexive processes and feedback systems that enable ongoing changes and adaptations. Innovative approaches to curating and art education should therefore be tested and reflected upon in smaller groups. Any interactions or findings in this context can serve as impulses in development processes and align the guiding principles and scope of action to the constantly changing conditions within and outside the institution. This requires an open organisational model shaped by individuals, which encourages and supports experimental problem-solving. With this in mind, the quality of the envisioned programme should not only be measured by the frequency of its visitors and participants, but also the duration of their stay as well as the intensity, versatility, innovativeness, and sustainability of the individual, personalised art mediation processes. Educational activities at the KinderKunstLabor are therefore accompanied by scientific research from the very outset. On the long term, forms of continuous research-based support that help to shape, document, study, and interpret co-creation processes could make a sustainable contribution to moderating and advancing the evolution of a learning institutional practice.
Mona Jas

Further reading:

• Mona JAS, Aron WEIGL (2024), Können Institutionen (laufen) lernen?, Vienna Passagen.
• Anja ROSS (2023), Die Eroberung des Museums: Aneignung und Mitgestaltung des Tribal Museums Bhopal durch seine indischen Besucher*innen, Bielefeld: transcript.
• Ray OLDENBURG (1989): The Great Good Place. Cafes, Coffee Shops, Bookstores, Bars, Hair Salons, and other Hangouts at the Heart Community, New York: Marlowe & Company.