Kiasma School on Wheels

The School on Wheels set off on its first school visit on 29 September 2003. Since then, it has visited 68 locations in five provinces, covering some 20,000 km. The teachers have carried the paraphernalia of the van – the technical equipment needed in the pedagogical performance, the artworks and workshop materials – into 76 auditoriums and back. The visits have been met with anything from puzzlement to excitement.

A teacher once described pupils’ attitudes towards contemporary art as ranging from rejection and intolerance to acceptance and interest. Kiasma’s School on Wheels has not, according to feedback, made any major breakthrough but it has moved people’s minds. Although this three-year art education project is nearing its end, there are still nine school visits in the coming autumn which will show how contemporary art and school work can indeed be combined and in a fun way, to boot.

Kiasma’s School on Wheels has attracted wide interest. It has made national news and in nearly every municipality it has visited, the local paper has covered the visit. The School on Wheels has been invited to teach at the teacher training departments of the University of Turku and The Chydenius Institute in Kokkola, and the multidisciplinarity of contemporary art has attracted great interest from teachers attending the courses organised at Kiasma. The School on Wheels has also been introduced in international art education seminars in London and Vilna. Last spring a group of Estonian youngsters and teachers had the opportunity to take part in the School on Wheels when the Finnish Institute in Estonia invited it for a week’s tour.

At the end of 2005, the art education project, which has evoked praise, enthusiasm and amazement, as well as criticism and developmental suggestions, will finally be wrapped up. There will be a final report consisting of statistical information and research data produced in academic dissertations of the subject, as well as feedback gathered along the way. The feedback has been encouraging: ’More of this, please!’ ’Thanks for coming!’ ’What you do is so important!’

Päivi Venäläinen
Producer

INFO
Kiasma School on Wheels is a national three-year project supported by the energy company Vattenfall Oyj.

STATISTICS
4 school terms

In Finland
Central Finland, Pirkanmaa, Central Häme, Päijät-Häme, Southern Ostrobothnia, and Lemi in Southern Karelia, FORTHCOMING Northern Ostrobothnia

Abroad
London, Vilnius, Tallinn, Rakvere and Tartu

Locations 60, forthcoming 9
Schools / van decorations 76
School days 104
Kilometres 19,539
Students 6,359
Teachers 471
Educational performances 95
Artist’s Anatomy performed 72 times
Local artists featured 61 times
Workshops 61