The German Museums Association (Deutscher Museumsbund) sponsors educational work for children and teenagers in Attendorn’s Südsauerlandmuseum.
The Südsauerlandmuseum was selected for a sponsorship project of the German Museums Association in Berlin. After a successful competition against many interested museums from all over Germany, the Südsauerlandmuseum won the sponsorship for the BREAKING HISTORY project.
BREAKING HISTORY – History of a region. “Understanding history to shape the future” – this is the idea behind a project implemented in Attendorn’s Südsauerlandmuseum with the support of the German Museums Association. The aim is to teach children from Attendorn’s Youth Centre about the treasures of the Südsauerlandmuseum and the era in which they were created, applying different educational approaches. The Attendorn Youth Centre (Jugendzentrum) and the Southern Sauerland Artists’ Association (Künstlerbund Südsauerland) support this project of the Südsauerlandmuseum.
The children and teenagers from Attendorn’s youth centre are made familiar with the historical topics over a period of several weeks, using different teaching methods. Complementary workshops are offered to explore the topics in more depth, applying practical, artistic or IT-based approaches. Children who have participated in these workshops qualify as peer teamers and can then convey what they have experienced to their peers in a workshop. A big public event took place on 16 August 2015 to celebrate the end of the project. All participants created views of Attendorn from the same location, showing it in the Devonian period, the Stone Age, the Middle Ages, the Baroque, the present and the future. This way, they presented the Südsauerlandmuseum to the public in their own unique way.
Under the supervision of art historian Andrea Arens, youth educator Anna Orsini from Attendorn’s youth centre and freelance artist Marlis Backhaus, the children from the youth centre experienced the Südsauerlandmuseum in a very special way on the following topics:
- Present: Works of twentieth-century artists from the region, from the museum’s own stock – artists present their local area
- Baroque: Living a noble life – Aristocracy in the Sauerland
- Middle Ages: Societies and networks – A glimpse of medieval life in Attendorn
- Stone Age: Humankind prevails – survival strategies in the Stone Age
- Devon: Plants–animals–environment: The Sauerland 350 million years ago
- Future: What will our area look like in 500 years?
Film documentary of the project:
Project partners
German Museums Association (Deutscher Museumsbund), Berlin, Jugendzentrum Attendorn e.V. und Künstlerbund Südsauerland e.V.