Inclusive cultural child and youth work

Practice, reflection, approaches

Inclusion is a key to cohesion in our society and fundamental to living democracy. Inclusion should therefore be the goal and mission of cultural education practice. With its principles, such as a focus on strengths and participation, it can support and implement inclusion. The study uses selected practical projects to illustrate this and provides recommendations on how the many barriers that still exist can be broken down.

Eight practical projects that test how cultural education can contribute to shaping social coexistence for all people without exclusion and discrimination were professionally supported by the German Federation for Arts Education und Cultural Learning (BKJ) for two years as part of the „Innovationsfonds Kulturelle Bildung – Inklusion“ of the Federal Ministry for Family Affairs, Senior Citizens, Women and Youth (BMFSFJ).

The practical projects include

• „JugendKunstSchule diVeRs“, Jugendkunstschule Vorpommern-Rügen e. V.
• „ETHNO – ein interkulturelles Musizierformat“, Jeunesses Musicales Deutschland e. V. (JMD)
• „Together – Do your own thing“, QUARTIER gGmbH
• „IN.ZIRQUE – Netzwerk Zukunft“, Zentrum für bewegte Kunst e. V.
• „Young Arts for Queer Rights and Visibility (#YAfQRaV)“, ROOTS & ROUTES Cologne e. V.
• „Liebe Liebe“, UNIKATUM Kindermuseum gGmbH
• „Nie Erwachsen – JUCA auf Schultour“, Evangelisch freikirchliches Sozialwerk Wermelskirchen e. V.
• „ZwischenTöne(n) – Modellhafte Entwicklung des Kurses Musikproduktion am Street College“, Gangway e. V. – Straßensozialarbeit in Berlin

At a symposium, project managers and participants discussed inclusion and its role in their projects. In interviews, they were asked in detail about how they implemented inclusion, diversity and participation in their practical work and what experiences they had gained in the process. This provided insights into local practice as well as discussions with the young designers. A symposium concluded the joint development and reflection process. This study makes the findings visible and describes the strategies of the selected children’s and youth cultural work projects to break down barriers and implement inclusion.

The original German version can be found here: Kinder- und Jugendkulturarbeit inklusiv: Praxis, Reflexion, Haltung