The Kindermuseum is aimed at anyone aged 4 to 99 who is keen to discover and develop their personal creative skills at the Zentrum Paul Klee. The emphasis is on playful discovery and childlike curiosity, something that lies within each and every one of us.
 
The business operations of the Kindermuseum is financed for the most part by the private foundation Fondation du Musée des Enfants auprès du Centre Paul Klee (FME). It was set up in June 2002 by the Zentrum’s founder, Maurice E. Müller, his vision being that a lasting contribution could be made to the development of society by communicating cultural values in many different ways. With its substantial financial contribution MOBILIAR has played a key role in the actual construction of the Kindermuseum.
 
Name competition
The Kindermuseum is to have a different name in future. To this end a name competition was held in schools in March 2004. The evaluation process for the name is still underway.
 
Shaping the program on offer
Specialists from all fields of the arts and mediation were commissioned with the conceptual work for designing and shaping the program on offer. The Kindermuseum is founded on the life and work of Paul Klee as well as the context. Elementary workshops on the fine arts, literature, music, dance, theatre and architecture aimed at the young and not-so-young will be available the moment the Museum opens: Working titles include: “Making Klee’s Puppet Figures”, “The Architecture of the Zentrum Paul Klee – An Experience for Children and Families”, “Reading and Writing about Klee's Paintings”, “Experimental Photography” or “Building a Colour Sound Machine”. Visitors who drop in spontaneously at the Kindermuseum during opening hours will have the opportunity to take part in a supervised workshop. Permanent fixtures include leisure courses, regular concerts, theatre performances, vernissage events and special guided tours by young people for young people. A number of theme-based temporary installations open to the public at the Kindermuseum will be staged by artists together with children and adolescents. The themes themselves will be based on the Collection’s temporary exhibitions.
 
Tailor-made course modules lasting from two hours to projects of several weeks will be on offer to schools as of June 2005, addressing issues that go far beyond the field of fine arts.
 
Together with the Educational Department of the Art Museum Bern the Kindermuseum will draw up teaching modules about Paul Klee aimed at a wide audience. They include ideas on such topics as “Stone Quarry at Ostermundigen”, “Puppet Theatre”, “Klee’s Painting Techniques”, “Fish”, “Colour” or “Park”. A teaching CD-ROM on Klee’s “Devotion to Small Things” is in preparation as part of a joint undertaking with MAMO (Musée de l’Art Moderne) in Strasbourg. Other projects with Bern University, the Bern Arts University and the Swiss Blind Institute are also underway. A number of one-off cultural projects with an impact beyond the Zentrum itself are to be launched in co-operation with children’s and youth organisations of the City of Bern. The concept of the Kindermuseum also integrates offers for the mentally and physically disabled, and as a whole advocates a child and family-friendly architecture.
 
Schools and teachers
Schools and teachers are an important target audience for the future Kindermuseum. For this reason contacts with the teaching staff have been intensified ahead of the official opening. Many encounters for instance took place on the Museum’s building site; further training courses were also put out to tender, and the specialist press was used to communicate to the teaching body how the many programs on offer at the Zentrum Paul Klee and at the Kindermuseum could be used to comply with school curricula. Right from the opening day teachers are to have at their disposal an extensive offer of services that include advice and assistance facilities as well as exchange forums. To this end the Kindermuseum web site, whose emphasis is first and foremost on art education, is to go online already at the beginning of January 2005, complementing the web presence of the Zentrum Paul Klee. The Museum’s internet presence is to be supervised by e-learning professionals.
 
First appearances at exhibitions
The Kindermuseum is to make its first appearance at a trade exhibition at the annual MAGISTRA trade fair on educational equipment and materials to be held in Winterthur from 6 to 15 July 2004. From 2 to 16 August 2004 the Kindermuseum is to showcase its activities at Bern’s main railway station as part of the Swiss Federal Railways’ Kulturbahnhof program. During the fortnight a “culture construction site” is to be set up for both parents and children, to give the public a first taste of how the Kindermuseum operates. From 27 to 29 October 2004 the Kindermuseum is to take part in WORLDDIDAC, the international exhibition for education materials in Basel. At part of the national Science & Cité festival from 19 to 24 May 2005 the Kindermuseum will put in an appearance together with the Institute of Psychology at the University of Bern with a production on the topic of Visual Perception.
 
The Kindermuseum has been a member of MEDIAMUS since 2004 (Swiss Association of Cultural Museum Mediators). The medium-term objective is to provide regular and lasting impetus as a host for national and international symposia, also in the field of art mediation.
 
The art historian Christin Markovic (32) is to join the team of the Kindermuseum on 1 July 2004. She was previously responsible for implementing the art mediation concept at the Museum Franz Gertsch in Burgdorf.
 
Board of Trustees
The members of the Board of Trustees of the Fondation du Musée des Enfants auprès du Centre Paul Klee are as follows:

• Prof. Dr med. Maurice E. Müller, Bern, President
• Janine Aebi-Müller, Bottmingen, Vice President
• Corinne Mariéthoz-Aebi, Haute-Nendaz
• Prof. Dr iur. Franz Kellerhals, Bern
• Ted Scapa, Bern
• Laurence de Cecco, Geneva

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