The connection with the neighbourhood

WIELS

WIELS, the Brussels Centre for Contemporary Art, has three pillars. Mediators Elies Van Renterghem and Laure Goeman explain: "First, there are the exhibitions, which aim to be as innovative as possible. WIELS wants to show things that haven’t been shown in Brussels or Belgium yet, featuring Belgian and international artists, both in individual and group exhibitions. Secondly, there are the residencies, where international artists work at WIELS for six months, in connection with the arts centre and the art scene in Brussels and Belgium. And then there’s the 'public' pillar, where WIELS actively builds communities and aims to be a meeting place for various target groups. To this end, we work together with schools, through the Park Poétik arts festival, etc." WIELS tries to welcome and involve the public as much as possible. The way in which this is done is very broad and is mainly driven by the public relations staff.

WIELS has a long tradition of working with the very youngest. For a number of years, there were 'May babies', weekends in May when special guided tours and workshops were organised for families with younger children. Due to the intensity of this, it was decided to experiment with a different approach that also included a direct and permanent link with current exhibitions. The Baby Bags came about in a similar way: they were developed over a number of years and then integrated into the regular programme. Baby Bags are a kind of bag/blanket/cushion that parents of children aged 10 months and older can take with them during an individual visit to one of the exhibitions. They were designed by artists Lucie Burton and Nathalie Arnaud and contain objects that stimulate the senses (a piece of string, a musical instrument, a stick of liquorice, etc.). The contents vary depending on the exhibition. Baby Bags are available free of charge and help children explore the exhibition in a different way.

The 'Bags' are only used for individual visits to the exhibition, not for collaborations with nurseries or other groups. In such cases, the focus is on guided, interactive tours, sometimes with fun, tailor-made workshops. "We tried this at first, but it didn't add any value: it caused children and guides to divide their attention. It works better when a guide has a bag with specific materials, so the audience's focus remains on the person giving the tour. But of course, we sometimes use elements from the Baby Bags during the tours." Elies and Laure have noticed the growing success of the Baby Bags: "Visitors actually ask for them and children regularly walk around with them." What's more, it gives the security guards a positive role: "They hand out the Bags and this gives them a chance to interact with little visitors in a cheerful way, instead of just having to tell them what they're not allowed to do."

Joost-E-Fien daycare centre

Xenia Lampe from the Joost-e-Fien daycare centre (Sint-Joost-ten-Node) put together craft bags with her assistants. These contained all kinds of basic materials that are standard fare in nurseries. The bags were put together based on intuition, so the contents varied slightly from bag to bag. "Without instructions on what exactly to make, but with a clear request to create something together with the children, we gave these packages to the parents when the nursery closed for the summer. Most of them made a craft project with their child. The fact that there was going to be an exhibition also served as a trigger."

Joost-E-Fien used the end result to set up a one-day exhibition in the neighbouring Flemish Parliament. Parents and children were able to admire the exhibition, and a booklet was made of each piece of art with a brief explanation and how the creators experienced the creation.

This was the second time that Joost-E-Fien worked with children and parents in this way, and there are plans to continue this artistic project. The location of the exhibition was not chosen at random, Xenia explains: "In the future, we would like to approach other locations so that parents can discover various places and organisations in and around the municipality." Xenia hopes to collaborate with library Joske again in the future. "And who knows, maybe one day our works will be displayed in a real museum!