The Crespo Foundation
With the Flying Artist’s Room, the Crespo Foundation and its partners, the Hessische Ministerium für Kultus, Bildung und Chancen and the Hessische Ministerium für Wissenschaft und Forschung, Kunst und Kultur, have established a format that promotes cultural development in schools across Hessen and can also be implemented in rural areas in particular.
Since 2022, the concept of the Flying Artist´s Room has been extended to an entire urban district with all its residents.
The Crespo Foundation is committed to ensuring that all people have the opportunity to live self-determined lives and play an active role in shaping society. With its programs and funding, the Crespo Foundation creates offers, access and spaces of opportunity in which people can develop their potential. The fields of art, cultural education, personal empowerment and educational opportunities are derived from the work of the founder Ulrike Crespo. Based on the conviction that creativity, education and social issues must be considered together in order to enable participation, the foundation works together with stakeholders and experts from these areas and networks them.
The Crespo Foundation is a non-profit private foundation based in Frankfurt am Main. It was founded in 2001 by the psychologist and photographer Ulrike Crespo (1950 – 2019).
“It was important for the Crespo Foundation to create a space conceived entirely with the artist in mind: a space for his or her own artistic evolution and in which to develop and try out new concepts of cultural education in schools.”
Prof. Christiane Riedel, Chair of the Crespo Foundation
The Hessische Ministerium für Kultus, Bildung und Chancen
Making it possible for children and young people to have unfettered access to art – in 2018 the Hessische Ministerium für Kultus, Bildung und Chancen launched the flying artist’s room artist-in-residence programme with the Crespo Foundation.
For a period of two school years, the artist lives and works in a mobile artist’s studio specially designed for this purpose, and develops art projects with teachers and students. The studio and the artist’s presence allow a special encounter with the arts in day-to-day school life and provide impetus for school development in terms of integrated education. During the two-year collaboration, the school can develop teaching models with the artist and change structures to facilitate artistic practice and aesthetic experiences in day-to-day school life, even after the flying artist’s room has moved on to another school. Ideally, those creating the art and the school community learn and benefit from one another and provide impetus that is fun, exploits the potential that is already there and continues their interest in the arts – including when the studio heads off again after two years.
The Hessische Ministerium für Kultus, Bildung und Chancen facilitates the project with ongoing support. The school is included in a network of culturally active schools, giving it the opportunity to take part in special continuing education formats. Over and above this, it receives support with the organisation of inset days focusing on culture.
> www.kultusministerium.hessen.de
“Where else do you have the opportunity to look over the shoulder of a real artist at work and actively participate in creating something yourself? The flying artist’s room brings the world of art directly into the pupils’ world. This is how we promote creativity in a real learning environment.”
Armin Schwarz, Hessian Minister of Education and Cultural Affairs
The Hessische Ministerium für Wissenschaft und Forschung, Kunst und Kultur
Enabling more young people to participate in cultural life – this has been a key goal of the projects funded by the Hessische Ministerium für Wissenschaft und Forschung, Kunst und Kultur. Anyone who is clever and creative should be able to unleash their potential, regardless of whether their parents can afford theatre tickets, whether German is their first language or whether books by great writers are on their shelves at home. When everyone is able to participate in art and culture, it enriches society and contributes to us moving towards the future with stability together. This is precisely what the flying artist’s room is attempting to do with its portable idea and open architecture.
“Projects like the flying artist’s room remove fear and break down barriers in culture – this is really important to me. Because it’s only when clever and creative people are able to unleash their potential that they contribute to making our society fit for the future.”
Angela Dorn, former Hessian Minister of Science and the Arts
The district of Waldeck-Frankenberg
Located in the heart of Germany, Waldeck-Frankenberg is Hesse’s largest district by area and has plenty of room for people to flourish. It is home to young couples, families, nature lovers, fans of culture, sporting types and career-minded professionals, as well as being a place where other people like to come on holiday. Youngsters can enjoy a carefree childhood surrounded by nature. There is space here for the whole family.
The educational landscape in Waldeck-Frankenberg also offers numerous opportunities and challenges. To meet students’ requirements for the long term, it is crucial to develop innovative, needs-based, forward-looking concepts for the school system in future too. This is what the district has been striving to achieve in education for the years ahead.
With the world heritage site Kellerwald-Edersee national park and the GrenzWelten Geopark, Waldeck-Frankenberg offers sustainable and extraordinary places for education outside school too. They also contribute to the high quality of the education offer – as well as fully exploiting the education potential for the future.
“We’d like children to be encouraged in line with their aptitudes and abilities as much as possible. It’s something that the district of Waldeck-Frankenberg is championing. And naturally this also applies to the arts. So we’re very much looking forward to the flying artist’s room stopping off in Waldeck-Frankenberg this year.”
Jürgen van der Horst, district administrator
The district of Main-Kinzig
With a population of around 423,000, the district of Main-Kinzig is the most populous district in Hessen by far. Residents are spread across 29 towns, cities and municipalities and more than 150 villages. The largest city is Hanau, which has a population of around 100,000. This is where the Kinzig flows into the Main. The rivers not only give the district its name, but also shape the landscape and hills of Vogelsberg and Spessart, with the foothills of the Rhön mountains to the east.
The central administrative district offices, which opened in the summer of 2005, are in Gelnhausen and have a staff of around 1,200. Their tasks are varied and range from waste management to vehicle registration. Among other things, they look after the 100 or so schools in the Main-Kinzig district (excluding Hanau).
The most famous people from the district of Main-Kinzig are probably the Grimm brothers, Jakob and Wilhelm. The linguists and world famous collector of fairy tales were born in Hanau, along with their brother, the painter Ludwig Emil Grimm. Another famous resident was Philipp Reis, who lived and worked in Gelnhausen and around 160 years ago invented the telephone. Famous constructions bear witness to the region’s eventful history. At one time the Romans constructed their boundary wall, the Limes, here and more than 20 castles and palaces provide an insight into how people lived in the past.
“In my opinion, free access to art and culture and above all active participation are very important to people’s personal development. That’s why I’m delighted that we’re able to welcome the flying artist’s room to the Main-Kinzig district and give young people the opportunity to experience instruction, enthusiasm and affirmation. We’re really looking forward to seeing what comes out of it.”
Thorsten Stolz, district administrator and councillor in charge of cultural affairs
The district of Kassel
The district of Kassel is in the northernmost part of Hesse. Its landscape is varied, ranging from species-rich limestone grassland in Diemeltal to the baroque port of Bad Karlshafen, from the Hohe Dörnberg in Habichtswald and the virgin forest of Reinhardswald to urban life in and around Kassel and its large industrial sites.
Around 240,000 people live in the 28 towns and municipalities that make up this area and it includes the independent city of Kassel. The southern part of the district in particular benefits from its proximity to the city’s population of over 200,000.
The Regiotram provides excellent connections between the surrounding area and the regional centre. A large proportion of people work directly or indirectly in the motor industry. This includes numerous service companies and highly innovative firms who are now considered pioneers in energy transition. The development of sustainable active tourism is also high on the district of Kassel’s agenda. Finally in terms of visitor numbers the district has the most popular leisure offer in the entire region in the form of Sababurg Zoo.
The district also has a treasure trove of cultural offerings: its “EcoPfads” are exciting in terms of culture and history, innovatively linking activities on trails with information about the area. Innovation, climate protection, experience of nature and cultural history all come together in the district of Kassel.
The district runs numerous projects to encourage social cohesion. It is colourful and diverse. There are several schools that actively champion democracy and freedom as a “School against Racism”. The flying artist’s room will be “landing” at Walter-Lübcke-Schule in Wolfhagen. Declaring itself to be “open to diversity”, the school was named after the former head of Kassel’s public administration, Dr Walter Lübcke, who was murdered by a far-right terrorist.
“Children and young people are open to new things. The flying artist’s room is a very simple way to bring young people and artists together and introduce new creative places of learning in the school. In particular, integrating the flying artist’s room into day-to-day life at school will stimulate creative processes. The flying artist’s room allows everyone involved to let off steam creatively in an unforced way. Culture brings people together. This is particularly evident at Walter-Lübcke-Schule because a multitude of children and young people from different countries of origin are taught here together. The teaching staff and their students enter into dialogue with the artists perfectly naturally and try out playful new forms of cultural education.”
Silke Engler, Deputy District Administrator, first district councillor and head of the schools department of the district of Kassel