“CHILDREN AT WORK!
A curatorial project for 5- to 14-year-olds
For the past 20 years, the Fondation Zinsou has welcomed young people with the absolute conviction that it is essential to offer them access to art from an early age. Throughout their school years, young people must learn about art in a playful way, through the discovery of contemporary creation and artistic practice, thanks in particular to the Petits Pinceaux workshops, a team of motivated mediators and games adapted to this particular audience. Around 600 partner schools and childcare centers receive visitors every day at the Musée de Ouidah and the Lab de Cotonou, thanks to the work of a team dedicated to welcoming them. Today, 80% of Fondation Zinsou visitors are under 18.
Occasionally, a team of teachers takes up the challenge of exploring the museum in greater depth back in the classroom. This was the case at Le Petit Poucet school in Cotonou, which decided to devote 1 hour a week since its visit to the Museum in February to experimenting with the works it had discovered, in particular those by Cyprien Tokoudagba, Emo de Medeiros, Pauline Guerrier, Jeremy Demester, Bruno and Brice Zountounnou, and Ishola Akpo.
All the pupils of the elementary school classes worked hard to be creative and diligent.
And thanks to the support of their teachers, who were able to combine other subjects in the school curriculum with artistic learning, which they were able to make more present in the class agenda, original works were created.
The Fondation Zinsou Lab is now home to these works by budding artists aged 5 to 14. “Children at work”, who have dressed up for the occasion as exhibition curators, scenographers, graphic designers, technicians, opening organizers and mediators, accompanied by the entire Fondation Zinsou team and their school, during a workshop entitled ‘Les Petits Curateurs’.
For the Fondation Zinsou, exhibiting this project is an opportunity to promote and encourage similar initiatives across the country, and to give the keys to pedagogical leaders who might like to try their hand at it in other schools.
It's also an opportunity to foster the creativity of younger generations, to involve young audiences in museum institutions, and to give them an in-depth insight into an artistic environment that will inspire new vocations and help build a better tomorrow. Because we're convinced that art helps to develop this objective for generations to come.
THE “LITTLE CURATORS” WORKSHOP
When the Le Petit Poucet school came to meet the Zinsou Foundation team to show the result of the work carried out in class since February 2024, we saw the quality of the works produced and the project, and decided to give them a place within the Lab for their restitution, because we think it is important to promote this type of approach within schools. This is entirely in line with the Museum's policy of accessibility and mediation for young audiences.
In collaboration with the Le Petit Poucet school, we decided that this exhibition at the Lab could be organized by the students themselves. A “Les Petits Curateurs” workshop was therefore created and set up at Le Petit Poucet school for two weeks. In this workshop, the children were confronted with thinking about the scenography, the choice of wall colors, the locations to choose for the works, the development of a proposal for the guided tours by putting themselves in the skin of the mediators and by creating a story related to the works. They also thought about the elements relating to communication, they notably worked around the poster, the t-shirts, the invitations to the opening, and organized the opening (cuisine, service, decoration, etc.). During the opening, they will present their works like mediators and will serve with the Café team during the opening. They therefore had the chance to discover all the professions at the museum.
A FLAGSHIP PROJECT
At Fondation Zinsou, we're keen to encourage this type of initiative in schools. The students' visit to the Museum should enable teachers to pursue in the classroom the reflection on the subjects addressed during their visit to the exhibition.
The “Children at Work” exhibition therefore serves as a model for other schools. The Fondation Zinsou is totally open to supporting teachers who wish to do so. In fact, this is the aim of the vernissages organized for teachers at the start of the school year, to help them prepare for their visit and take the time to reflect on the themes that can be addressed in the classroom after a visit to the Museum.
Within the “Children at Work” exhibition, a work from the Zinsou Collection was exhibited as an example of what can be discovered at the Museum. This is an overtenture by Emo de Medeiros. Examples of themes that can be used in class as a basis for reflection, and links that can be made with the school curriculum, can be described on this work.
This exhibition is also an opportunity for the Fondation Zinsou, on the eve of its 20th anniversary, to look back at the mediation activities it has been carrying out on a daily basis for young audiences over the years: practical art workshops for children aged 5 to 13 on Wednesdays and Saturdays between Ouidah and Cotonou, organization of exhibitions specially designed for children, development of games linked to the exhibitions and aimed at the young public, daily reception of the school public, circulation of the Cultural Bus which brings the most remote schools to the exhibitions free of charge, guided tours adapted to different ages and languages, books published especially for children, presentations by artists, craftsmen or specialized partner associations to young audiences, training for youth leaders, exhibition openings for teachers, all activities free of charge, etc.