With RuhrKunstbewegt, the RuhrKunstMuseen are once again developing an educational programme for children and young people. The current project strengthens the RuhrKunstMuseen network and intensifies cooperation with schools in the region as well as children's and youth leisure facilities. Pupils of all ages and school types get to know the museum as a new place of experience and expand their skills through creative forms of expression. Approaches and formats of museum education and mediation are expanded in an interdisciplinary and cross-sectoral manner: approaches from theatre, dance and music complement museum offerings in order to offer children and young people a variety of activating approaches to art and culture.
The needs of school and municipal education partners are actively incorporated. ‘In addition to strengthening the educational work of the network, the aim of such a project is also to be an important pillar for artistic and aesthetic education in the Ruhr region and thus jointly promote educational opportunities for children and young people,’ says Barbara Walter, spokesperson for the Education working group. Children and young people can take part in several consecutive workshops until August 2026.
The RuhrKunstbewegt education project is funded by the RWE Foundation, which, like the RuhrKunstMuseen, is committed to equal opportunities in cultural education.
‘Participatory cultural education opens up new perspectives on themselves and the world to children and young people and, in addition to creativity, promotes language comprehension,’ explains Kornelia Neumann, Project Manager at the RWE Foundation. In this context, Sarah Sandfort, spokesperson for the Education and Mediation Working Group, emphasises the importance of working with external sponsors: ‘Gaining long-term cooperation partners, sensitising them to cultural education work and linking them to the work of the museums in the long term requires additional budgetary resources that most local authorities are unable to provide.’
The 21 art museums in the Ruhr region came together to form the RuhrKunstMuseen network back in 2010. Since then, the network has also established itself outside the region with its programmes and special educational and outreach offers such as Collection Tours, RuhrKunstNachbarn, RuhrKunstUrban and the development of a joint school matrix.