What is important to me and which things I want to affect? A new collaborative project between The Finnish Museum of Photography and regional photographic centers will bring the photographed vision of children and young people into public space all over Finland. The project is funded by The Finnish Cultural Foundation.
The Finnish Museum of Photography has launched an extensive collaborative project with seven regional photographic centers, in which the important topics and themes of children and young people emerge as photographs. The photographs taken by children in guidance of artists will be shown in public spaces, galleries, festivals and in the social media of The Finnish Museum of Photography and regional photographic centers. The project will culminate in November 2018 as a nationwide photography festival for children and young people will be arranged.
– With the means of photography, we will bring the voices of children and young people into public space. We all surely have dreams that seem too far to be fulfilled or thoughts that nobody seems to be listening. This project will give tools how to effect on the things one finds important by photographing. Children and young people are here to make a gambit, not only to their peers but also to us grown-ups, states The Finnish Museum of Photography’s Head of Education and Public Programmes Erja Salo.
The project is funded by The Finnish Cultural Foundation, which granted 150 000 euros to The Finnish Museum of Photography to arrange a photography festival and photography workshops for children and young people.
– Thousands of children and young people aged 6-18 from Raasepori all the way to Oulu will be involved, states Juhana Lassila, a delegate from The Finnish Cultural Foundation.
There are altogether seven regional photographic centers involved in the project: Fotocentrum Raseborg, Raasepori; The Centre for Creative Photography, Jyväskylä; Ostrobothnian Photography Centre, Lapua; Northern Photographic Centre, Oulu; Photographic Centre Nykyaika, Tampere; Photographic Centre Peri, Turku and VB Photographic Centre, Kuopio. These operators haven’t cooperated together in a similar way before. Between October 2017 and May 2018 the photographic centers will carry out three extensive photography related workshop entities. These workshops will be monitored by art educators specialized in photography or pedagogically oriented photographic artists.
– The professionals working in the project will challenge children and young people to their own interpretations, critical thinking and expressing their opinions by photographing, states Erja Salo.
The cooperation between a national specialized museum for photography and regional photographic centers will add possibilities to share and spread new ways of working together.
– This festival project will also foster local cooperation between people working in the field of children’s culture. Here in Oulu we will conduct workshops, events and exhibitions together with Cultural Centre Valve. The artworks of children and young people will be visible as light, photographs and movies in different locations all over the city, defines executive director Alla Räisänen from The Northern Photographic Centre.
