15th Play Town Mini-Munich International 2010 Introduction to the Culture Project for Innovative Learning.
Central Pedagogic Ideas
Children are curious and eager for knowledge. They cannot but learn. However, every child is different, has its own way of learning, its own time frames and „fruitful moments“ regarding the access to knowledge and the practical learning process about the world. For pedagogues this means having to design and offer learning environments which are open. It makes sense that learning environment and occasion combine both cognitive as well as affective-emotional learning and above all in a process co-developed by children.
The rules of the Play Town Mini-Munich have been didactically developed by pedagogues, their integration in an aesthetic orchestration determined by adults, but it is the children themselves who direct and create the dynamics with regard to the content of Play Town life in a self-determined and productive way.
Play Town Mini-Munich is a small model of the big city, which provides the topics and contents for the game: Work and study, politics, administration, culture and participating in public life. The orchestrated world of the Play Town provides children with the possibility, on trial in form of a game, but in roles and functions which are taken seriously, to learn and thoroughly understand about town community and, in the broadest sense, social life.
The Play Town Project
Mini-Munich – A 30-Year Success Story
The story of the Play Town started 30 years ago in a gym at the Olympiapark in Munich – Now it is 2010 and the 15th Play Town is being realized.
The „Year of the Child“ in 1979 provided the occasion, the children gave the town its name: Play Town Mini-Munich. It was only with special funds by the city for the “International Youth Year” that the project could be realized again and then it was the children themselves who secured a continuous financing of the Play Town. The then mayor and councillors of Mini-Munich convinced their colleagues at the town hall of the big town of their project and since then Mini-Munich has been taking place every two years with a financial support base by the Bavarian Capital City of Munich.
On average 28 000 children and teenagers visit their town, supplemented by approx. 3000 adult visitors and guests. The Play Town idea has by now been copied worldwide, with projects all over the German-language area, in Europe and Asia. In Japan alone, there are already 35 temporary Play Towns for children.
Mini-Munich – The Small Town within the Big Town
The topic of Mini-Munich is that of town: how does city life work, how the administration, local politics, the cycle of work, money and consumption? The Play Town reflects everyday life in a big city in sections so that it can become accessible to the experience of children. This refers both to its structural elements as well as to its orchestration regarding space – the reality of the big city thus remains connectable to the world of children developed with imagination and vice versa. It is the bridges between these realities that distinguish the quality of this pedagogic approach, which guarantees both learning as well as acquisition of knowledge and fascination as well as fun.
Mini-Munich’s Institutions
Citizen registry, employment office and bank, crafts centre and workshops, department store and market, town hall and its administration, newspaper, TV, radio, university and research town, art academy and theatre, restaurant and parents cafe, environment office and garbage removal, garden centre and nursery, planning office and building yard, advertising agency and print shop, library, film workshop, hospital, fairground, circus, sports area, embassies, museum …and many more.
The children take on the various professional roles in all areas and at the same time are in charge of and manage everyday transactions: they are in charge of employment, salaries and wages, purchase and sale as well as pricing and they make contact between the different municipal institutions and as citizens get involved in the most different ways and forms.
Mini-Munich –Town of the Children
The children are the protagonists and doers in their town. Due to few rules, the game can be started right away. More than 800 work places wait for the children. The play money is, after the deduction of a tax, saved and can be spent at the department store, restaurant, cinema or theatre. Over 500 places of study are offered every day and studying is paid the same as work. Children as well as adults are professors and impart their knowledge.
Those who have worked for four hours or have studied for four hours, can become full citizens. Full citizens can vote and can be elected as mayor or councillor. They can become self-employed and found a company, buy a property and build a house. The basic game with its rules has hardly needed any changes in its 30 years – the internal activities between the institutions, however, are continuously changing with the children.
Events in Mini-Munich
The cultural life of Play Town is rich in events which are either created by the children themselves or come from the big town: concerts, dance and theatre events, lectures, election and court days, cinema premieres, fashion shows, city marathon, Olympic games, exhibition launches, market days, roofing ceremonies, readings, visits by local politicians, famous actors, press and delegations from other play towns and other countries.
Mini-Munich International – a Window to the World
The addendum „International“ allows for the fact that Munich is home to children from many nationalities who are more than welcome as citizens of Play Town. Special topics contribute to the encounter and exchange between children themselves. At the Europe-play area, exhibitions like „Life of Children in Favelas“ or „Toys from all over the world“ and in theme houses, like the Japanese Tea House, curiosity for the foreign is piqued and integrated into Play Town life.
By setting up foreign „embassies“ on a weekly basis, which are prepared for Mini-Munich by children of the respective countries (and to some part in the Play Towns there), cultural diversity can be meaningfully presented and can be experienced by all citizens of Mini-Munich in an immediate and authentic way. 2010 children from Italy, Austria, the Czech Republic, France, South America, Japan and India are expected.
Mini-Munich – Dates & Facts
Play Town takes place every two years at the Olympiapark of Munich. Mini-Munich is the largest municipal holiday programme of the City of Munich and is visited by up to 2000 children every day.
Most of them are from Munich and Greater Munich, but not few from further afield, from other parts of Germany and neighbouring countries. These are often children who are, because of Mini-Munich, spending their summer holidays with relatives or friends in Munich.
Mini-Munich is open daily from 11.00 am – 6.00 pm, except Sundays and Mondays.
Participation is free and children can come without booking and as often and as long as they like. Accompanied groups of children and teenagers, visiting from other holiday activity programmes, have to apply.
On their first visit the children receive a town identity card with a lot of information and the rules of the game. Parents and adults are welcome as visitors, but are not allowed to interfere with the activities in town.
All areas of Play Town are barrier-free.
There are approx. 140 adult helpers in Mini-Munich: pedagogues, artists, professional experts from different areas, among them many former Play Town children. Young volunteers (from 16 years of age) can participate and help with Play Town on a weekly basis.
Mini-Munich costs about 225 000 Euros. One half is financed by municipal funds, one half by supporters and sponsors. On top of that there is a contribution by the children which they make with their work at the parents cafe.
Information about Kultur & Spielraum e.V. Munich
The organisation has been developing and organizing culture-pedagogic projects for children and teenagers since 1970. It has had the name Kultur & Spielraum since 1989, is a recognized non-profit organization carrying out measures on behalf of the Municipal Youth Welfare Office of the City of Munich.
Its main activity is non-school, open education work with children. On behalf of the City of Munich, Kultur & Spielraum e.V. runs two culture workshops for children and teenagers in the city’s community centers. As Kulturpädagogischer Dienst Culture-pedagogic Service it organizes events and offers a program of different offers on different topics on a temporary basis at different locations all over the city. In addition Kultur & Spielraum is responsible for the implementation of central and decentralized forums for children and teenagers at the town hall and in the different districts of the city. It has a coordinating function for the Verbund der Münchner Jugendkunstschulen Association of Munich Art Schools for Teenagers and for the Kinder-Kultur-Sommer Children’s Summer of Culture and is actively involved in the process of development and conception of cultural and political education across the whole city. Kultur & Spielraum organizes culture projects for children in cross-regional contexts and for private clients. Apart from offering extensive training activities, it also maintains a small publishing house for didactic materials and pedagogic publications.
Contact Details
15th Spielstadt Mini-München International 2010
15th Play Town Mini-Munich International 2010
Kultur & Spielraum e.V. München
Gerd Grüneisl, Albert Kapfhammer, Margit Maschek (Project Management)
Dagmar Baginski (PR)
Ursulastraße 5, D-80802 München,
Office hours: Mon-Thu 9.30 am – 5.00 pm, Fri 9.30 am– 1 pm
phone ++49 (0)89 34 16 76, fax ++49 (0)89 34 16 77
info@kulturundspielraum.de, www.mini-muenchen.info