Five times inspiring, digital, in-school and out-of-school cultural offerings

Digital tools are now indispensable in and around the classroom, and there are few young people without a smartphone in a museum. As a cultural organization, you can use this as a starting point to enrich the experience of children with your digital offerings. Discover through these five examples how you can captivate young people with digital technology, bring out their individuality, and stimulate their creativity.

1. Macbeth on Instagram, TikTok, Pinterest, and X

After a theater workshop by STET The English Theatre (opens in new tab) at the Edith Stein College in The Hague about the play Macbeth, students worked on the characters of this Shakespeare piece in a unique way: they gave the characters a voice on social media! This idea emerged during a digitalization cultural offering project that the theater participated in, initiated by education staff member Gig Gamaggio and facilitated by Cultuurschakel The Hague. They were also guided by Art-Up (opens in new tab). Students used their knowledge of the story, characters, and scenes, but also their imagination, as the characters interacted online, naturally in English. This playfully created a contemporary modern interpretation of Macbeth. Students deepened their understanding of the story's meaning and actively collaborated on interactions between the roles. On X, one of the characters even posted 45 messages! STET's education department concluded that this approach made students willingly invest a lot of time in the project, and 9 out of 10 participating students understood Macbeth better as a result. An adaptation of the play was later performed under the guidance of Christa van Rijn, CKV teacher at Edith Stein College.

2. The Dikke Doe- en Luistertour at the Frans Hals Museum

Curiosity is essential for learning, and it is fully stimulated by the Dikke Doe- en Luistertour for children at the Frans Hals Museum. Maret van Esch from Het Imaginarium (opens in new tab) developed this tour along eight masterpieces of the museum, with and for children. What makes it special is that children decide what they want to hear: using the buttons on the podcatcher, the device on which the audio tour plays, they shape their own tour. The tour is filled with exciting stories and facts, as well as games and assignments.

The artworks are further brought to life by engaging multiple senses: not only the eyes and ears but also the nose and hands. For this purpose, Het Imaginarium designed and developed five sensory pillars (opens in new tab) along the route.

3. The House of Poems: an app for your language

A phone contains a treasure trove of information about its user. The House of Poems (opens in new tab) explored this and investigated with Cultuurschakel how to use digital techniques to experience language. They were also guided by Art-Up (opens in new tab). This led to the app Selfie Safari (opens in new tab), which allows students to go on a scavenger hunt through their own phones. The questions revolve around music, images, and contact with others. Using this input, which students articulate in their own words, they are challenged to write a poem about themselves.

4. Whats'App challenge in museum SMAK

The POP-ART Whats'App challenge at museum SMAK (opens in new tab) in Belgium involved an interactive tour via the Whats’App tool. Young audiences were guided by a museum staff member through a live Whats’App chat to paintings and were given eight surprising observation assignments throughout the exhibition. The audience typed the answer or uploaded a photo, after which the next assignment was given. Simple yet effective èn interactive.

5. Digital whiteboard app makes music and ballet interactive

The Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra (opens in new tab) and The Dutch National Ballet (opens in new tab) developed, together with publisher Follow a Muse (opens in new tab), a digital whiteboard app to make classical music and ballet interactive. A colorful online environment for the digital whiteboard allows teachers and children to choose from various engaging assignments. Their offerings became directly accessible for education. The app offers a wide range of active assignments, such as exploring how dancers move in the scenes of the story. Students can choose from dance energizers and learn to link emotions to movement through theater.

The app (opens in new tab) serves as preparation or extension for the performance being played at the time, as the school concerts align with the app's content. For students unable to attend the performance, this app provides a solid foundation for engaging with classical art. The app can be used for years.

Text: Inger van Til