City of Kiel empowering children through cultural learning

From 22 – 30 June Kieler Woche (The Kiel Week), an annual sailing event in Kiel, the capital of Schleswig-Holstein, Germany tooke place. One of the activities of this festival was The Bilder-Segelparade (picture sailing parade) – a participatory programme especially for children.

The Bilder-Segelparade is a part of the Kiel’s Culture And Resilience action plan as a Cultural Pearl 2024 and aims to empower children through cultural learning. It aims to involve the children more closely in a creative project through their participation and to strengthen their local identity with reference to the city of Kiel and the fjord. The city of Kiel has deliberately collaborated with a primary school located in a socially disadvantaged and migrant neighbourhood to boss their sense of belonging to the place.

Children draw pictures of sailing ships, steamers, submarines, hot air balloons and sea creatures tob e part of The Bilder-Segelparade. An illustrator uses these pictures to create an animated film showing how the ships sail on the Kiel Fjord. The film is then shown at the premiere in a cinema, to which the children and their families are invited.

Kieler Woche is considered to be one of the largest sailing events globally, and also the largest summer festivals in Northern Europe, attracting millions of people every year from all over Germany and neighbouring countries.