MY CITY – OUR CITIES
Resource brochure for the Children in the City project
by Ingebjørg E. Astrup, art historian and visual arts coordinator for the
Bergen City of Culture 2000 administration.
Commissioned by the Bergen City Council, section for culture, sport and
schools
In 2000, Bergen was awarded the title European City of Culture. The
Children’s House, an administrative body responsible for organising
cultural projects for children in Bergen, had already created the My city –
our cities project. It was an ambitious program, which aimed to teach
children about the city as a geographical, architectural and cultural space,
and develop the children’s own reflexive and expressive abilities in
interaction with the cityscape. This brochure is both a description and an
evaluation of the different projects that made up My city – our cities, and is
meant to inspire future practical programs focusing on children and the city.
We recommend that readers of the material in English start with pp. 41-45 about
the program as a whole. The brochure was produced for schools and other
participants in the project My city – our cities and was influenced by this, thus a
further introduction may bee needed for those who are new to the project.
Themes
The city and city planning
The city and the landscape
The city and its buildings
The city’s streets, parks and squares
The city and water
The city’s ornaments
These themes are organised by the principles of space analysis set out by prof. Christian
Norberg-Schulz, architectural historian and architect (1926-2000).
Photo caption:
The weather and us
The picture on the front cover (p. 1 in original) was taken by the photographer Jan M,
Lillebø from the Bergens Tidende newspaper. Pupils from Paradis school are having a
break from their studies of sculpture in the city park.
4A at Paradis school wrote this in their log:
“We got the bus to town and there we met Aggi Folgerød at the Lille Lungegårdsvannet .
Then we went to the statue of Christian Michelsen and sketched it and red wind and
many others. Then we had lunch, when we sat there eating someone from Bergens
Tidende came and took pictures of the weather and us”.
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CONTENTS
My city – our cities on the Web: www.gs.bergen.hl.no ..............................................4
The City Detectives ............................................................................................... 4
Congratulations – and the road ahead .................................................................. 5
Arts and crafts – a new subject in Norwegian schools ........................................... 6
The local area and its history: .............................................................................. 8
Riple, Blokkhaugen, Hop, Bønes, Hordvik schools
The local area: Registration, analysis and change ................................................ 8
Past and present: Local area history.................................................................... 12
Working with artists .............................................................................................. 15
Paradis, Christi Krybbe, Lyshovden, Kringlebotn, Midtun
Workshops (p. 15 in original) .............................................................................. 16
International exchanges ....................................................................................... 25
Krokeide, Liland, Kringlebotn
Professional networks .......................................................................................... 28
Almenningen
Themes ................................................................................................................ 30
Hellen, Hunstad, Åstveit, Terntnes, Nygårdslien, Rothaugen schools
Architecture .............................................................................................. 30
Water ....................................................................................................... 35
City walks – Bergen by foot ................................................................................ 39
My city – our cities in Bergen, City of Culture 2000.............................................. 41
Intentions and reality ........................................................................................... 43
Overview of My city – our cities projects in the local areas .................................. 46
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My city – our cities on the Web: www.gs.bergen.hl.no
Helldal school welcomes you with open arms to their web pages, where you can find
information about water and hydroelectric power, or take city walks in the past and the
present. If you want to learn more about the city you can go to the web page of Hellen
school. If you want to know more about the city’s ornaments, you can see what the pupils
at Krokeide have learned about sculptures in Bergen. They have posted some of their
insights on the web to let you take part in what they have learnt.
After having taken in a great deal of facts, you can click into the graphic picture book
called Play with Water, made by the pupils at Møhlenpris, and enjoy the great creativity of
children from many cultures. And how about an animated film made by 76 pupils at
Aurdalslia school, where they show the history of their local area through the use of
animated objects made with modelling compound?
We encourage both children and adults embarking on new projects to use the web page
My city – our cities for inspiration and information.
The City Detectives
Around the turn of the millennium, in central Bergen, one has regularly sighted the city
detectives. They are equipped with a perspective grid, writing boards, sketching pads,
pens, cameras and measuring tape. They move around in pairs or groups.
The city detectives are on the lookout for architectural elements of form such as triangles,
squares and rectangles. They take photos or sketch in order to register the shapes of the
buildings. They find details in both geometrical and organic forms and take the motives
down in their sketching pads.
Sometimes they register how a place is – noting the buildings, the objects, the sounds
and the smells, and what they feel and think when they are there. They take notes of
facts about the place, and they write poems or small stories about their impressions.
The city detectives are children that are being taught how to really see and use all their
senses in their meetings with the city. This is an ability they can continue to develop
throughout their lives.
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Congratulations – and the road ahead
19,000 children took part in My city – our cities!
The children were supported by a large network with many active participants. Some you
will know about, others not. I have had the opportunity to follow the project from the
autumn of 1997 until the present. I have met different groups of people along the way,
and would like to mention some of them: Those who made the initial plans and wrote the
applications; those who taught the courses and produced the teaching materials; the
participants in the schools; the artists and specialists that took part in the workshops with
the children; volunteers in the local areas; those who run the event venues and all those
in the audiences.
All these people made essential contributions to the projects that formed My city – our
cities. Many have also done more than their job description demanded. The sense of
involvement has been great, and the results wonderful.
From the administration in the Bergen, City of Culture 2000 I would like to congratulate all
the participants in this large network, and thank everyone for the wonderful projects which
have contributed to our program.
For many schools My city – our cities has been a new way of working with art projects
within the framework of the new arts and crafts subject, and also an experience with
working across the boundaries of the subjects. For others it was a chance to develop
work they had already started on, taking the opportunities, resources and focus offered
through the City of Culture umbrella. For all it was a chance to learn.
And where do we go from here? My city – our cities as a City of Culture project has come
to its conclusion. It has been summed up and evaluated by several schools. We know
that the objectives, the teaching contents and the methods used to make My city – our
cities come alive will have a prolonged life through projects such as Children in the City.
With this brochure my task is to show what has happened, so that it can generate ideas
and inspiration for further projects. I have made a selection of examples that have to
represent many others.
My wish is that the methods which have been employed will be used in the years to
come. The schools which have worked with the projects, are found in a list in the last few
pages of the brochure, is there to ensure that the schools can contact each other both to
gather ideas and to organise future collaborations. Those of you who were in project
5
groups or were particularly involved can offer presentations on teacher courses. The
project can easily be modified to work in other geographical locations. The methods can
be transferred to other cities and towns.
I hope you will be both impressed and inspired when you look through this brochure,
which is meant as a catalogue of ideas for you to use in your work. Looking back, as well
as forward, I will give a few examples from the My city – our cities projects that we can
carry with us and draw on in the new millennium.
Yours sincerely,
Ingebjørg E. Astrup
10 May, 2001
Arts and crafts – a new subject in Norwegian schools
The new national teaching plan of 1997 introduced a new subject in Norwegian schools:
Arts and crafts. This new subject was to take over for the traditional division into “arts”,
“woodwork” and “textile work”. The new subject is to “contribute to the development of the
pupils’ ability to interact with and put their mark on their environment”. It also reads:
“Children find joy and inspiration when they are introduced to professionals in the artistic
field, through practical work and when they are given the chance to see connections
between physical materials, tradition and culture.”
The City of Culture project My city – our cities gave schools in Bergen the opportunity to
put these objectives into practice.
Through projects that cut across subject boundaries and mixed age groups the city’s
schoolchildren have come to know Bergen. Many thousand pupils have taken part in city
walks, and as city detectives they have discovered details in the architecture they may
otherwise never have seen. They have seen statues and alleyways they did not know of
before, the commons (“almenning”) have been used as workshops, and many houses
have been photographed, sketched and re-built as models. Plays and musicals have
been written and performed by enthusiastic children and adults.
Teaming up with professional artists has opened the door to new ways of working, and
the quality of the children’s work has increased accordingly. Exhibitions and shows have
brought a large audience to the schools and the presentations have received a lot of
positive publicity.
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Social competence is the result of shared experience. My city – our cities has contributed
to this through such experiences. Participating schools report back that the children have
an increased knowledge of and pride in the city they live in.
Harald Noss, the Council’s Secretary of Schools
Nordvik school
Theme:
The city under the umbrella
Organisation: Full participation
Presentation: A large model of Bergen covered by an umbrella, exhibited in the Lagunen
shopping centre and in the arrival hall of Bergen Airport Flesland
Work process
The school studied the city and chose to let a model of the city be their joint presentation.
The school worked with the artist Reidun Røste on the project, and the dimensions of the
umbrella demanded an elaborate and sturdy construction of glued woodwork. You can
learn more about the project in the school’s web pages.
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The local area and its history
When the project My city – our cities was created, one of the aims for the project was that
the themes and framework could be generalised and made to work in any urban area.

Statistics show that a large percentage of the world’s population live in urban
areas, in cities or in larger urban areas. Knowledge of urbanism will be important
in teaching children about the place they are from. The teaching plan from 1997
demands the teaching of architecture, space, sculpture and local environment.
Developing good teaching programs will be a continuous process.

Cultural heritage management is one of the demands we have upon us to
sustain the qualities that characterize a cultural city which is environmentally
sustainable. Such protection of culture presupposes knowledge and experiences
of the city. A program which gives such knowledge and such experiences is
important for the next generation of city dwellers.

Giving children the chance to get to know their surroundings also is a long-term
objective related to the demands of democracy. According to both the Norwegian
Act of planning and building and the UNESCO convention, children shall be
listened to when changes in their physical environment are under way. It is
important to give children the language skills and methods in order for them to be
able to take part in democratic processes of urban planning.
For the participating schools it was a requirement that their projects focused on the city.
The schools that are located in the centre of Bergen can use The Children’s House
teaching programs, developed to deal with the city, within their own teaching programs,
focusing on the local area. Several of the schools used the methods from the city walks in
their follow-up work with the project, and some introduced a comparative view, comparing
the centre of the city and their own local area, in developing their own local area teaching
program. Both the themes and the methods of these projects will be valid for many years
to come, and they will form steps on the way to reach the overall objectives of My city –
our cities.
The local area: Registration, analysis and change
The schools chose different tacks to work in the local area. We will use some examples to
show both the planning work and the actual realisation of the projects.
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Riple school changed the school’s physical surroundings as part of an art project based in
the local landscape. They wanted to shape the landscape in accordance with their own
wishes, in order to solve some problems and experiment.
Riple School
Theme:
Water in the city, water in the country
Organisation: Full participation
Project group set up in 1999
Cooperation between pupils, teachers, an artist, parents and the local area
association
Presentation: A water sculpture unveiled on November 18, 2000. The pupils contributed
with poems and songs about water. The water sculpture has its place in
the landscape between the schoolyard and the football field.
Work process
The children went on excursions to Bergen and The Children’s House which focused on
water sculptures in the city, as well as to the waterworks, the Vøringsfossen waterfall and
the Sysendammen dam. The work in the workshop tied in with the development of the
idea of a water sculpture in the school, and the children drew and made models of water
experiments. They also baked for the sessions of voluntary work. Such work took place
both during school hours and in the afternoons from May to November 2000. The children
took part and dug ditches, did masonry work, carpentry, plumbing, filled the ditches with
gravel, decorating, cutting grass and weeding, and making bark boats.
Comment
The children were taught a great deal about the qualities of water – such as how it
freezes, evaporates, melts, circulates; as well as about vegetation; animal life in the
water; and hydroelectric power. The children took part in a large-scale local area project
including planning, experimenting and the realisation of the project itself. The project is
work-intensive and demanding, but the report tells of a positive attitude to the voluntary
work, and a great sense of involvement among the children and the adults.
The artist Anette Skeide has been active throughout the project and one of the parents,
the mason Terje Dyngeland, lead the work. The transformation of the local environment
was a success. It used to be a muddy stream that only left the children with puddles in the
football field. Now it is a clean stream and a water sculpture which is beautiful to look at
and which the children can play with.
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Blokkhaugen School
Themes:
My city – our cities
Our school – our area
Organisation: Four grade 9 classes, divided into groups mixed across the classes.
Presentation: -
Exhibitions at the Åsane Culture Centre, The Children’s House
-
Open day at the school
-
Memo sent to the Bergen City Council, section for culture, sport and
schools
In Blokkhaugen school the work with the project has been connected to more long-term
work with improvement of the school environment. The children registered and analysed
their surroundings and came up with ideas for possible solutions. The suggestions show
the age groups’ differing needs to see and be seen, but the report emphasizes how the
youth also managed to see the needs of other age groups. The pupils conveyed their
wishes both by means of a meeting with local politicians they had initiated themselves,
and by sending suggestions to the City Councillor for the environment and city planning.
Work process
New knowledge of the city was to inspire the renewal of the school environment in the
course of three weeks of project work.
In the first of the three weeks the school was visited by the architect Todd Saunders, who
has worked with a number of school improvement projects throughout the country.
In the second week the city program focused on space; squares, passages and meeting
places. The work with the school grounds and the public space around the school was
divided into three project areas. The pupils chose one of these areas before the project
started.
1. A think-tank for the shaping and renewal of the school’s environment outdoors. Can the
outdoor school area be improved?
2. Which qualities characterize an area where people like to spend time? What does it
take to create surroundings where people relax, a nice environment and a sense of
belonging in Åsane?
3. How can the city be expressed through dance, music and words?
The pupils went to central Bergen and looked into a number of questions and solutions
that could be related to the work at school.
The groups:
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The city floor as a meeting place
The schoolyard as a meeting place
The park as a meeting place
The forest as a meeting place: Pathways, a
vegetable garden
The buildings
The entrance, the façades, shelters
Using the cityscape
Creating artistic adventures in school
The city and the landscape
The local area Åsane
Media group
Reporting on the events
The groups registered the surroundings, created models, took photographs, wrote and
drew on their sessions in the local area.
Comment
The pupils offered input into how they thought attractive meeting places in the local area
would look. The project was part of the long-term work with the schools environment,
initiated by the parent-teacher association (PTA). The PTA leader, Bertram Brochman, is
also an architect, and has made a plan which shows how the pupils’ suggestions can be
used in an improvement plan of the school’s outdoor areas.
Through the project the pupils gained knowledge of how to communicate their thoughts
and ideas for solutions for a better environment.
The pupils arranged a meeting with the decision makers. This strengthened their ability to
contribute to the democratic process. They also learned how to initiate contact with the
city council.
Other schools also allowed the children’s involvement with their environment to be
expressed when it came to concrete plans for building in the environment. Ulsetskogen
School worked with the theme The city and the forest – our green lungs, and the children
made suggestions and commented upon construction plans in their area. They
encouraged the contractors not to cut down all of the trees in their area.
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Past and present: Local area history
Hop School chose to focus their project around the local area and local history. The
project work involved a wide range of workshops, and led to a number of different
presentations which can be used to inspire future local area projects.
Hop School
Hop – worth the journey
Theme:
Organisation: Full participation. Age-mixed groups
Project group: Four members of staff
Presentation:
-
Exhibition
-
Decoration
-
Music theatre performance
-
Booklet: Food and living in Hop - a historical cookbook
-
Calendar: The Hop Calendar 2001
The Hop project is one example of how the opportunities offered by the umbrella project
My city – our cities can be drawn on locally through the use of the school’s wellestablished work forms, in this case the musical. The school’s resources were pooled
with resources from the culture section of the local area administration and the result was
a great success. The ensemble engaged one hundred pupils and ten teachers in Hop,
and the secondary school students were given the chance to see the performance when
four shows were arranged during the daytime in the Troldsalen in Edvard Grieg’s home.
Planning
Spring and autumn of 1999: The project group was put together
Teacher planning: Three days of planning were spent putting together the groups and
establishing detailed tasks and plans for the work process; finding out which materials
had to be acquired to facilitate the work; and planning the final presentations.
November 1999
Motivational presentations about the different project groups: One in assembly and one in
each class, each lasting between 20 minutes and half an hour.
The pupils were asked to make a list of priorities of which group they wanted to be part of.
At least two of their wishes had to be one of the exhibition groups. The project groups
then assigned students to the groups.
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The project itself
The project took place between November 1999 and October 2000. The groups were
given three 4-hour sessions to plan and work. A project week took place from April 27 to
May 4, 2000.
The music theatre groups worked both during school hours and afternoons and so the
time spent on the work exceeded the allocated time during school hours. The students
could take part in the following workshops:
Exhibitions:
Themes:
Presentational forms:
Photo and guide
The guide, calendar, photographs
Food and living
Cookbook, cooking
Architecture
Photography, drawings, paintings, models
Nature and culture
Landscape models
Web and video
Web page and video about the project
Decoration:
Painting on tiles
Mounted as a fresco in the school hall
Music theatre
“Ja, vi elsker” [Named after the Norwegian national anthem]
Workshops; actors; costumes; scenography; band; light and sound; program; PR
Presentations
May 8 – May 10, October 14, 2000: Music theatre. Performances in Troldsalen.
May 8 – May 10, 2000: Exhibition in school
October 7 – 22, 2000: Exhibition at Nesttun library
Comment
The organising and scheduling are presented here because those responsible for the
project saw the preliminary work as a positive factor when it came to the realisation of the
project itself. Two important points in the teachers’ comments to the organisation of the
projects are:

The motivational presentations included tastes of what was to come, and this
meant the pupils knew what to expect. There were few questions and requests for
group changes, even though many did were not allocated to the group of their
choice.
13

The allocated 4-hour sessions were used for planning and preparation. This
meant all groups could spend the project week efficiently working on the different
presentations.
The experiences from the organising of the projects at Hop can set a good example, as
most schools have commented that time was scarce. Schools which let the project run
throughout a whole academic year felt it was difficult to maintain the pupils’ motivation.
The schools which concentrated the project work found that one week was too hectic for
both the pupils and the staff. You can read more about how other schools organised their
work with My city – our cities by going on the web and look at the projects from the
schools Hellen, Haukedalen and Nordvik.
Bønes School
Theme:
Bønes – our area
Organisation: Full participation
Grades 1 and 2: Play now and then; Grade 3: Play on the farm in the old
days; Grades 4 – 7: The Bønes Book
Presentation: A printed booklet/book: Stories from Bønes
An open day on November 14, 2000, with a concert; exhibitions of pupils’
works; project work; historical displays; and a play.
At Bønes school the project was centred on local history, and was put together in a joint
presentation in a printed book, Stories from Bønes.
Work process
The workshop for the lowest grades involved different forms of play and making bark
boats. For grades 4 to 7 the workshops were related to the themes of the Bønes Book,
and included painting, drawing, photography, writing and building models. The thematic
groups the children could choose were: Bønes from the earliest times; Bønes –
architecture and streets; Bønes – the school history; After school; Bønes and business;
This is where we live; Looking towards the future; Bønes – the forest, the mountains and
the sea. The pupils put down three choices, and made one of these their first priority. The
project was carried out in the autumn 2000.
Comment
The project has increased the pupils’ knowledge of contemporary Bønes and the Bønes
of historic times. The booklet with the stories from Bønes became a textbook in cultural
history which the school can use in future projects. The income from the sale of the book
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has been put aside in a fund, and the means will be used for annual “culture safaris
around the Nordås Lake” for the pupils. This will generate new knowledge of the local
environment in the years to come.
Hordvik day care centre
Theme:
Hordvik now and then
History, geography and a sense of belonging in the coastal community
Hordvik
Presentation: -
A message in a bottle
A video about the life of children in Hordvik
In Hordvik the day care centre for schoolchildren (“skolefritidsordningen” or SFO) at
Hordvik School participated in My city – our cities with their own project.
Work process
The letter was written and dated August 11, 1999. The letter explains a few things about
Hordvik in Norwegian, and in the English version the finder is asked to pass the letter on
to the nearest primary school.
The express coastal steamer m/s “Polarlys” dropped the bottled message in the middle of
the Vestfjorden Fjord. The Hordvik children received replies from eight Norwegian
schools – and one Russian school. The first answer came in September 1999. In
November 1999 a video about Hordvik school, local industries and cultural heritage was
sent to the schools Hordvik had made contact with through the bottled messages.
The children use letters, e-mails and drawings in order to keep in touch. There are plans
for a new video, which will be sent the schools Hordvik made contact with, as well as to
the rest of the day care centres in the local area.
Comment
In connection with a larger project it can be natural that the day care centres for
schoolchildren participate. The children can be given the chance to work with the themes
in other ways and in other forms of workshops than they do in school.
Working with artists
One of the aims of the My city – our cities project was to give children the opportunity to
express their views on the city, their experiences of the city and what life in the city is like,
by means of a range of artistic forms.
15

One teaching objective was that professionally coordinated activities should be
used to express the children’s impressions, experiences and relevant skills. The
children were to use a range of different techniques and work forms.

To use a wide range of forms of artistic expressions was also an important
prerequisite to be able to communicate with children from other cultures and for
the children to be able to present their experiences to the world.

These objectives emphasized the importance of the children’s own expressive
forms. The children’s own artistic endeavours were to be facilitated through giving
them the skills they needed within a wide range of media. To ensure that this
became possible within the hectic school schedule, workshops became an
important work form.
Workshops (p. 15 in original)
It was a premise at the outset of the My city – our cities project that the children should be
given a variety of media in which to express themselves. Their efforts were to be lead by
an artist or someone else with specialist knowledge. To benefit from this work form, one
arranged seminars for the teachers, an inspirational program for pupils and teachers, and
a seminar for the artists. The schools were also offered the services of an exhibition
designer to supplement the preparations in the schools.
Workshops where the children drew, painted and built models were arranged in
connection with the inspirational program at The Children’s House. The program was led
by art historians, architects and artists. 7,200 children participated in such workshops
between the autumn of 1998 and Christmas 2000.
The art workshops were essential in order to inspire creativity in the approaches chosen
and tell of the range of forms and techniques children and adults could use. Working with
an artist was meant to inspire variety in the expressive forms. For the projects that were
awarded funds, it was a premise that workshops was to be one of the methods.
To contribute to the work in the schools a bank of artists was established. This meant that
the artists were presented to the project My city – our cities. Those who wished to work
with children within the project’s framework were listed with their field of knowledge, a
theme for the workshop and which local areas they preferred to work in. For My city – our
cities the artist bank consisted of 20 people. The schools were otherwise free to choose
who they wished to involve in their projects, and which areas of competence such
16
specialists were to have. They were also free to choose anyone with other forms of
specialist knowledge. For some workshops the schools also drew on the competence
represented in their staff or among parents. 61 schools participated. Many had a number
of workshops, thus a large number of people have taken part in the project. Many schools
used the extra funding to hire key specialists and to buy materials for the workshops.
In the produced teaching materials, art and culture were used both to inspire and teach.
In the folder The streets, parks and squares of the city both poems and images on the
foils were of such good quality that they could easily be used in other contexts. The
material focused on how knowledge of architecture and art could be used as a starting
point for the children’s own works with different techniques.
The workshop method can be developed and used in a variety of subjects and for a range
of age groups. Many of the schools disregarded the usual boundaries of the grades and
mixed pupils of different ages. In some schools the pupils that were close to each other in
age were mixed, in other schools all grades were represented in each group. Teachers
and pupils report that the mixing of age groups was a positive experience.
Both student and staff reports speak favourably of the workshop method. In schools
where such work did not work as well, the reason was usually lack of equipment or too
large groups in relation to the number of instructors. Some schools already had
experience with the workshop method. Both written and oral reports tell of positive
experiences with the artists’ workshops. The cooperation between artists and other
specialist personnel has been inspiring for both children and staff.
The experiences from the projects that were part of My city – our cities can be used in the
work with the arts and crafts-subject, and also in providing ideas which can help towards
meeting the national objectives presented in the government’s Cultural Schoolbag
projects.
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Paradis school
Theme:
The sculptures and public buildings of the city
Organisation: Grades 4A and 4B participated
Presentation: Exhibition at Bergen Airport Flesland and Paradis school
Work process
Within the theme the city’s ornaments 4A focused on the sculptures of the city. A city walk
and workshop was arranged in cooperation the artist Aggi Folgerø Johannessen. The
project lasted three days. During the city walk the children looked at and sketched the
sculptures in Bergen. They then used the hinterglass technique and created glass
paintings and CD covers.
The groups developed their sketches to hinterglass paintings in the Academy of Art’s
studios in central Bergen, where the school had rented the project room for two weeks.
Excerpts from 4As logbook:
“Today we went on the ferry to the Art Academy and we were going to paint on CD
covers and it was fun. I painted the boy in the pond with the red wind in front of him. It
was difficult, but I did it.”
“Today we started to paint on sheets of glass that were really big. When we were halfway
done, we went to the house next door, the Academy, where there were people who were
going to be artists.”
“We had our lunch on the 7th floor and looked out on the city. I saw a tank boat and two
tug boats and we say the ferry on the fjord and the Fløybanen and the Ulriksbanen”
[Bergen’s two funiculars].
“Today was the last time we were there, but we got a lot done. I wish we could go there a
few more days.”
Hinterglass painting (reverse glass painting) is a technique where you paint on the back
of glass. The colours become intense. As part of the work the pupils were instructed in
how they could develop a sketch, and they were taught how to mix acrylic paint. As with
many graphic techniques the artist must “think in reverse” when planning their final
motive. The pupils were thus given the experience of planning on different levels
simultaneously.
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Photocaption:
One group are working with Danish Girl by Gerhard Henning in the city park by the
Bergen Art Museum. The sketches convey the differences in the children’s impressions of
the artwork.
19
Christi Krybbe School
Theme:
In many alleyways
Organisation: Grades 1-7 took part in a large-scale project in the local area
Presentation: Every grade worked with city themes such as The city and the water or
The streets, parks and squares of the city. These projects had different
forms of presentations, such as exhibitions, song recitals and dance
shows. The school also arranged a joint project – the decoration of the
school’s outdoor area. The presentations took place in connection with the
school’s anniversary in May 2000.
The work process for the school’s decoration work
The artists Åse Ljones and Ida Helland Hansen, whose children go to Christi Krybbe,
were in charge of the decoration work. The pupils collected stones and tiles for the
mosaic, and smaller groups of children helped the artists in their work. The school also
participated in the project Vibrant Schools.
20
Lyshovden School
Theme:
The city and the sea
Organisation: Two grade 7 classes
Presentation: An exhibition in the school
Work process
The classes were shown around the studio of the artists Inger-Marit Saastad and John
Audun Hauge. The studio is located among the old wharfside sheds, Sandviksbodene.
Inger-Marit primarily paints, whereas John Audun is a sculptor. After the visit to the studio
the children worked in the area around the sheds, and photographed and sketched the
surroundings. The sketches were then developed and became paintings and models of
the sheds.
Comment
The pupils gained knowledge of a culturally important area of the city, where the
traditional wharfside architecture has been preserved.
21
Kringlebotn School
Theme:
The city and its buildings; The city’s ornaments and The city and the water
Organisation: The entire school participated. Grades 4, 5 and 7, a total of 8 classes,
spent the most time on the project.
Presentations:
- Exhibitions in school on May 15, 2000
- Exhibitions at the Nesttun library and the Nesttun shopping centre from
May 29
- Musical, performed May 30 and 31
- Excerpts of the musical performed at The Children’s House on June 7
Work process
The school was host to a wide range of activities in connection to the mentioned themes.
Here we will only mention the grade 5 group which focused on the city’s ornaments. They
worked with an artist to make sculptures of their own. They went to visit Arne Mæland’s
studio and spent five weeks finishing their sculptures in school (see photos p. 21 i
original).
The school cooperated with a group of people with specialist knowledge within their
fields. Creating a multimedia presentation for the work with The city and its buildings,
grade 4 cooperated with three students from University College Bergen. The students
have written their own report which has a more technical approach to the children’s forms
of expression.
22
Midtun skole
Theme:
Lifting Culture 2000
Organisation: Full participation
Presentation:
-
Exhibition and show at school
-
A calendar with the school’s graphic works
Work process
The school’s projects were Nesttun today and Nesttun in the old days. There were
different workshop groups, such as: Sculpture; printing on fabric; silk painting; ceramics;
graphics; newspapers and internet; video; cooking. The artists Roger Gjerstad and Trond
Knutli have cooperated with a number of schools on the My city – our cities projects.
Some of the results from the work at Midtun School have been displayed in a calendar,
where the students have given their own interpretations of the city’s buildings, sculptures,
squares, spaces and museums.
23
24
International exchanges
One of the initial objectives of My city – our cities was the wish that children should be
given the chance to be comparative in their work with other cultures. The schools that
benefited the most from the international collaborations were those schools that built
upon already established links in other countries.
Krokeide School
Theme:
The city and the country, together we stand
Organisation:
Full participation
Presentation:
- Two- and three-dimensional decoration
-
Market day, May 12
-
Calendar 2001
Work process
The pupils worked with sculpture in Bergen. The school wished to make contact with
artists from the friendship school Varpas in Lithuania. They wanted to exchange ideas
about how the children could express their ideas, as well as involving the Lithuanian
artists in the process of decorating the school. In the autumn of 1999 the teachers at
Krokeide visited Varpas School, and contact is established between the artists Algis
(Algimantas Corevicus) and Vidas Cikana. The school introduced itself to the Lithuanian
artists by way of photographs and videos.
During the project week Algis worked with a mural inspired by the Lithuanian folk story
“Egle and the slowworm”. Some of the pupils modelled for him, and a group of pupils
created their own murals inspired by the same tale. The fairy tale can be found in the
school’s web pages.
Vidas made a sculpture in oak wood, which was to represent the Christ-like figure
Rupintojelis, another figure from the Lithuanian folk tradition.
The pupils named the figure “Tenkus”, and worked with smaller wooden sculptures,
images made by broken glass, models of houses and compositions in cardboard. The
children showed a great deal of initiative throughout the project week, and they were
excited to follow the Lithuanian artists’ work process. The school has been decorated by
murals and wooden sculptures, and everyone has been involved in the process.
Photo captions:
25
“Cold Winter. Winter in the Country” By Stasys Gincevicius, grade 2c
“On a fishing trip” By Øystein Breivik Aadland, grade 2
Segment of Vidas’ Rupintojelis-sculpture
The pupils in Krokeide and Varpas made a calendar where each month was represented
by artwork made by the pupils in the two schools.
Liland School
My house – your house
Theme:
Organisation: Full participation
Presentation:
-
Exhibition showing the students’ artwork opened on May 16, 2000.
-
In the autumn of 2000 the exhibition was presented at Bergen Airport
Flesland.
-
School magazine. The classes contributed pages based on the
documentation of their particular roject.
Work process
During the project week the classes worked with these themes: Building techniques,
building traditions, architectural history, cultural heritage management and aesthetics.
The school “adopted” the old farm Hamn in Lønningen, a project the school undertook in
cooperation with the regional museum Hordamuseet and the Bergen Cultural Heritage
Management Office.
The different grades focused on different subject areas.
Grade 1: Focused on buildings and building techniques in the local area: The school, the
local farms and residential houses.
Grade 2 concentrated on a historical city walk, focusing mainly on the buildings on their
way.
Grade 3 looked at the agrarian landscape around the school as well as on the building
traditions.
Grade 4 studied ornaments and décor on doors and windows in the local area.
Grade 5 was taught architecture and compared houses from different epochs.
Grade 6 focused on the aesthetic aspects of landmark buildings in the centre of Bergen.
Grade 7 compared living standards in Bergen with the standards for the Masai in Africa
and the Yanomami in South America.
26
The students used drawings, paintings, collages, models and ceramic reliefs to visualise
the project’s themes.
The international partners contributed with works for the exhibition. The school’s
friendship school, Adulis Elementary School in Eritrea, also worked with the theme My
house – your house. Despite the state of emergency as a result with the war with
Ethiopia, the school sent the results of their work in Eritrea so that it could be represented
in the exhibition in Bergen. Two classes cooperated with children from the Netherlands
and Great Britain on the project Housing 2010, which is part of a 3-year project called My
future in Europe.
Comment
Combining international exchange with the My city – our cities project is another
experience which can be drawn upon. Another school to link the two projects was
Kringlebotn, which took part in a Comenius project in 2000 and 2001 with Lithuania and
Germany. Kringlebotn and the other schools compare their cultural forms in areas such
as songs, games, dances, riddles and sayings. In Kringlebotn school’s web pages there
is a presentation of games from the different countries.
27
Professional networks
The common (“almenningen”)
Theme:
Children in the common
Organisation: Organised by the Children’s House. 500 participating children
Presentation:
-
In the commons Østre and Vestre Muralmenningen, in a disused shop,
from September 4 to 28. Laminated papers on fences in the common
itself.
-
The exhibition The Common in the Galleriet shopping centre from
September 30 to October 21.
Work process
The common (“almenningen”, a Bergen specialty, somewhere between a common and a
square) is a communal space in the city, an area to be used by everyone. Therefore the
common is a place of opportunity, the most important meeting place for people in the city.
The Common was a large-scale collaboration set up by the Bergen City Form Centre.
The centre’s objective is to improve the quality of the milieux and all forms of design in
the city. The centre wishes to employ both an ecological and a cultural perspective in its
work.
The different professional networks that make up this foundation are the Bergen School
of Architecture, Bergen Design Centre, Bergen City Council, Hordaland County,
Hordaland Art Centre, The Bergen Art College, The University of Bergen (UNIFOB) and
The Art and Design Museum of West Norway.
These institutions developed the project around the concept of the common, employing
both theoretical and visual presentations. The children were invited to participate through
The Children’s House city program. They were also invited to contribute to the exhibition
The Common in the Galleriet shopping centre.
The results are presented in a booklet which is available from the Bergen City Form
Centre (Bergen byformsenter); Nordahl Bruns gate 9, Bergen.
The children worked as “city detectives” in the Østre and Vestre Murallmenning. In the
exhibition The Common they presented their work in the form of sketches, drawings,
poems, stories and photos. They measured the common, and the registered facts in its
28
surroundings. They chalked each other’s shapes on the ground to make a physical
imprint on the city space. The activity and the children’s presentations immediately caught
the attention of the general public.
During the same period an exhibition was staged in The Children’s House where the
schools which had worked on the theme The spaces of the city presented their material.
29
Themes
During the work with My city – our cities some themes were recurrent and chosen by a
large number of schools. Architecture and water are two such themes. They have been
central to the city program in the local areas, and have been developed through a wide
range of methods and presentational forms. The experiences from this program are
important both in relation to the teaching plans and new projects similar to Children in the
city.
Architecture
During the city walks, the children looked for geometrical forms and registered the details
in the physical environment. They looked at the construction of Bergen houses – for
example the wooden houses’ plastered facing walls and the new versus the old. These
methods to help the children to see can be an inspiration to city projects elsewhere.
Some have also invited architects to teach them about city planning.
Hellen School
Theme:
Bergen and the streets, squares and buildings in the local area
Organisation: Grades 1 to 7
Presentation: Exhibitions
Work process
Grades 2 and 3 worked with the theme My street in four kinds of workshop:
The houses
Box houses; drawing/writing workshop
The people
Paper collages; drawing/writing workshop
The traffic
Painting using a field easel; woodwork
The animals
Ceramics, drawing and writing in the workshop
The project lasted for two weeks, and took up four lessons a day. Two days were spent in
each workshop, and two days were spent for preparations and winding down. Subjects:
Art and crafts; Norwegian and Mathematics.
Question sheets for the observation of the houses:

Which colour is your house?

Which shape does your house have? (Square, rectangular, or other shapes?)

How many windows does the front of your house have? Which shape are the
windows?
30

Does your house have chimneys? How many?

How many stories is your house, and what are the different stories called?

How many doors does the front have, and which shape are the doors?

Is there any decoration around the windows and the doors?

How many people and animals live in your house?
In the workshops the pupils were given the following tasks:
Drawing/ writing
a. Draw your house
b. Write a story or a fairy tale about your house
The boxhouse group
a. Draw a simple sketch of your house
b. Cut out or paint doors and windows
c. Make a roof
d. Discuss colours. Find the right colour (through mixing
colours). Paint the house.
Comment
This example from the lower grades at the Hellen Primary School shows how simple
means can help make the children see and experience their house and the houses on
their street.
Hunstad School
The West Norway Competence Centre for the hearing-impaired and deaf-blind
Theme:
The city and its buildings
Organisation: Full participation
Presentations:
-
A play
-
Exhibition with miniature models and a “city wall” consisting of several
types of buildings’ walls.
Work process
The school chose to focus their city project on some of Bergen’s historical buildings. As
the school is attended by pupils from all over the country the staff wished to tell them
more about the history of Bergen. One of the groups visited the architects Kalve &
Smedvik, where they learned about the planning of a city square. In the workshop the
pupils worked with a play to be performed, an art calendar, miniature models of historical
spaces, and with the building of a city wall. The city floor was also represented with four
different forms of surface.
31
Comment
For these pupils work methods which involve tactile experiences were important. For the
blind sound impulses were also important. Building the city wall and experiencing it as a
finished work gave important sensomotoric training. During the course of the presentation
of the works at The Children’s House, where three schools were introduced to each
other’s work, one could see the value of everyone having worked on the same themes in
the great interest the children took in each other’s projects. This can serve as a lesson for
future projects.
The miniature model “rooms” were exhibited at the Hanseatic Museum throughout the
summer of 2000.
Åstveit school
Theme:
Old and new building techniques
Organisation: Full participation
Presentation: Exhibition in the Åsane Communal Culture Centre, at the Åstveit retirement
home and at The Children’s House
Work process
The students worked with buildings in several parts of town, and their drawings and
paintings were developed into graphic prints. Here are some of the works from the
graphics workshop (pp. 32-34 in original. If you would like to see more of the schools’
works you can go to their web pages.
32
33
34
Water
We have been introduced to the theoretical and practical work with water which took
place at Riple school. At Christi Krybbe they tried to register all the water in the city, and
presented it by way of photo montages. In Helldal school’s web pages you find
information about water; as seawater; and as freshwater in rivers and as drinking water.
There is a great deal of facts, but also pictures if you click the link Aquakunst. Møhlenpris
school made a series of graphic works called Play with water. They show the artistic
efforts of pupils from different cultures when working with the subject-matter water.
Tertnes school
Theme:
My city – our cities.
The Dalselva river through four seasons
Organisation: Grades 3 and 7 participated. Grades 2 and 4 have participated in similar
projects.
Work process
The pupils have worked with their local river Dalselva, and studied the vegetation and
animal life in and along the river. They have traced the changes throughout the year.
Nygårdslien school
Theme:
The city and the water
Organisation: Full participation
Presentation:
-
The installation of The Ice City on February 17, the official opening of
Bergen’s year as City of Culture 2000
-
Exhibition and Theme Day, June 8
-
Exhibition of photos from The Ice City have been shown in Neumanns
gate, in The Children’s House and at the Haugatun Culture Centre.
Work process
All members of staff took a course at The Children’s House on the theme The city and the
water, and all the classes took part in a project which focused on water in the autumn of
1999. The projects have been documented in 21 reports, one from each class. This
project was The Ice City. Children and adults helped to freeze blocks of different shapes
and colours. They created the Bergen landmarks Bryggen and Fløybanen in ice. The city
35
was mounted and supplemented with light and sound, and became quite an experience
for those present.
Water has so many forms. The titles in the program from the show on June 8 give away
some of these forms: An Aquatic Show; Under the Surface; The Water Organ; Water
Lillies, Bubbles; The Umbrella Sculpture; Baking “vannkringle” (“waterbuns”)
36
37
38
City walks – Bergen by foot
A unique way of getting to know the city.
Walk in the city with pupils from Rothaugen secondary school, who know their way
around! You can choose between the following interesting walks (the trips take between 1
and 1.5 hours):
1. From Rothaugen to the Fløybanen [funicular] station
Learn about the minute living spaces in Bergen in the past; rope makers; “2nd
class bodies”; summer houses at Skansen; and much more. What does
“Rothaugen” really mean? We recommend that you combine this trip with a trip to
Fløyen.
2. From the Fløybanen station to St. Jørgens hospital
Learn of leprosy; a mental institution for children; the incredible life of Cille Gad;
about the house of the executioner; alleyways; commons and much more. And
what does a hamburger have to do with an alley in Bergen? A trip around central
Bergen. We recommend that you combine the trip with a tour of St. Jørgens
hospital
3. From Sverresborg to Bryggesporen
We go back in time to the Bergen of the Middle Ages, and are introduced to the
King at Bergenhus; the clerical centre around the Maria Church; the commercial
centre around Vågen. We are introduced to the watchman; the Hanseats; and
others who lived in the Bergen at that time, a city with its centre by the fjord –
Vågen. We recommend a visit to the Hanseatic Museum and the Bryggens
museum after this trip.
The pupils at Rothaugen school were trained as city walk guides on the walks we have
presented here. All schools in Bergen were invited to take the walks, and 33 classes or
groups, consisting of a total of 850 pupils, were guided around town by the pupils from
Rothaugen.
39
Artistic forms employed as part of My city – our cities
From the work process, documentation and presentation.
Collection and study
Excursions
Experiences
Visual techniques
Audio techniques
Presentations
Exhibitions
Look
Touch
Smell
Taste
Sketching
Drawing
Photography
Sound clips
Listening to
someone telling
them about the
project
Listening to fairy
tales
Writing
Logs
Interviews
Reports
Workshops
Writing workshops
Computer groups
Video
Media
PR
Drama/acting
Scenography
Costumes
Make up
Music/orchestra
Choir
Graphics
Painting
Woodwork
Sculpture
Models
Architecture
Food
Decoration
Shows
Electronical
- of the students’
own works from
the project and
the
documentation
of the processes
that lead up to
the finished
works.
- historical
exhibitions
- two-dimensional:
Drawings,
paintings,
graphics,
collages, fabric,
planning
sketches, photo
- threedimensional:
Sculpture,
models of
houses and
landscapes,
objects
- Murals
- Sculptures in
wood
- Mosaics
- Landscape art
- Recitals
- Musicals, opera
- Cabaret
- Theatre, drama
- Dance
- Multimedia
- Games
- Web page
- CDs
- Video
-
Multimediaprogram
Oral
on city walks
Print
- Animated films
- Lectures
- Reading poems
- Showing around
- Posters, flyers
- Calendars
- Books/booklets
40
-
My city – our cities in Bergen, City of Culture 2000.
A brief evaluation
My city – our cities brought all schools in Bergen together and made them active
participants and contributors to Bergen’s City of Culture program in 2000.
As so many have taken part in the project, there has been a great variety in objectives
and the participants’ perceptions of the My city – our cities projects.
Some schools focused on the larger context of Bergen as City of Culture, but also used
the project to strengthen their own unity and ability to cooperate. In other schools it was
left up to each class to decide how to work with the project, and the coordination was
limited to one day of joint presentations. Many were aware that the project was the way in
which the school contributed to Bergen’s City of Culture projects, and many of the
children knew that they took part in the European City of Culture 2000 program. Thus
many were given a sense of ownership to the project City of Culture, a status awarded
Bergen by the EU Parliament on application from the Norwegian government. In the year
2000 there were nine European Cities of Culture, and many of the schools in Bergen
made contact with schools in other cities of culture.
My city – our cites was developed by the cultural institution The Children’s House and
the City Council’s section for schools when Bergen was awarded status as city of culture
2000. At an early stage in the planning process the City of Culture administration argued
that it was a project that should be incorporated in the programming for Bergen’s year as
a city of culture. When summing up the experiences with the project, it can be useful to
start with some of the arguments in favour of the project that were held forth from the
beginning.

It was necessary for the project’s success that the children’s reflections upon their
environment were taken seriously. The children’s efforts to express these
reflections was what should be built upon in the presentations of the different parts
of the project. In larger cultural events children often become consumers, but this
project was to allow the children to be the producers of the event.

The children were to experience their own city in a new way. They were also
encouraged to exchange experiences with children form other cultures on the themes
encompassed in My city – our cities. The international aspect was important in
41
relation to other cities of culture, friendship cities and with regard to the different
ethnic groups present in the Bergen population.

The longevity of the basic idea was also important. The project as it is presented,
with its themes and its wmethod, constitutes a framework that can be used for
twenty-five years. The project can be renewed within the framework, through a
development of the themes and a continuance of exchanges between different
schools in the area. Thus the framework can be built upon.

Through the different themes and the workshop method, children and adults were
given tools that could enhance their experience of the city, and ideally to a larger
extent qualify the children for active participation in the development of a sustainable
city for the future. This is the project’s long-term objective.

Information brochures and inspirational material for the different themes were
produced. These can function as background material for future projects. Here you
find foils and suggestions for tasks in class (see the overview at the end of this
brochure, pp. 46-47). The material has an index of literature and existing sources of
information dealing with the city, architecture and urban planning. Having shared
points of reference will also make it easier for schools to collaborate.

The introduction of the subject ‘art and crafts’ in Norwegian schools in 1997.
The intentions of this new subject in schools run parallel to The Children’s House
general objectives with regards to the nature of mediation of culture to children, and
more specifically in the year Bergen was City of Culture. The Children’s House aim is
to ensure the children were introduced to quality art and culture. One of the My city –
our cities offers was an invitation for schools to participate in city walks and also to
take part in the centrally organized workshops based at the Children’s House. In the
workshops established in the schools, one invited artists and people specialized in
the field to take part, as well as building upon the teachers’ areas of competence.
The Children’s House wishes to continue the cooperation with several of Bergen’s
cultural institutions. The objective is to develop different cultural programs aimed at
kindergartens and schools.

It was a premise that the My city – our cities project should lead up to different
forms of public presentations. This was important, was there to be truth in the
claim that the children were real producers of culture and contributors to Bergen’s
City of Culture program. There was a great variety in the presentations, and many
found that a good presentation is a project in its own right.
42

From the outset the City of Culture administration wanted My city – our cities to be
inclusive and make the activity in schools visible in the local area. That so many
schools participated was hoped to create a feeling of belonging and solidarity as
everyone took part in one, big project. At the same time each school should be given
credit for their particular efforts. The City of Culture superstructure meant the media
knew of the project. This made it easier for the media to look into each individual
project.
Network: For such a large project to work, it is important that the existing infrastructure of
communication is built upon. The strengthening of existing networks and establishment of
new ones was important. The Children’s House has since it was established had as its
task to strengthen such networks and create a systematic cooperation between the
cultural sector and the administration of schools and kindergartens. It was an explicit wish
from the Council’s culture administration that My city – our cities was to take place in
Bergen’s year as City of Culture, in order for the project to benefit from the additional
funding at the Council’s disposal.
Intentions and reality
The work is now concluded, and the reports have been read. The main conclusion is that
the objectives were met and the intentions were turned into reality.
Through the preliminary work and activities from 1998 and the presentations throughout
2000, Bergen schools have new material and new experience to draw on. They have
been marked by bustling activity, overwhelming creative joy, many learning experiences
and a strong sense of commitment to the project.
Project logs and documentation allow us to learn from the experiences with the project.
The reports from schools vary in style and content. Some are detailed, others are not.
The material still allows us to conclude whether the main objectives have been met.
The children’s participation was taken seriously. It is important to realise that it takes
time both to develop and establish a commitment to the pupil’s participation. The process
must start two to three years ahead of the project itself in order to sufficiently institute the
project in as many schools and kindergartens as possible. Both the administration and
those who make the project come to life in schools gained a great deal of experience
through the projects My city – our cities, Dance fest and Sound jungle 2000. These were
all large-scale projects with long-term objectives in terms of the knowledge and
experiences they had on offer. They created new forms of cooperation between cultural
43
institutions, the City Council administration and NGOs. It is important to have structures
and organisations that can act upon the opportunities offered by anniversaries and largescale events – whether it is a Edvard Grieg anniversary, a City of Culture event or the
invitation to take part in the national Norwegian project The Cultural Schoolbag.
In terms of the children’s chance to express themselves, there has, within the teaching
of practical and aesthetic subjects over the last few years, been a growing awareness
that schools are responsible for developing expressive abilities that transcend the
traditional demand for written and oral skills. In the project My city – our cities this was
ensured through the overarching demand that the schools were to employ workshop
methods.
Some have seen a conflict between the emphasis on the children’s forms of expression
and the demand for public presentation. With regards to visual presentations, it is
important to look at the children’s efforts as a learning process, not as “art”, a term often
used about children’s works. For the project presentations it is important to realize that to
plan a good presentation, one needs time and knowledge. It is necessary to also allocate
resources to this part of the project. Knowing that this is often where the shoe pinches,
schools could seek help from the project manager at The Children’s House. Many
schools took this offer of assistance.
International exchanges are time-consuming. The schools which had a friendship
school where contact was already made seemed to benefit the most from their efforts at
making contact internationally. For the schools that made contact with other cities of
culture through exchanges of pupils and staff in 2000, it is possible to follow up the
connections that were made. One effect between the cooperation of the nine cities of
culture was a mutually increased interest for the other cities. The schools applied for both
Nordic and EU funds.
The long-term perspective is maintained through The Children’s House’s continued
efforts to develop their city program, and through the allocation of funds through the
school budget: The future project Children in the City will be state funded and given
status as a pilot project as part of the national project The Cultural Schoolbag. This
brochure is also meant as a contribution to the continuation of this work.
Many reports tell of how the basis for understanding the city, namely knowledge of the
city’s different aspects, was increased as a result of the work with My city – our cities.
Both children and adults report having increased their ability to see as well as understand
44
the city. Several write about how the children have developed a sense of ownership and
pride in their city. The project has developed experience and methods that facilitate the
use of the city’s arenas and offers to the youth population.
The teaching materials have been used to a varying extent. The teachers report that the
material that could be used in class was used the most. The folder named The streets,
parks and squares of the city is one example of this. The material can be used in years to
come, and can be followed up with courses for teachers where both the content and
assignments in the materials are explored and developed further.
The workshop method has given valuable input with regards to the new teaching plans
for the subject ‘arts and crafts’. Schools have established links with artists, and they wish
to continue the collaboration with artists. Similarly, several artists have gained experience
in working with children. One of the artists who took part in the project, Aggi Folgerø, has
written a text book called Creating Images – The Basics. In some local areas the project
has come about through teamwork between the local area cultural administration, the
artists and the school. These tight networks can bring new routines of teamwork to other
projects.
Presentations of the project marked the end of the project period. Some of the schools
had a strong tradition for presentations on stage, and have teachers among their staff that
are competent instructors in this area. Several have useful experience from the project
Write An Opera. In the workshops schools have engaged specialists in choreography,
drama and scenography. The presentations that were presented as exhibitions appear to
be an area where the schools could benefit from exchanging knowledge and building
upon the positive experiences. Some schools emphasise that their own organising was
lacking and that there were not enough resources set aside for their presentation –
resources meaning staff, time and money. An important premise is therefore that the
presentation should be included in the project plan from the outset. In My city – our cities
there were funds set aside to alleviate such problems, and the need for such can be
considered in future projects. Exhibition materials like exhibition walls and projectors can
be found in some schools. Some schools have also been helped by the culture
administration in their local area. A joint effort within the local area administration appears
to be the way to go when it comes to expensive equipment.
The visibility of the My city – our cities project was satisfactory, considering the
competition in the year Bergen was a European City of Culture. For many the City of
Culture was a concept they grasped through their own participation, and several of the
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public presentations were available to a large number of people. Throughout the year the
project was mentioned in the media bulletin distributed by the City of Culture
administration, and marketing funds for program booklets were a priority. These programs
were distributed to all schools and kindergartens in Bergen.
One suggestion for future projects is to use the schools’ web pages for a continuous
updating of the activities that take place, exhibitions or shows, both in the schools and in
the local area. Such electronic material is easy to pass on to the media, and would help to
increase the publicity and visibility. Schools that work with the same themes should invite
each other to their presentations. In some places this is done within the local area. To
choose a school to cooperate with and to invite to the final presentation is something that
can be developed in future projects.
Networks. It is important that satisfactory links are established between the cultural
institutions, specialists, schools and administration. In Bergen The Children’s House has
been a very valuable node in this network. The House has coordinated many of the
activities, and has been very active within its mandate. It is also a physical location which
the children come to visit to take part in shows, exhibitions and so on. The Bergen
Council’s school administration created a temporary position as project manager based at
The Children’s House, and employed a person with great knowledge of the school
administration’s communication network. For the round of meetings at the upstart, project
leaders worked with the culture offices in the local area administrations. They could also
work directly with the schools. Some schools collaborated with Media Studies students
from the University College Bergen. The local networks can also be helpful in the
realisation of large-scale projects when presentations are part of the project. Some
schools used the parent-teacher associations (PTAs) or the local community associations
(“Grendalag”) in the production and realisation of projects. The local area culture festival
(“kulturdager”) is a natural framework for presentations of schools’ projects. The
cooperation with the local culture office is well under way in several local areas, and this
can be developed further in terms of content, technical resources, publicity, and the
productions themselves.
Overview of My city – our cities projects in the local
areas
Arna
Garnes Primary School
The train in the city and in Arna
46
Garnes Secondary School
Indre Arna School
Lone
Bergenshus
Christi Krybbe
Hellen
The streets, alleys and architecture of the city
Arna this century – towards a millennium
The buildings of the city compared to the building traditions
in Arna
Krohnengen
Møhlenpris
Nordnes
Nygård
Rothaugen
In many alleyways
Bergen and the streets, parks, squares and buildings of our
local area
Swimming at Skansen
Our City
Nordnes for 100 years
The City Map Project
Youth guiding youth
Fana
Helldal
Hop
Kaland
Kirkevoll
Kringlebotn
Krokeide
Midttun
Nordvik
Paradis
Riple
Samdal
Skjold
Slåtthaug
The city and the water. City spaces in Nordnes
Hop – worth the journey
Know thy city
Felt and children
The city and its buildings, its ornaments and the water
The city and the country, together we stand
Lifting culture 2000
The city under the umbrella
Hinterglass painting; The sculptures of the city
Water in the city, water in the country
Get to know Bergen
Know thy city
From a country dwelling to a city local area
Fyllingsdalen
Bønes
Fjellsdalen
Lynghaug
Lyshovden
Løvås
Ortun
Sælen
Varden
Bønes – our area
Bergen – our city
The streets, parks and squares of the city
The city and the water
The sculptors shape the city
City environment and school environment
My city – our cities
Church art
Laksevåg
Alvøen
Bjørndalsskogen
Mathopen
Nygårdslien
Alvøen in Bergen
Stone houses
The historical development of buildings and living in the city
and in the country
The city and the water
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Ytrebygda
Aurdalslia
Hjellestad
Liland
Rå
Skranevannet
Søråshøgda
From grazing land to a part of town
The architecture of Bergen
My house – your house
The dark middle ages
The city and the houses, the city and the landscapes
Bergen – our city
Årstad
Kronstad
Landås
Minde
Ny Krohnborg
Slettebakken
Hunstad
Årstad for one thousand years
Landås in the past
My city – our cities
Our school, the fortress of the local area
The architecture around Vågen
Bergen on the road toward the year 2000
Åsane
Blokkhaugen
Flaktveit
Haukedalen
Hordvik
Kalvatræet
Kyrkjekrinsen
Li
Mjølkeråen
Tertnes
Ulsetskogen
Åstveit
My city – our school
The land of the sunflowers
The theatre – Den Nationale Scene
Hordvik now and then
The city and the houses
The European city of Bergen in a European dimension
Children’s Dance Festival
Bergensiana 2000
My city – our cities
The city and the forest – our green lungs
Old and new building techniques
This brochure is published by the Bergen City Council, section for culture, sports and
schools, 2001
Written by Ingebjørg E. Astrup, art historian and program coordinator for visual arts in City
of Culture 2000
Image selection and design: Ingebjørg E. Astrup
Project managers of My city – our cities:

Turid Fadnes, The Children’s House

Monica Håkansson, The School’s administration, the council’s section for culture,
sports and schools
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Project sketch and the administration of the program at The Children’s House: Johanne
Gillow, Bodil Magnus, Torunn Brandanger, Todd Saunders, David Aasen, Knut
Rommetveit, Lise Simonsen, Marianne Nielsen.
Planning and execution of the projects:
The staff and pupils in the 61 schools specified in pp. 46-47.
Photography: The participants of the project My city – our cities if not otherwise specified.
IT: Kjellaug Ellingsen, the Council’s section for culture, sports and schools
Exhibition coordinator: Bodil Magnus, The Children’s House
Teaching materials
The materials are both fact presentations and teaching plans to be used in the
classrooms. The four brochures or books that have been produced for the My city – our
cities has been distributed to all schools in the greater Bergen area.

The Streets, Parks and Squares of the City (1998).
A teaching plan produced by Astrid McGarrighan

The Forms, Rooms, Light and Song of the City (1998)
by Tolle Bleiklie, Alf Gjerstad, Brite Hindal, Anne Skaansar

Bergen City Walks (1998)
by Torunn Brandanger, Knut Ormhaug, Trond Indahl

Bergen – a City in the Wide World (1999)
by Johanne Gillow, Bodil Magnus.

Sculpture walks in Bergen (2001)
by Anne Helene F. Skogsland, Kjell E. Johansen, Jannecke K. Heier.
This book is a handy tool for future projects revolving around the city’s architecture
and the history of Bergen.
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