Thousand-Faces Multicultural Program Series for Children

Some of the future members had already started in the spring of 2010 a series of programs on a monthly basis at Printa Akadémia Galery (Bp., 10. Rumbach Sebestyén street). The above mentioned programs have been developed, restructured and rethought in a way that they led to the present children’s program series started on the 20th of February 2011 at Kossuth Klub (1088 Bp., 7. Múzeum street).

In 2012 the program continues, this time on the A38 Ship  (1114 Budapest  Budai alsó rakpart) on a monthly basis.

Target Group of the Program Series:

Our educationally entertaining  programs aim to reach primarily children from the age of 4 to the age of 10, but can provide a pleasant pastime for the entire family. We have no intention to divide the different age groups, because previous experiences show that the programs  are communicated and its themes are selected in a way that both age  groups may fully enjoy it.

The structure of the programs:

During the first half of the program we show the children and discuss with them various images projected on the wall about the given culture. In other words we “arrive” at the given country, we place ourselves visually in a given reality. Normally during the discussion one or more native people are present from that specific culture.

Objects appear, that the children can take into their hands, they can examine them, traditional costumes  that they can try on. This way they get closer to the “foreign” culture.

In the second part of the program we get to the “drama-play part”, during which the children get a taste from the literature of the given culture through classic epic stories, mythology and traditional folk tales. These literary pieces contain ancient wisdom easily conceivable for the children. They have an extremely rich symbology and imagery, and the children can happily discover how many common elements they contain with similar stories from their own country regardless of the fact that they were  created in far away lands.

In the third part of the programs, that is on our interactive concerts, children can try out the various musical instruments, can dance and sing together with the performers- they share the joy of music. They get a glimpse of the melodies, rhythms and instruments people of different cultures have been using to express happiness and pain during the centuries. The musicians who play at the concerts most of the time originally come from the country that gives the actual theme of the program.

To close the program we have our arts and crafts corner that sometimes is on throughout the whole event. Children prepare object closely connected to the theme of the program. We use various materials, also recycled plastic bottles, cardboard, and plastic cups, toilet paper rolls, textile etc. We also use clay, wool, paint, etc.