Is it possible to talk about aesthetics for very young children?
This was the question that the artistic research project, “Mapping” set out to explore, focusing in on the sensory experiences of children and how theatre sets out to communicate and make contact with and through these…
Yvette Hardie worked with 5 other researchers from the UK, USA, and South Korea to explore this question and all the questions that spring from this starting point… in addition, a number of illustrators were invited to interpret the questions into images which would raise more questions about how children experience the performing arts.
Mapping was a Larger scale cooperation project supported by the Creative Europe, Culture sub-programme – focused on creating a sensory-based relationship with very young children, from 0 to 6 years, through performing arts. In particular, it explored the idea of “children-spectators of today and not only of tomorrow”.
Over the course of 5 years, Mapping involved more than 50 artists from 18 partner organizations coming from 17 European countries, allowing for the creation of 19 festivals and 16 new early childhood productions, 7 publications and 5 exhibitions.
It was a process rich with questions, that generated more questions, and while this stage of the research is now complete, we feel that the work is only just beginning…
