Cultural Education in the Field of Tension Between Tradition and Transformation—A Theoretical Introduction

Abstract

During the 2018 UNESCO-UNITWIN conference “Aesthetics of Transformation”, participants visited cultural transformative places and institutions in Nuremberg, Germany. The field trip reports focus on concrete examples of what aesthetic transformation in the context of arts and cultural education can look like and, moreover, how tangible experiences can be created. Reflecting on the history of the Künstlerhaus (engl. House of Artists), Viktoria Flasche shows how the interplay between self-government and institutionalization can manifest itself in architectural structures and influence working and visiting experiences of the site. The ongoing process of negotiating difficult cultural heritage and memory culture is the pivotal point in Johannes Bretting’s discussion of affective impulses brought on by the physical and material remnants of the building structures of the Nazi Party Rally Grounds in Nuremberg. The transformative potential of art museums is the centerpiece of the cooperation between the Germanisches Nationalmuseum and the KPZ—the Education Department of Museums in Nuremberg—, a program devoted to initializing discussions of locality and (post-)migratory experiences among students (Friederike Schmiedl). Anna Carnap and Astrid Hornung round up the section with their report on the Villa Leon, a community center that serves as an example for a successful cooperation and integration of self-governed and institutionalized community work, and the Children’s Museum Nuremberg, an institution dedicated to providing sensory experiences and a change of perspective in experiencing the world and our environment from past to present.