Exploring the Peninsula - Our heritage through children's eyes
How can we show our children the natural treasures, cultural and architectural heritage of the Tihany Peninsula and the Balaton Uplands in a way that makes it an exciting adventure of discovery?
KÉK - Hungarian Contemporary Architecture Centre organizes the ArchiKids Budapest - City Dreamers Festival every year, focusing on architecture, city, visual and environmental education. With the cooperation of architects, artists, designers, museum educators, students, and volunteers, participants can experience the public spaces where we live, work and play together through playful and skill-building programmes.
The Children's Day in Tihany brought the basic idea of the festival to the Balaton Uplands region by discovering ways for children to connect with their natural environment and built heritage through experimentation, creative processes, local history walks and interactive exhibitions. At the same time, the event connected to the TÁJTÉKA project’s original objectives of helping local actors to cooperate, share their knowledge and opinions, present the values and heritage of their region, so that together they can shape their environment in an intelligent and sustainable way.
At the event ‘Exploring the Peninsula’ on May 28, 2023, the TÁJTÉKA team facilitated cooperation between local cultural organizations, institutions and venues in order to mobilize their resources and experience, and to coordinate their events effectively.
An additional tool that we developed for the aforementioned purpose was a program booklet for the Children's Day event, a "treasure map" of Tihany, which guided families through exciting missions to find the program locations and other sights of Tihany. Associated organizations and program organizers explained the formation of the landscape and its wildlife through history walks for families and interactive exhibitions. By compiling all of the events in one booklet and utilizing and talking about them together, the local organizations succeeded in attracting all visitors, who were able to discover the values of the village and take part in exciting family programs.
In the TÁJTÉKA children's corner, children could learn about the architectural, natural and cultural heritage of Tihany and the Balaton Region through experimental and exciting techniques. We looked for partners with similar experience in shaping children's mind-sets, such as the ‘Barangoló a művészetben’ (‘Explorations in Art’) team and the teachers of the GYIK Workshop. Through experimental creative processes, children's creativity and horizons are broadened in a setting where they experience the nature and function of materials.
We also presented the ‘Balaton-felvidéki Barangoló’ (‘Exploring the Balaton Uplands’) at the children's day programme in Tihany. Viola Varga, art historian and museum educator, and Anita Nemes, graphic designer, typographer and illustrator, created this booklet for children and families to get to know the cultural and natural treasures of the Balaton Uplands. On one side of the leporello there are descriptions of places to discover and playful exercises, while the other side has a coloring map. Due to this, the adventure did not end at the one-day event in Tihany: this map – like the other publications in the Barangoló series – can be used in the places mentioned, but goes beyond and offers a good opportunity for families to explore the heritage together, even away from the Balaton Uplands. The ‘Balaton-felvidéki Barangoló’ can be found in many places in the region, including the Balaton Uplands Tourinform offices. Our aim is to promote the genre and encourage families to discover more landscapes, architectural and natural values together.
Our partners were the creators of Barangoló and team of GYIK Workshop. Participating cultural institutions in Tihany: Németh László Művelődési Ház, Tihanyi Horgász Egyesület, Tihanyi Bencés Apátság, Eu de Tihany Illatok Háza, BalatonGuide, Tihany Séta, Tihanyi Babamúzeum, Garda Akvárium Tihany, Tihanyi Tájházak, Levendula Ház Látogatóközpont, Kalandsziget Kalandpark Tihany.
The event is part of the Veszprém-Balaton 2023 European Capital of Culture programme.
