Making a field trip a meaningful experience
By enhancing the children’s sensory and emotional encounter, to allow them to “experience” the show before “understanding“ it.
About Going Out = Growing Up
Rethinking support for cultural field trips for elementary schools
Launched in 2018 by Théâtre Bouches Décousues, the Going Out=Growing Up platform was born out of a reflection on the relevance of educational workbooks produced by theatre companies for young audiences in the digital age.
A key question quickly emerged: Are the traditional support tools produced for schools actually consulted by teachers? Do they really meet their needs?
When research leads to action
With the help of Anne-Laure Mathieu, innovation strategist and Design Thinking specialist, and the support of the Arts Councils and numerous cultural and educational partners, we conducted an in-depth field study on the subject. From our initial observations, we found that the length and complexity of traditional educational materials made them difficult to use, for both teachers and children.
This observation, enriched by research conducted with the involvement of teachers, students, and production companies, led us to develop Going Out=Growing Up, an accessible platform, designed to simplify the organization of cultural field trips, offering turnkey tools that can be widely used, for teachers, students, and even parents!
Our vision: to reveal the potential of cultural field trips
When we created Going Out=Growing Up, we knew that field trips to see shows were valuable for children’s development, but we had no idea of the extent of the obstacles limiting their impact.
Yet seeing a show is much more than just attending a performance: It’s a unique opportunity to develop the ability to communicate, listen to your own feelings, and be open to yourself and others.
Going out means growing up.
This large-scale project transformed our approach to cultural field trips for elementary schools, enabling us to support our vision through three main pillars.
Prioritizing accessibility and inclusion
By putting everyone on an equal footing regarding the field trip, since going to a show doesn’t require expertise.
Recognizing the value of field trips
By helping to make field trips to see shows an enriching experience for children and adults, and by encouraging reflection by the individual and the group.
Resources
Want to know more?
Delve into our publications and presentations to enrich your reflection on supporting cultural field trips. You can even download the “Audience Rights” poster, to print and share!
Many thanks to our partners
This project is led by Théâtre Bouches Décousues.
Project management and coordination: Célia Thirouard
Strategy and funding: Peggy Allen
Ideation, research, design: Anne-Laure Mathieu
Communications : Marie-Pier Nadeau
Platform creation and design: Myriam Picovschi, Jean-François Poulin, Perrine Vin, Magalie Muller, Fabien Laborie
Illustrations : Perrine Vin
Web design : QuatreCentQuatre
Research partners
To learn more
To learn about the Going Out=Growing Up experience offered to teachers and students, simply click on a show’s thumbnail to find out about the activities!
To organize a presentation of the project for your team, suggest a partnership, or ask a question, please don’t hesitate to write to us.
