Like everything else, the museum’s education programmes were affected by the pandemic. The virus certainly brought a whole lot of change for the students participating in the Your Foam educational programme, for which they were organising an event to accompany the exhibition On Earth – Imaging, Technology and the Natural World. Not only because they had to completely reorganise the event, but also because the students themselves came to relate differently to the artworks and installations in the exhibition at Foam. Listen to their experiences in this gallery and discover how corona transformed an educational project into a breath of fresh air – a small-scale event with grand appeal.

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In order to add more depth to the standard education available to senior secondary vocational (Dutch: MBO) students, Foam created the Your Foam project in 2019. Foam established a close collaboration with the Amsterdam Regional Training Centre’s Media and Editing programme and the Media Manager programme of Mediacollege Amsterdam. With a programme for the Burgerschap (Citizenship) course and an individualised programme for MBO students, Foam seeks to invest in a lasting relationship with MBO programmes and individual students.

In January 2020, a project group consisting of ten MBO students began work under the banner of Your Foam. They participated in a series of masterclasses organised by Foam and collaboration partner CJP (Cultural Youth Passport) on the subject of event organisation, while working towards the creation of their own event, titled Where is my nature? Taking place on 3 July, this event was entirely conceived, coordinated, organised and produced by the students themselves. Inspired by the main exhibition in Foam at the time, On Earth – Imaging, Technology and the Natural World, they developed a route through the museum that challenged visitors to interpret the theme of Nature using all of their senses.

For their event, the students made use of Foam’s social media channels and the national network of CJP’s MBO Card to maximise their reach.

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Your Foam was sponsored by Fonds 21 and Lerak Foundation.

Your Foam was developed in collaboration with ROC Amsterdam, Mediacollege Amsterdam and CJP.

Foam is supported by BankGiro Loterij, De Brauw Blackstone Westbroek, Foam Members, the Municipality of Amsterdam, Olympus and the VandenEnde Foundation.