Stories Open Doors

During my time at Kunsthal Aarhus, I initiated, developed and managed a project that brought together contemporary art, narrative methods and early language development. The initiative was carried out in collaboration with Aarhus Municipality, the exhibiting artists and the Danish children’s author Cato Thau-Jensen. In addition to the conceptual development and overall project coordination, I was also responsible for the direct facilitation and communication with the participating children.

The aim was to produce a children’s book for preschoolers in Aarhus — and later for children in Greenland and the Faroe Islands — that could serve as an accessible introduction to contemporary art. The book was designed not merely as a read-aloud text, but as a tool for dialogic engagement. Principles from dialogic reading were integrated into the language and structure, encouraging adults to pause, ask questions and invite children to shape the narrative with their own contributions.

Participating in the educational sessions at the art centre provided valuable insight into how children respond when narrative frameworks are linked to physical space. Upon arrival, the children encountered life-sized cardboard figures of the book’s characters. Their immediate recognition — expressed through pointing, naming and guiding their teachers through the exhibition — indicated that the story had created a sense of familiarity before the visit. This reaction underscored the potential of narrative as a preparatory framework that supports linguistic engagement, orientation and cultural confidence.

The experience has continued to inform my work. It demonstrated how storytelling can act as a bridge, enabling children to approach cultural environments with curiosity and a sense of belonging — an insight that later became one of the conceptual foundations for Saganauts.