Järvadagen

Tensta Konsthall was happy to be invited to participate in the event Järvadagen at Stockholm City Hall last week. With hundreds of guests and speakers from many of the leading institutions it gave a very clear view of the project Järvalyftet.

The project itself began in 2008 and is a three-year commitment by the City of Stockholm to invest in the diverse area of Järva that includes the suburbs of Rinkeby, Husby, Hjulsta, Kista, Akalla and Tensta. The official definition of the project is the following: “Järvalyftet is the City of Stockholm and other stakeholders broad and long term commitment to social and economic development in the districts surrounding Järvafältet”. The project has four key areas of concentration – housing, safety, education and jobs.

As one of the contributing institutions in the project and the recipient of funds from the City we have undertaken a number of projects with clear contractual goals. Amongst these we have an overreaching pedagogical commitment and through projects such as 16304/ and last years collaboration between Ross Tensta High School and Georg Sessler we are attempting to develop a continuous program of educational initiatives. We will be extending this type of work into 2010 with two important educational projects, a dance performance with choreographer and dance pedagogue Tanja Tuurala and a major project in the autumn with students from Ross Tensta High School and artists Jenny Berntsson and Felice Hapetzeder. Equally important is that we also have intimate ties with all the local schools in our area and that they see us as a natural partner in their curriculum development.

Järvadagen, was in many was a re-commitment to our goals and a good chance to review how far we and others have come. The focus and rhetoric of Järvalyftet seems to have shifted. Before there was much discussion on groundbreaking new architecture and grandiose public projects that could grab the headlines, the emphasis now, seems to be on realistic goals. The aims are no less ambitious but they seem to recognise that any improvement concerns long term planning. Our own obligations are to seeing that Tensta Konsthall can play a key role in establishing this part of Stockholm as a cultural hub. The art centre must also be committed to developing closer and closer ties with other local institutions and to this end our active involvement with Tensta Gruppen is central. The group headed by Elisabeth Sörhuus the head of Hjulsta Schools is a forum for a wide range of discussions and has developed a network between the educational and cultural organisations in the area. Anybody interested in finding out about this aspect of our work can contact me directly.