Projects | Animation Theater in Poznań

SMALL SIZE DAYS

Every year, on the last weekend of January, we celebrate the worldwide SMALL SIZE DAYS. As part of the celebration, we present performances and hold workshops, in addition - we create a space for the youngest and their caregivers to meet with artists. Theaters in many places around the world celebrate in the same way.
This event was initiated by the SMALL SIZE association, which brings together artists and theaters working in the sphere of art for the youngest audiences from around the world. Currently, the association has 100 members. Since 2013, it is one of the networks of ASSITEJ International.
Every year we celebrate under the slogan "Art is not a matter of age, but of curiosity", because we believe that every child, regardless of age, has the right to experience art and fully participate in culture.

Partnering on our activities for the youngest viewers is the Art Fraction Foundation www.artfractionfoundation.org
More about the association: www.smallsizenetwork.org

UNICEF – "WSPÓLNIE" („JOINTLY”) project
From November 2022 to June 2023, we are honored to participate in the project "WSPÓLNIE" implemented with the support of UNICEF and the City of Poznan. The aim of the program is to support cultural activities for the integration of people of refugee background in Poznań.
As part of the project, we are implementing a number of activities addressed to the general public - workshops, performances and artistic events. The main central point of activities is a program of artistic residencies in which artists from Ukraine and Belarus have joined the Theter of Animation team.
More than 60 events are planned as part of the project, including:
- two premieres: " Wielki mały świat (A Big Little World)" (December 2022), "Cała nadzieja w jajku (All Our Hope in the Egg)" (June 2023)
- three workshop series: "Sąsiedzi", "Razem-proste", theater workshops for adolescents
- guest performances, including: „Wielkie rzeczy” ("Big Things"), „KUUKI”, „Dziadek” („Grandpa”), „Hop w kosmos” („Up into space”), „Skok na księżyc” („Jump the Moon”), „Fatamorgana” („Mirage”);
- as well as numerous visual art and theater workshops.
These activities are complemented by providing multilingual support for audiences at all Animation Theater events and supplementing the theater visit with translations of play summaries into Ukrainian.

FESTIWAL NAJMŁODSZYCH (FESTIVAL FOR THE YOUNGEST)
This is the most joyful, coolest and most integrative art festival for ‘the youngestest’. Since 2021, we have been partnering with Art Fraction Foundation to hold the FESTIVAL FOR THE YOUNGEST. It takes place in the first week of July and is aimed at children aged 0 to 5 years. Each year, the festival features performances from Poland and Europe (sometimes the world), exhibitions, installations and a variety of workshops, all aimed at bringing together the smallest children and the adults close to them in jointly experiencing art.

The next edition of the festival will be held from 28 June to 2 July 2023.
For more information: www.festiwalnajmlodszych.pl
The first edition was held in 2021.

MAPPING

In 2018, in collaboration with the Art Fraction Foundation, we joined a collaborative project supported by the Kreatywna Europa (Creative Europe) program titled "Mapping. A map on the aesthetics of performing arts for early years". The project runs from December 2018 to November 2023.

Mapping is an artistic research project that focuses on building a relationship with children aged 0 to 6 years through the use of senses. The relationship is based on the performative arts, and focuses primarily on the idea of "a child audience today - not tomorrow."

"Children, especially the youngest ones, are "new subjects in the world". - They are constantly discovering this world, and so discover themselves. They do not yet have established criteria, they do not judge or classify, but they perceive - they see aesthetics at every level of its representation. By observing a child, we can perceive signals, those special "moments of aesthetic experience" that happen during their contact with art. In these moments, the little viewer remains extremely sensitive, being in union with their own discovery."

The project was implemented in collaboration with Small size (a network supporting the promotion of theatre for the youngest audiences worldwide).

For more information on the project: http://mapping-project.eu

On this project we ware partnering with the Art Fraction Foundation: www.artfractionfoundation.org

The following acativities have already been completed:

1. CO-PRODUCTION – each of the partners in the MAPPING project prepares a premiere performance to be presented at festivals at partner institutions. The Theater of Animation has staged the following play on 1 June 2021:

„O CZYM SZEPCZE LAS”(WHISPSERS FROM THE WOOD) (co-produced with Art Fraction Foundation)
directed by: Alicja Morawska-Rubczak
stage design, costumes: Barbara Małecka
music: Wacław Zimpel
visuals: Paulina Ptaszyńska, Bartosz Posacki
cast: Anna Domalewska, Zuzanna Łuczak Wiśniewska / Alicja Helfojer, Aleksandra Leszczyńska / Marcin Chomicki

To date, the piece was performed many times in the Theater of Animation itself and at the following festivals:
- HAZIARABA IN THE MAPPING in two Basque cities of Vitoria-Gasteiz and Pampeluna (Spain)

- Visioni di Futuro, visioni dio teatro at La Baracca Testoni Ragazzi in Bologne (Italy)
- „Pozytywka” Festival in Bydgoszcz
- „Malutki” Festival – Teatr Mały, Tychy
- Sztuka Szuka Malucha („Art Seeks the Little One”) in Greater Poland – performances in Kotlin and Damasławek

- Festiwal for the Youngest (Poznań)

- Childrens’ Theater Festival at the Nowa Huta Community Center (Kraków)

- in May, we will perform on the festival in Athens, organized by the Artika Theater (Greece)

2. FESTIVALS

MAPPING FESTIVAL organized by the THEATER OF ANIMATION IN POZNAŃ as part of the project “Mapping. A map on the aesthetics of performing arts for early years” – which included the performance of 5 foreign plays ("Wait a Minute" by Theater de Stilte, Netherlands, „Dreams" by TRE Theater, Sweden, "NATANAM" by Da.Te. Danza Theater, Spain, "Grow" by Theatre Madam Bach, Denmark, "Circles" by Helios Theater, Germany.

FESTIWAL was organized in collaboration with ART FRACTION FOUNDATION as part of the project FESTIWAL NAJMŁODSZYCH – a festival for the youngest audiences subsidized by the Minister pf Culture and National Heritage and the City of Poznań.

3. In 2023 we did:

- MAPPING Festival: 28.06-2.07.2023

- a premiere performance "Tu Mieszkamy" for children aged 2 to 5 years – September 2023.