Following the project Naturally! Plants, Colors, Fabrics as part of the Museum Week, two Design Kids Club courses led by Nou / Jennifer Grunder were dedicated to the topic of plant color and sensitized the children to aspects of sustainable textile design: #9 Color Lab and #11 Collecting Colors.

Jennifer Grunder's design approach is based on Japanese aesthetic principles: According to the wabi-sabi philosophy, special value is placed on the transformation of natural materials and artifacts - caused by aging and wear and tear. In the color laboratory , the focus was on the chemistry, alchemy and magic of color production and dyeing with plants.

The Design Kids also experimented with local and traditional dye plants in Collecting Plants. They collected flowers, leaves and wood in the streets of the neighborhood, pressed them, produced environmentally friendly and non-toxic dyes and made color samples on natural materials such as fabric, wool, paper or wood.

The course also addressed museological issues of collecting, organizing, preserving and exhibiting. One of the highlights was a visit to the textile collection in the museum archives in the Toni-Areal. Here, the children were able to gain an insight into the organizational structures of the depot and study historical textile pattern books.

They then prepared the results of the course for a small final presentation. They arranged their exhibits in cardboard boxes to create mini-exhibitions, added legends to them and produced invitation cards for their friends, families and the museum team.

In a final reflection, they summarized what is important to them in a children's exhibition at the museum: they wanted it to be treated like the museum's regular exhibitions. For example, the authorship of the young curators / scenographers should be identified. There should also be clear instructions in children's exhibitions about what can and cannot be touched. In their opinion, interesting exhibitions also include a look behind the scenes and processes as well as interactive offers such as an exhibition quiz.

In a total of thirteen Design Kids Club editions, insights and experiences were gathered in order to further sharpen the profile of design education at the Museum für Gestaltung Zürich. They will lead to the conception of a new permanent exhibition of the collections, which will open in the Toni-Areal in 2025 to mark the 150th anniversary of the museum.

Im Rahmen des dreijährigen Outreachprojekts (April 2021 bis März 2024) öffnete sich das Museum für Gestaltung Zürich jugendgemässen Fragestellungen und Perspektiven. Im Fokus standen dabei das in der Sammlung bewahrte Kulturerbe, das Ausloten der spezifischen Potenziale von Designvermittlung sowie museologische und strategische Fragestellungen.