How can you motivate children to go and see an art exhibition in the museum just around the corner?

How do they and their families even know what cultural activities are out there to discover?

These questions inspired the launch of the label ʻFlyʼ.

With the mission of CultuurNet Flanders to give more people, more enthusiasm, more culture, than the mission of Fly is to give more children, more enthusiasm, more culture.

Research has proven that the younger you get to know culture in its different forms, the higher the odds youʼll participate when youʼre older.

CultuurNet Flanders released Fly in 2005 and over the past few years, the label has become widely known as sign of cultural and leisure activities for children under the age of 12. 

Fly has gained such enormous popularity that when families are looking for a cultural pastime they now know to look for the little fly symbol. More than 140 cultural institutions and local authorities use this popular insect in their communications. It appears in leisure calendars, programming brochures and municipal information magazines and it helps to make activities for children easily recognisable. Fly signals broad leisure activities (sports, recreation, nature), but has a soft spot for cultural activities. The little creature is a lot more than just a label.

Fly has his own website - UiTmetVlieg.be - which functions as a platform for culture and leisure that informs, stimulates and activates children and parents. On the website parents can find all the information they need to plan a family outing while children can find fun games, videos, reading tips, contests and colour prints. 

But, thereʼs more! Fly not only promotes cultural and leisure activities, but the little fly comes to life, appealing to children to leave their comfortable, cozy chairs and participating in nearby activities. These Fly campaigns are an extra stimulus to pull children over the threshold of cultural institutions.

This summer more than 200 museums, libraries, festivals and youth services took part in the Fly campaign, attracting more than 30,000 children. Aside from the Fly-label and the Fly-campaigns, the team that is responsible for Fly within CultuurNet Flanders, offering advice to arts organisations to improve child accessibility. 

Inspired by the project in Great Britain, the team is currently working on the realisation of a so-called Family Friendly Toolkit - a hands-on guide full of recommendations, experiences and examples of good practice to improve the family friendliness of such organisations. 

Given the large scale in which Fly is active as a label, a website, a campaign and an advisor for art institutes, this little “Friendly Monster” is well on its way in succeeding in its its mission to bring children closer to the world of art and culture.