This blog has been set up for the sole purpose of surveying people’s feelings about families in art museums. This survey is part of my masters dissertation. It is up to you to post anonymously or not, but your identity will be kept anonymous within the research paper itself. You will never be directly quoted. The exact location of your comments will not be included.
Please realize that this is a public forum and your comments, therefore, are in the public domain. You are not required to participate. Your decision to post is voluntary. If, after posting, you wish to withdraw your comments, let me know and I will remove your post from the website and my records.
Please, no commentary by individuals under the age of 18.
Should art museums be sacred, silent, contemplative spaces reserved for educated adults or should they be a democratic forum where all people are invited in?
Here is a very interesting answer to that question:
Museum visitors throughout the land have spoken and we are proud to present their suggestions in our 2010 Manifesto. It’s a practical and powerful tool to encourage and support museums and galleries around the country to make family visits more enjoyable.
Our 2010 Manifesto includes many new demands beyond those of last year, reflecting the ways in which museums are meeting the challenge and increasingly giving families fantastic experiences.
Click here Kids in Museums Manifesto 2010 or see below for the latest version of the Kids in Museums Manifesto - have a read and see what you think. We’d love to hear your thoughts and suggestions so that we can make sure the Manifesto keeps in touch with what’s going on and what needs to happen next. We believe it’s a really thought-provoking list of practical pointers for the future, and we hope it will spark debate.
Kids in Museums Manifesto
Be welcoming. Cleaners, curators, front of house staff and those in the café should all be involved in making families feel welcome. Consider different families’ needs, with automatic doors, wheelchair-user friendly activities and Braille descriptions.
Have flexible family tickets. Don’t dictate the size of a family. Families come in all shapes and sizes.
Give a hand to parents to help their children enjoy the museum. Sometimes it isn’t the kids who are shy. Parents need your support too.
Don’t say ssshhhush! Museums are places for debate and new ideas.
Answer kids’ questions – not just those asked by adults. Address them directly when you do so. You don’t have to be experts on everything, just enthusiastic and open.
‘Don’t touch’ is never enough. Say why. Use positive remarks like, ‘Isn’t that a great painting! Let’s look at it together from further back.’ Teach respect by explaining why some things shouldn’t be touched. Direct to something nearby which can be.
Reach out to homes and communities. Not everyone can come to you. Sometimes, you need to go to them first.
Use your website to encourage families to visit and give clear information. Be honest about what you can’t provide, so visitors come prepared. No one can do everything.
Don’t assume what kids want. They can appreciate fine art as well as finger painting. Involve kids, not just adults, in deciding what you offer.
Don’t forget toddlers and teenagers. Older and younger children are often left out. Every age brings fresh ideas and insights.
Be height aware. Display objects, art and labels low enough for a child to see.
Watch your language! Use your imagination with signs, symbols and words understood by all ages.
Be interactive and hands on, not only with computer screens and fancy gadgets. Dressing up and getting messy are as important as buttons to push.
Produce guides, trails and activities for all the family together, not just the kids. Encourage families to chat.
Have different sorts of spaces – big open spaces for children to let off steam. Picnic areas for families to bring their own food. Small quiet spaces where children and families can reflect. Provide somewhere to sit down.
Keep an eye on your toilets, and make sure they’re always pleasant places, with baby changing facilities and room for pushchairs. It’s the one place every family will visit.
Provide healthy, good-value food, high chairs and unlimited tap water. Your café should work to the same family friendly values as the rest of the museum.
Provide a place to leave coats, bags and pushchairs. It makes it far easier for families to move around.
Sell items in your shop that aren’t too expensive, and not just junk, but things kids will treasure.
Give a friendly goodbye. Ask families to describe the best bit of their visit, either in words or pictures. Respect these responses and act on them. Invite them back.
Please, share you stories, thoughts, concerns and ideas here!! I will be using some of the reponses in my dissertation which is about ways in which art museums can become more appealing to families as well as ways in which they can alter their presentation styles to fit the ways in which families learn together. This is public domain material - if you choose to post, you are giving permission for me to use your words. Even if you choose to share your name here, I will change it for the purposes of the study. It is up to you what you share and how you wish to share it.
Thank you!
Tanya Laird
Masters Program
College of Museum Studies
Leicester University, UK
I'll get the ball rolling...
ReplyDeleteI have always loved going to museums and historic sites - my parents started taking me when I was an infant. They were persistant and patient where many would not have been. I was often curious and a bane to the guards.
But, I have no really bad memories of art museums as a child. But, now that I am a parent I almost think that my folks should be up for sainthood! If art museums have gotten better, as it is claimed in so many of my schoolbooks, then what it was like for them 30 years ago is beyond me!
I will talk about just one tiny little thing that has bugged me at one museum and as comments gets posted I may share more as a way to continue the dialogue.
This has to do with the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston. There are a few entrances and we typically come in by way of the parking garage. Before you enter the museum there is a sort of antechamber where you buy tickets. It is a big white room with a large illustrated timeline of their collections on one wall and some other art here and there. What bothers me about this space is that there is this really big plastic and metal sculpture by the bank of windows. It is shaped in such a way that even I as a 30-something feel an overwhelming urge to walk through it. Originally there was no sign saying you couldn't interact with it and it seemed that it SHOULD be interacted with. Kids were always wandering over to step into it - mine included (who was about 2 when we first took him and is nearly 8 now). And then being reprimanded by the staff for this.
Now there is a sign that says "Do not touch". But, here is my beef with this, then and now. It is OBVIOUSLY inviting to viewers young and old and they have stuck it in a place where a parent (or parents, caregiver, etc, etc) have to take their eyes and hands off their littles to deal with getting tickets and maps and parking issues all settled. During these minutes, how can I be both responsible for paying attention at the ticket counter AND having a respectful conversation with my son about not stepping on the pretty, red, giant tunnel thingy.
If they would simply move that piece somewhere else and even better replace it with something that IS interactive - like that mighty fun square of dangling rubber tubing that is outside the Blanton in Austin!
I don't know that I should be nominated for sainthood but patience is a gift that has been given to me. Children of different ages interact with art in various ways. Tanya's first visit to an art exhibit was when she was less than 3 months old and it was a special exhibit of the Hermitage from Russia. She was fascinated by the faces and would stare intently. We went at least once a month to the art museum to foster a love for art and the artists. From this experience she went on to study art at the Glassell Art School for several summers and took some additional art appreciation classes in our local area. Taking children to any museum but especially art museums was challenging 30 years ago. I take my grandson now. Recently we went to the museum of Fine Arts in Houston. We had the opportunity to sit and wonder about a large colorful piece, to see a special exhibit, and to wonder through time and history. He voiced his views and asked questions. One frustrating moment was in one exhibit with a video - the video was mounted into a wall television about 4 1/2 to 5 feet about the floor (adult eye level). It was hard for him to see (he is only 8). There was no sitting so we sat on the floor and had to look up to see the video. In this case the museum could have install the television lower and had seating and both children and adults could have seen the video in comfort. My experience with art museums is that while they have wonderful art there is very little attention given to the various ages of people who visit museums. Art belongs to the all people - including children -- so museums should attend to providing various means of viewing and interacting with art. Tanya's Mom
ReplyDeleteEven though I am a professor (and so in theory would have brought my kids, aged 4 and 5, to lots of art museums), I don't know if I am the best person to comment here, because I must confess that I have not started doing this yet. Children's museums, the insectarium in New Orleans, aquariums, the museum of natural science, yes, we are members of them all and go to one at least once a weekend. But I suppose I have not been brave enough to take them to Art Museum. Actually, we did go to the Greenville Art Museum in South Carolina one time when the had a special Christmas event for kids (and I thought that was a wonderful idea). I think they are just getting to the age where I might be willing to try the Houston Museum of Fine Arts. If we go this summer, I'll be sure to report. (I am doing a lot of traveling this summer so it might be a while before we can do it.) I wonder if it also has to do with the fact that I was not taken to art museums as a young kid. I remember vividly my first museum experiences. They were in Europe, and I was a good bit older than my kids are now, around the age of 13. First it was antiquities in Italy and Greece (and look where I am today!) and then European art in Fine Art Museums in places like Paris and Amsterdam. So in some ways I was extremely privileged, but in some ways not. I was raised Episcopalian, and so I did not see depictions of Jesus on the cross (as you do in Catholic churches). These really disturbed me when I saw them in Europe and almost could not look at them. I have to wonder how young children feel when they those paintings! But I also remember attending an exhibit of Modern Art with my nephew when he was around 4, and how much he loved it. He almost got us all in very big trouble by attempting to touch Van Gogh's Starry Night. We tackled him before he reached it. That exhibit, as the story shows, was kid friendly in that the art was accessible and low enough for kids. But it also shows why I am nervous to bring my kids to a Fine Art museum. They are rambunctious and hard to control and spend about 75% of their time wrestling with one another. Seems like a recipe for constant correction and shushing. So anyway, to answer your question after this long ramble, I would say having kid centered events would be a good way to get me to bring them, as well as wide open rooms to help with diffusing their kinetic energy, lots of easy to get to bathrooms, and perhaps special times when quiet is not required. My kids do currently go to a school where the arts are encouraged and I expect the kids will have lots of field trips there (especially since the school is very very close to the Museum), but in general I think cooperation with schools should be a major focus for all kinds of museums. I hope this is helpful, but perhaps I can comment further after bring the kids to an art museum sometime this summer. Good luck with this project!! - Casey
ReplyDeleteCasey!
ReplyDeleteI, too, have museums to 'blame' for my route through life. Apparently, as my mom tells it, from a very early age I was telling museums what they were doing wrong! It seems I, at least once, demanded that the labels all be adjusted. But, my love of cultures and histories comes almost exclusively from those visits. So, I know they can be extremely rewarding.
If you are ever in Austin with the kids you should most definately take them to the Austin Museum of Art Downtown. It is a small gallery space, but they have an entire room dedicated to exhibit related art activities and exploration. My son LOVES it there. They just switched to having new exhibits and when we passed the marquee he said, "Mommy! We HAVE to go back. It's ALL new. There is an adventure in there and it can't wait!"
There are museums out there that are doing it right, but sometimes I just feel they are few and far between.
What you said about kids' reactions to intense religious art is very interesting - I would not have thought about that, but I am glad you pointed it out. There are often pieces of art which parents may not feel are appropriate for their kids to see (nudes, beheadings, etc). This is where I think family oriented gallery guides can be helpful - they can say something like "This exhibit contains X, Y and Z" and that way parents can make an informed decision.
Also - I saw Starry Night when K was about 18 months old (so, I was in my late 20s) and *I* wanted to reach out and touch it - it was so fabulously 3D in real life it was mezmerizing. That same exhibit, which was one of Modern Art at MFAH, had the full Waterlillies by Monet and K, who had been fussing through the whole room prior to it, suddenly went quiet and just stared at it for about 15 minutes.
I thought about you when I reviewed the Harry Ransom Center - because they have a digitally scanned version of a Gutenberg Bible that you can 'flip' through! (Along with a real one)
Before I was first taken to the High Museum of Art in Atlanta by my older sister, she bought me a fabulous book called "Are You in the Picture", which is a really interesting intro to art appreciation for kids. I may be wrong, but I seem to remember this book having a little bit of a how-to-act-in-a-museum for kids, so I went in already knowing what to do. That being said, I still do really like it in museums when there ARE things to touch and otherwise interact with and not just the stuff you can't. I get impressed with that as an adult, really (I can go on for days about the "Birth of the Cool" exhibit at the Blanton's level of interaction for example), and I think it would have definitely made me happy as a kiddo. I don't remember being shushed in a museum or told anything I was asking was inappropriate in any way, but I was a fairly quiet kid and the adults who accompanied me were fairly open.
ReplyDeleteI would say that most art museums are not that kid-friendly, and sometimes they can be discriminatory against those with small children. As a dilettante and homeschooler, I take my kids to all kinds of cultural enrichment: folk festivals, libraries, art museums, the opera, etc. At no place have I sensed that my kids were less accepted than at the art museums. The science museums seem more prepared for children. I don't know why that is--if schooled in it, children understand art, and can even catch the emotion conveyed by it.
ReplyDeleteOnce, at the Blanton, my friend and I were closely tailed by museum personnel. Apparently, they didn't like our children getting close to the art. We left that exhibit as quickly as possible, not really able to enjoy it fully because of the staff's reaction to our children.
Another time, when my three kids and I were at the Austin Museum of Art, they had an exhibit that involved cutting out shapes and posting them on the wall as part of an exhibit. We were unable to finish our projects in the time it took the baby to start crying, but were told that we couldn't take them home (these are 6 pieces of 8" x 10" cardstock we are talking about). I felt that was discriminatory, and said so. Why should my children not be allowed to enjoy the project, just because we have a baby? It didn't seem fair. They had a separate area where children were supposed to cut up bits of... well... trash and make "art" out of it, but how educational is that compared to the actual art exhibit? Is this fostering a love of art in my children? If not, then why bring them at all? So they can cut up egg cartons and paper cups? They can do that at home.
Pammalamma ~
ReplyDeleteYou have brought up some great points of discussion, I think. One, is that I am repeatedly hearing from parents that they often feel followed by guards. Some parents have even mentioned that their children were the ones to point out that they were "being followed".
Another issue for museums is how to enable children to have fun and creative activities within the museums space and have those activities be appropriate for very young children through to teens and also to appeal to children who are familiar with art concepts as well as those for whom this may very likely be their first time in an art museums.
Studies show that many low income families and first generation art museum visitors make their first visit at a family day. Some larger museums have the space and money to have several projects going at once, which other smaller and less funded museums may have limited space and supplies. Either way, educational staff often find this need to appeal to a wide range of ages and knowledge bases to be challenging - and I think it IS challenging.
Another point you brought up is that of homeschooler parents (and this could also apply to stay-at-home parents of pre-school aged children). These parents (and I have been both) typically understand how to get at information they need to help their children learn, whereas the majority of parents do not. I am curious to hear thoughts on this topic as well. How might art museums better equip that majority so that they may comfortably and confidently teach themselves while at the same time helping their children to learn.
As for the trash art - I have a personal story on that. While in my undergrad years, I took an art class on modern and pop art. One of the projects we did was trash art - inspired by Robert Rauchenburg. It was amazingly fun and I began to understand art as something in the every day. Ken Done said, "In the times in which we live it is far too restricting to say that art can only be found in art galleries and not touch people's everyday lives."
I think three important things happen when kids get to make "trash" art. One is that children gain a self-confidence in their own creativity which means they, hopefully, will not feel so disconnected from the artists whose work they will view in the gallery spaces. Two, they can gain an understanding of art in the everyday - see the world a bit like Robert Rauchenburg did. And thirdly, parents who are not as familiar with art, or how to help their children engage in art, learn that they can do simple, but fun projects at home - that being "schooled in art" is not something that must take place within the museum or high-priced art classes or with high-priced art supplies.
So, I guess the question is - what DOES foster a love of art in children? And since we are talking about families in general, what fosters a love of art in adults?
There are so many ways to engage children in art and the Masters and the beginning is visiting an art museum. How did Seurat do those paintings with dots? How hard is it for children to make their own painting using dots? How did Rodin sculpt? Soap is a wonder medium for carving great sculpture. Why do museums find it so hard to connect to children? Why is art considered "sacred" and therefore not understandable by children? I never visited an art museum until I was around 19 years old, yet I studied about the great artist in school. The first museum I visited was the Norton Museum in Shreveport, Louisiana. I was amazed at the Remington paintings and sculptures - I fell in love with art. Studying about the great artists in through a textbook did not foster that love. I made sure my children went to art museums when they were growing up. Guards followed us around and often stared at my children as if they were some great thief waiting to steal the great works of art. Once my daughter when looking a one of the religious paintings of Jesus as a baby on Mary's lap said "they better put a diaper on that baby before he pees on his mother." The guard and others were not amused but I thought how observant and clever (never would I brag about my own children :-) ). The love of art is foster in children through their parents determination to provide the experience to their children despite the lack of educational materials geared for children, family friendly facilities, understanding guards and personnel, and other patrons who see children as not having the knowledge or seriousness to approach art in an "intelligent" way. If we all could approach art through the eyes of children we may be surprised what we would learn.
ReplyDeleteI would take my kids to more art museums if I didn't think that it would disturb the more contemplative art appreciators. I have all the patience in the world to follow my children around as they choose what they want to look at and for how long. I have the ability to hold them a few extra seconds by pointing things out to them. I don't mind a voice that is at a higher decibel than a hush; however, I know that many people go to quietly reflect in front of a piece for long moments, and would rather not have these types of distractions.
ReplyDeleteI have taken my kids to two different art museums. Both impressed me tremendously. One we attended because it was free admission day, I was taking them during the day on a weekday (fewer patrons), and the museum has specific displays of items for our Ancient Greece and Rome studies we were doing for homeschooling.
I was so impressed when the moment we walked in, the docent spoke to the children in a fun way, and pointed out to our family which displays would be most enjoyed by the children and gave some ideas on 'games' to play while viewing the art that would draw them in more. She also steered us clear of the area of the current exhibit which was sexual art. Most of all, I was relieved that I and my children were welcome in the museum.
Another museum we attended has a family area where it was ALL hands on. The children could make things, draw things, touch things; and the docents did a great job at tying the hands-on activities with what the kids were seeing in the displays around the museum.
I believe it is a great idea to expose children to art museums. I don't necessarily see it necessary to have a "kids day" either, as it would have been more chaotic to have a bunch of kids running around the museum. It seems that the more energetic kids there are in this type of arena, the more fuel they have to get louder, run around, etc. I think it was very healthy for us to have quiet adults looking at the art, and modeling calmness - this made it easier for me to reinforce art museum etiquette.
Overall, I would say the docent attitudes towards the kids helped us enjoy our experiences the most. There is nothing worse than a snobby docent walking around giving you "the eye." I have noticed the docent attitudes also affect the other patrons in the museum. If they exhibit calmness and respect towards the more ambitious children, then usually the patrons will as well.
An interesting note: I went to an art museum with an adult one time that had never been in one. She was so intimated by it all that she had no idea what to do or how to act, just quickly walked all over the place, made many comments on how she was not educated enough to be there, and never did open her mind or eyes to see the amazing art that filled the three floors of the museum.