While researching how art museums can engage children, especially young girls, I found an article titled “Empowering Young Children in Art Museums: Letting Them Take the Lead” by Katrina Weier. Weier explores a study where ten art museums allowed children to be docents/ tour guides. Children were given some basic information about the artwork and asked to explain what they thought and felt about the art they viewed to the adults in their tour group. Overall, Weiner explains that the children were enthusiastic and felt empowered to take control and decide where to go. The adults were also impressed by the children’s ability to lead them through the museum (Weier 107-108). I have explained throughout this series that children enjoy being in the spotlight. This article will explore the practice of the principles explored in this study through interactions I have witnessed between children and their guardians during my visit to the National Gallery of Art (NGA).
During this visit, I also saw a family with two young girls checking off pieces for the children’s scavenger hunt created by staff to engage children in their museum visits. The scavenger hunt was a checklist of art pieces the children could search for throughout the exhibit. Usually, I would see children playing silently as their parents told them where they were going next. However, this family had their children tell them where they should go next based on the art pieces they had not yet found on the scavenger hunt sheet. Once they could check off the piece on the sheet, the guardians would then ask the children questions about the art piece that made them think outside of the scavenger hunt game and engage with each piece on a more personal level. The questions included what they thought about the piece and what elements they enjoyed or did not enjoy. These are simple questions; however, they made the two girls stop and look more in-depth into the pieces and spend time in each exhibit. They were more likely to want to do so, as their guardians allowed them to lead their museum visit.
While at the NGA, I also saw a young girl sitting on the bench with her guardian, discussing a large art piece in front of them. About 30 minutes later, I saw them again looking at another piece of artwork, discussing what they enjoyed, how it made them feel, and what they liked/disliked about it. In both instances, I saw them sitting on the benches in the middle of most exhibits. Usually, when children enter an exhibit with a bench, they immediately run to it and sit down to rest their legs. I often see guardians walking around the exhibit and looking at the art pieces away from their children. Once finished looking at the pieces in the exhibit, the guardians call their children over to leave and move on to the next exhibit. There is no engagement between the adults and children in the exhibit. In this instance, the guardian took this chance to engage with the young girl on the art pieces they could view from the bench. The guardian may not have planned to focus only on the art pieces visible to them on the bench. Following where the young girl was going, they were able to foster more engaging conversations about the art pieces.
When I visit art museums in the DC area, I often see guardians dragging their children to see art pieces they like or trying to explain how they view the art pieces as adults. Children do not have the same comprehension skills as adults do. Trying to explain or force them to enjoy something you enjoy can frustrate them or make them bored. When adults let children dictate what pieces they will be seeing with their guardians in the museum and explain to their guardians how they view these paintings, it can provide more engaging and empowering experiences for them. They also have a higher chance of wanting to return to more art museums and potentially have a passion for art in the future.
References: Weier, Katrina. “Empowering young children in art museums: Letting them take the lead.” Contemporary Issues in Early Childhood, vol. 5, no. 1, Mar. 2004, pp. 106–116.
-Lindsay Guarnieri
Junior Girl, Curatorial
Girl Museum