Museums are essential for children’s development as they direct learning by providing visitors with unique opportunities to explore various concepts of math, science, art, history, and social science that cannot be done by reading a book or in a classroom (Andre, Durksen, Volman 2014). This blog post will explore how children’s museums are created and how children, especially young girls, are often meant to interact with the exhibits and other museum resources. This blog post is the first in a series where I will then analyze this information through my experience visiting and working with children’s museums and museums that have spaces meant for children.
Children often view museums as places where they can explore and discover new things by looking at objects kept behind glass with a tour guide or a parent who can explain the information on the labels near them. Two of the most significant rules that most children think about when visiting a museum are that they cannot touch the objects on display or the ones kept behind glass, and you must be quiet, similar to a library. There are important reasons why children cannot touch most of the objects in a museum and must speak at a respectful volume (Kindler and Darras 1997). However, children enjoy engaging in various acts of play; this often limits how they can enjoy moving through a space like a museum if they cannot touch the objects and cannot speak how they would like to. As a result, staff at children’s museums ensure they have objects that younger visitors can touch and spaces where children are welcome to run around, play, and engage in ways that feel more suitable to them (Blooloop 2016).
When creating spaces for children, museum staff follow this set of guidelines, which have been created by museum education researchers, to ensure that their spaces can aid in a child’s development in ways that are meant for them.
- Museums must create an environment in which children recognize and feel welcome, like a typical household. When it comes to museum spaces meant for children, staff should also focus on creating spaces that aid children in facing the world around them. A great way to do so is by creating spaces that allow children to partake in adult activities like their guardians.
- Spaces that help expand children’s horizons in what they can do are significant in ensuring that museums are creating spaces that expand the information that children already know.
- Accessibility is also a key factor, especially for children’s spaces, which must accommodate children of various ages, personalities, learning styles, and attention spans.
- Children love being the hero or performing activities that allow them to shine in the spotlight.
- Create spaces that allow caregivers to observe, assist, collaborate, and even play alongside their child. Encouraging guardians to bring their children back as they enjoy their time in the space as much as their child does in important (Blooloop 2016).
These are just a few key points that most museum staff follow when creating interactive and engaging spaces for children. However, these rules can change to fit an individual museum’s mission. Throughout this series, I will be exploring how museums located in the Washington DC area use these techniques to create engaging interactives that help influence, educate, and inspire young girl visitors. This will include The National Children’s Museum in DC, and highlighting rooms like the Wegmans Wonderplace children’s room at the Smithsonian National American History Museum.
-Lindsay Guarnieri
Junior Girl, Curatorial
Girl Museum
Work Cited:
Blooloop. “How to Create Meaningful Children’s Museums.” Blooloop, 28 June 2023, blooloop.com/museum/in-depth/childrens-museums/.
Andre, Lucija, et al. “Museums as avenues of learning for children: A decade of research.” Learning Environments Research, vol. 20, no. 1, 27 Oct. 2014, pp. 47–76, https://doi.org/10.1007/s10984-016-9222-9.
Kindler , Anna M, and Bernard Darras. “Young Children and Museums: The Role of Cultural Context in Early Development of Attitudes, Beliefs, and Behaviors.” Visual Arts Research, vol. 23, no. 1, 1997, pp. 125–141.