My older son's first museum experience was when he was about 1 1/2 and
he went along when the grown ups went to see an art exhibit. Since then,
he's been to several science/natural history museums as well as the
local children's museum; he asks when we'll go back to the science
museum and is looking forward to taking his grandma to the butterfly
garden at the children's museum as well as going to a glass museum next
week. 

I'll readily admit that my kid is weird - he's got a mom who works in
museums and has taught him (as best I can so far) how to behave
appropriately while visiting. We're also lucky in that we live in an
area where there are several museums that are kid friendly and have
helped him learn how to be a good visitor (thank you, The
Strong/National Museum of Play and the Rochester Museum and Science
Center!). I guess what I'm trying to say is that - in my opinion - how
kids behave in a museum comes down to 1) pre-visit prep/education by the
parents on how to behave as well as awareness that any visit with a
child is going to be significantly different than on your own (i.e.
shorter and less focused) and 2) museums recognizing that programs for
kids need to be geared differently than those for adults. I'm not saying
that every art/science/history museum needs to morph into a children's
museum or water down their content - just have multi-level
interpretation options (easier said than done, I know).

This has been a really neat thread to read and follow. 


-----Original Message-----
From: Museum discussion list [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On
Behalf Of Elizabeth Maurer
Sent: Thursday, July 07, 2011 9:47 AM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: [MUSEUM-L] Children in Museums

Well,

There are always going to be examples of people behaving badly in
public, regardless of age.  Think about scary drivers you encounter on
your commute or the last time you saw an adult having a meltdown in
Starbucks over her drink order.

In looking at the bigger picture of children in museums, it is incumbent
upon museums to first examine their own practices.   A great many
museums are quite aggressive in marketing towards school groups and
families.  The rack at any state highway welcome center shows scores of
brochures for museums, especially historic sites, featuring smiling
children engaged with some activity. It is very rare, in my experience,
that museums exclude children and families from marketing outreach.
When they do, they tend to attract fewer kids.  Most museums see kids
and their caregivers as a necessary audience segment.

However, even though museums actively solicit child visitors, they
frequently  fail to engage them because they do not plan experiences
that meet the cognitive and social needs of child visitors in exhibits
and programs.  Rather than planning for children's accessibility, they
design for adults.  The result is child visitors who may express boredom
in misbehavior.  Parents who have been led to believe that the museum
experience will be good for their kids, and perhaps paid a hefty
admission, may soldier on looking for the elusive engagement and benefit
past the point where behavior is redeemable.  

People who visited museums as children become adult museum visitors.
People who did not are unlikely to develop the habit in adulthood.  It
is to all our professional benefit to encourage child visitors so that
we have future adult visitors.  Before indicting modern parents or
considering banning children from museums, museums need to first examine
their approaches to accessibility.  They cannot assume that a few
computer interactives in a gallery or a half hour children's tour
grafted onto regular programming meets children's needs.  Much in the
same way that applying the principles of universal design improves
experiences for all people, examining and adjusting the way that content
is presented will also improve adult experiences.  This does not suggest
"dumbing down" content at all, because children are capable of
processing sophisticated information.  Rather, look at how your
exhibitions can become more conversational and less didactic.  Look at
physical layouts and consider how they can better promote discovery and
inclusion.  Train interpretive staff to talk with visitors rather than
at them and to focus on big ideas rather than the "name the thing" tour.
(This is a painting, this is a chair, this is a tool.) 

Once you have committed to accessibility for children and carried it out
through design, I believe that you will find fewer misbehavior issues
overall and higher general visitor satisfaction. This won't eliminate
outrageous examples; after all better highway design hasn't eliminated
road rage. But the more you match offerings to expectations, the better
your chances for success.  

All the best,

Liz Maurer
Creative Director
Re-Living History

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