child-hating woman in Tate Modern

[bellawilliams]

I went to the Tate Modern this afternoon with a friend as we had heard they were running special family activities - and they were, and the staff were lovely and very helpful. Between us we had 5 children: two 4 year olds, a 2 year old and 2 babies. We were directed to a room in the gallery where the older children could look at the pictures and make their own collage with stickers all supplied by the gallery. While we were in there (and the older children were quietly getting on with the activity) my friend had to run outside and one of the babies started crying so I went to get out her bottle. In the ensuing few seconds of noise a hateful woman approached me and aggressively told me that 'this is not a kindergarten, this is a gallery - you can't have screaming children in here!" I was incensed but managed to keep my cool and explained that we were here as part of a Tate organised family activity. She kept on and said it should not be allowed so I asked her 'Do you think children should not be allowed to look at art?" and she said no!!! So I said very sarcastically 'What a LOVELY attitude' and proceeded to tell my friend very loudly what had happened. I am still furious!! Anyone else had such a reaction?????

southeastra - it was MY baby that was crying - and I was right by her side. I only mentioned that my friend had to run out because she wasn't there when the woman approached me. And my friend was gone for all of 20 seconds - to find a rubbish bin.

under 5 i meant!

Oooh, I haven;t been to the Tate Modern for ages!

I think DS would love some bits of it, there are fascinating things there.

MUST go there some time VERY soon. I wonder if she goes every week...

Bella, you ignore and carry on taking your children to art galleries. You are doing a wonderful thing for them.

Well, I can't see where she was coming from, hateful cow.

But I'm weird. I'm American, but Latin American by descent and lived there quite a bit, some of it even by choice . I'd go back again in a heartbeat, just for the warmth of the people alone.

Doesn't it depend on the child (whether they like art).
At our local art gallery my children definately have their favourite pictures.

I've taken my under-5s and they were interested ,too. Maybe a shorter attention span but they were interested. It helped that they saw I was interested and so were their older siblings.

SEA - you are right that children like interaction in galleries, but there are lots and lots of successful gallery activities in which creating their own art is only one part of the activity. Sometimes the gallery just provides paper and crayons and encourages children visiting to do their own drawings based on the pictures, sometimes there are trails or games to play where you spot particular things in pictures or decode the symbolism (have done this with 6 year olds with classical sculpture). (I have a professional interest in this - my own dcs are still babies.)

Well, anyone who wants a childfree experience should surely know better than to go to something during the school holidays, shouldn't they?

I'm with you on thish one bella!

maybe well behaved middle class children would be ok

But the tate Modern isn;t really like that. It's quirky and set up to be explored. A lot of the art is sculpture & installation type things.

It's not rows of old stuffy paintings on walls

SEA - what?

Can't have those plebs in the art museum, might go and get ideas above their station and all .

Libraries!

Come on! You are joking!!!

Libraries are for children, if you don't like books when you're little there's a fairly big chance that you're never going to get into them and there is SO much to learn from books.

The whole Bookstart initiative has passed you by I take it, Kerry.

(And there was me thinking, thanks for the free books for my children, but surely this is unnecessary)

Kerry - I totally agree, and if my 4 year old was having a tantrum I would have marched her straight out of there. But this was an 11 month old who had been crying for all of 3 seconds before Cow-lady waltzed in. How does one keep babies silent for the entirety of a gallery visit? And I totally disagree that children under 5 are disinterested in visiting them southeastra - my 4 year old talked about it all the way home.

Exactly! Tate Modern set up to be non-stuffy, work by modern artists who want their art to be enjoyed by everyone.

omg...it was a family event, I would have been furious with her response. We often have a wander down the south bank at the weekend and have taken our little ones in and out of galleries since they were tiny.

They have enjoyed a change of backdrop, experienced some of the hands on art installations (were in awe of the falling piano!) and I hope will grow up to see art, music etc...as totally accessible to them.

And of course, if I thought in any way they were spoiling anyone elses experience I would take them out.

I agree with Easywriter - don't faint, dear .

"children under 10 aren't interested in art galleries fgs!! "

IME many many children under 10 are deeply fascinated and seriously interested. I was when I was a child - my dad took me to a bridget riley and other 'kinetic artsits' exhibition and i was really interested. DS has been visiting galleries since he was a baby and loves sculpture, installations, all sorts of art, and knows as much about it as he does about Dinosaurs (which, believe me, is a lot). Some kids may NOT like galleries, and shouldn't be dragged round them. Ditto dinosaur exhibitions.

If I am honest, no I don't articularly want to listen to other people's children (or my own) screaming when i am in a gallery...or on the bus...or ina cafe...or in the park. But in a park or a gallery you can move somewhere else for a while, and go back later to the bit you wnat to see. And it would be quite obvious that the baby was crying while the bottle was being fetched and that the parents were dealing with it. That's life, inside and art gallery - or out, and life includes babies.

Now we have even looked at 'stuffy old paintings on walls". True it was much the same as looking at their books - can you see the man with the hat? What do you think is happening in this picture? - type of thing. But they enjoyed it. Some they liked and talked about, some they totally dismissed. Either way imo they were getting to know these things existed.

Again, why are we demonising children? Aren't they people? Won't they grow up one day to be adults? Why not include them? In as many ways as we can? 'The hand that rocks the cradle is the hand that rules the world'.

Yes, so is Rosemary's baby hanging out in every cradle?

blu you said what i wanted to say but my brain is too addled to put into words.

Well-phrased post as usual from Blu.

And don't these places inspire our children?

Something inspires artists, writers and musicians and I don't think it's just randomly acquired.

A noisy child in a libray or museum won't be forever, not once they see how other people behave.