Visiting a museum or art gallery

[rosealbie]

Hi,
I work in museum education/interpretation and am interested to know what, for your family, makes a good day out at a museum or art gallery. What could these sorts of attractions do more of for families?

If you don't visit them, what puts you off or would attract you to come?

What would be your reccomendations for museums, galleries or types of family activity?

thanks in advance

Thanks for this - what an exciting question (really).

We do lots of these. Important to us are:

1. Somewhere really nice to have a rest/snack. Good loos.

1. An interactive element to the displays - buttons to press, things you ARE allowed to touch, lots of information presented in a lively way - so that you can choose how much or little to take in.

1. Special events that allow for a big range of participation - eg Museum of London's gladiator fighting show where you could, if you wanted, choose your champion & raucously curse his adversary with all your lungs. Shyer children obviously catered for as well. Activities where you have to do only exactly as you are told in a polite way have worked less well for us ...

Thanks for your messages so far....

Love the idea of children's audio guides and agree that it is important to have interactives as well.

Can I ask you how important it is that the activities relate specifically to the collections or exhibitions? I say this because we often wonder if visitors would come along whatever the activity.

Also, we have been trialing ideas around a challenge or detective type of activity as an alternative to crafty/making activities. Obviously it might depend on the age of children you have but do you think there can be too much making/sticking etc and would you like something different?

Also just to add, I totally agree that all venues need to have a decent cafe/loos/somewhere quiet to rest/good access etc

Don't think there can be too much sticking and gluing but DD is a very craft loving girl. DS however is revealing himself to be a little more ... energetic so trails and hunts are more popular with him.
Think the exhibition and activity should be linked but not sure that it would be the reason we would visit, more likely to visit if we know the museum always has something for children to do.

Things to touch and do, child and baby friendly loos and a non-sniffy atmosphere.
Ideally, something in each area to keep 3-5 year olds amused while the older ones take their time a bit. And yes, the activities should be relevant to the exhibitions.
Devizes museum has "guess the noise" type things in the natural history area - these are v. popular with all my dcs (10, 8, 5 and nearly 2). (You press a button, hear a noise then try to guess what it was before lifting a flap to see the answer).
And if nothing else, paper and crayons are good!

I like the idea of challenges/trails.

The Tate Britain Arts Trolley as an e.g: last tme we took DS he wanted to make a hat, and the trolley was parked in the corner of a big space. So DP and i had to take it in turns to wait while DS did sticking etc, with no nearby art to look at ourselves. in the end we took it in turns to mind DS while the other went off to vistit differnt rooms. And we can watch him sticking and painting in our own kitchen!

The Docklands Museum children's hands-on play section is excellent - v imaginative physical things which are relevant to the exhibits - it would be even more succesful if parents could sit with a coffee on the edge of the children's area, waiting for them to finish hauling on ropes etc! But the cafe is a little way away, no drinks allowed in the children's area, and you can't sit in the cafe and abandon them (even though the entrance is easily visible from the cafe) beause they must be supervised. understandably. I know we are supposed to do these things WITH our children, but....

Hi rose, have you seen this blog? I thought you might find it interesting. The title is "Museums are for kids too"

blogs.guardian.co.uk/art/2007/05/museums_are_too_strict_with_to.html

in terms of handling objects, would you prefer to do this yourself as part of a display or interective exhibit or for it to be something 'staffed' by a member of the museum staff?

can i also ask those of you that visit art galleries your thoughts on visits and activities?

Bink - spot on, that's what I like too.

Good website helps also.

I like to take my dcs here because they enjoy it. liverpool museums

Another vote for a children's audio guide - DS1 (5) loves them. Also about being interactive - eg downstairs at the Science museum is a firm favourite. The children found it very frustrating at the Museum of Transport when they weren't able to climb on most of the buses etc. It's also important to have displays at a low enough level for children to see them, or provide stools / a bench. Story-telling goes down well, as does dressing up.

what do they most enjoy about these particular museum wotzaname?

I want to take my dcs to an art gallery but am scared to as I suspect ds2 (5) would get meltingly bored and dd2 (nearly 2) would not be quiet and still. But dd1 and ds1 would enjoy it. I worry about stern looks and comments.

If I think about it, the basic principle is immersion - which can be done in various ways. The Horniman (Big Thankyou going out to MotherInferior there) has a musical instruments room with interactive tables where you can scan though a historical sequence of brass, or strings, or whatever, & make each one play to you (via headphones, so everyone gets their own experience). I think ds must have spent over an hour in there (he was 7) & came out fizzing with new ideas.

One thing I am planning to do with them is Plimoth Plantation on Cape Cod, which is an exact living replica of one of the earliest Puritan settlements in the States. It is staffed by what are probably college students, who take the part of actual people who lived there, & they are so well informed. I went there with a dear friend (now dead) who was writing his PhD on a particular Puritan divine, & we asked questions about him - they were amazing & didn't let the mask slip for a second. You roam around in the settlement, exploring it for yourself, talking to the inhabitants as you wish or not, going into the houses, looking at the animals. I think ds & dd would love that.

There are glass lifts to each level, the areas designated to each topic are small and easy to get around and lots of chances to view things without forming an orderly que.

Its not overbearing, the place appears intimate but spacious at the same time.

The areas are themed with bright interactive experiments that ALL WORK!

There is a picnic area aswell as 2 cafes.

Toilets on each floor.

Thanks again everyone, I am going to have to come back to this later as supposed to be working - although I guess this could be seen as that.

Really interesting and useful comments so far.

any more comments please?

One thing that makes a differance to me is freindly staff who will speak to the kids and don't tut if the get a bit loud.

My kids had a great time in the Gallery of Modern art, there were lots of activity sheets and the staff gave them clip boards and tubs of crayons so they could sprawl out on the floor in front of different art works. There were sheets for specific pictures with different things to do and other ones with blank frames to draw your own art from scratch. All located on a kid size activity table with things like building blocks with a different art work on each side for younger kids and other items to handle.

Some visitors seemed a bit taken aback at kids running around trying to find pictures and lying down copying things down, made me and the staf smile though .

They also like activity sessions, good if there is a different one each week. Can be very simple craft activities or hunts. Makes families come back week after week.

If places charge admission memberships can work out better for local families who might come more often if they will get free or heavily discounted admission with a member card.

So the most important things seem to be....

interactives
child-firendly atmosphere/attitude of museum or gallery staff
trails
good range of activities and a plus if relevant to displays or exhibitions
object handling and the chance to make something
different ways of accessing the displays including audio guides

Blu, your comments about the art trolley was interesting and I tend to agree it is good to do an activity you can't do at home. Skribble, that's my idea of a great art gallery. Bink, the Puritan settlement you mention sounds great. We have done some 'living history' type days and these are popular.

ediemay, thanks for the blog info, it's really interesting and probably echoes what a lot of parents think. Unfortunately, a toddlers hands are no less damaging to an object than an adults and where do you draw the line? Anyway, a toddler is going to get as much out of touching a replica as the real thing so I do agree there should be more to touch.

I'd be grateful for any more thoughts.

bump

Great question.

I think it's obviously good to have lots of interactive stuff, as others have said. But don't fall into the trap of thinking this automatically means computer screens. Exhibits that can be picked up, held, touched and stroked are just as interesting.

My DS sometimes heads for the computers in our local museum (stuff about family trees etc) and just wanted to push the touch-screen buttons. the medium obscures the message.

On the other hand there is a big rhinoceros which he loves, and a model igloo to build.

The Lakeland Centre near Windermere has a quiz about birds where people answer multi-choice questions in a semicircle like they are on The Weakest Link. That's good, although a bit intimidating! Their electronic "countryside challenge" is well done too.

The most frustrating thing about going to a museum is wandering round and finding exhibits which are broken or only partly working, e.g. speakers with no sound, buttons tht do nithing, etc. At Magna in Yorks we had to queue for ages for a digger because only one of the three was working.

Hi Rosealbie.
I work in a related field but am experiencing it from the other side now I am a parent!

My most important things at the moment seem to be:
-buggy friendly
-at least some of the cases low enough down for toddlers
-something hands-on

Something I have noticed in a couple of places I have visited lately is that where there is a fixed route it is great when there is a letting-off-steam area halfway round, eg at York Castle Museum where you can play with children's toys in the old prison exercise yard, or at Beningbrough where there is a room with toddler activities.

I would also like it if museums and galleries were more upfront about being breastfeeding-friendly (when I get back to work I might start a campaign!) - I am very confident in museums and at breastfeeding in public so I am happy to whip a nork out and feed wherever, but I know a lot of women on MN are a bit scared to do so in museums. So I think a mention on visitor info that 'You are welcome to breastfeed in the gallery' would be a nice standard.

we like quizzes and trails - but it's always better when the museum provides a clipboard and pencil as well - it can be a source of frustration trying to find something to lean on and share the one working biro I've extracted from the bottom of a handbag.

My children have particularly enjoyed those with a prize - a sticker is best.

The other really good thing we have found is where you have knowledgeable museum staff able to adapt to the interests of children - we had a brilliant day in the British Museum Roman gallery because the curator understood the relative appeal of fighting and archaeology to 8 year olds and focused on the information that really mattered.