Look but, DONT TOUCH. Visiting museums with kids

It’s one thing being at home creating art and it’s a totally different beast packing your kids up and taking them to a real art museum or gallery. Art at home is very tactile and interactive and art in a museum is strictly look but DON’T TOUCH. The no touching can be very difficult for some kids to navigate. Still, there is so much value in both experiences!!

Taking kids to a museum where they’re not allowed to touch anything can seem, ummm… daunting to say the least. Especially when you have trouble keeping your kids off each other, wrestling half the day at home! Will your kids be able to recognize the art you are looking at? Can they understand the perception of depth and how it directly contrasts it at the same time!? At the end of the day will your kid be walking out reciting the elements of art?? Umm… NO!!! This is a kid we’re talking about, and their experience with art is limited. We need to have patience and real expectations in mind. You have to start them slow! Don’t expect your child to sit still and patiently walk through looking at paintings in a whispering voice. For kids, there isn’t a better time to be loud than when it is perfectly quiet! There will be loud voices and they will be tempted to run. The key is knowing when those are appropriate and giving them time to ” get their sillies out” and do those things. Keep an open mind to the way YOU look at art and you will see that you can look at art with your kids and still learn more about it from them! After our recent trip to a local art museum, I thought I’d jot down a few tips on taking kids to a museum or gallery. I hope you find these helpful enough to and get out to enjoy museums with a little less stress.

1. Prep them!! Talk to them about visiting museums and not touching artwork. I keep that line of respect among their own artwork at home. They each work on their own work and no one else is allowed to touch it (or add to it!) I do this mainly because I don’t want them to touch my own work – If I was, or when I’m working on anything!
2. Keep expectations low. Don’t try to tackle the entire museum nor stop at every piece of art you see. Stop at the ones that speak to your kids. It might be a piece that you would never stop to look at before! We stopped at a piece that I would not have particularly stopped for any length of time. My 2-year-old kept pointing out animals he saw! It was fantastic just looking at the art and noticing the things through his eyes.
3. Talk to them about it! What do you see? What does that remind you of? How would that make you feel? How do you think the artist made that!?  There was a sculpture we came across with batteries stuck in it and my 3-year-old noticed how many batteries there were. We tried counting them and then she remembered she needed batteries for one of her toys! It was refreshing and more approachable to stop and look at art in a simpler way and not try to think of a bigger meaning for it.
4. Bring a notebook for drawing. This is the perfect time for kids to be inspired and attempt to draw what they see! The museum we went to gifted the kids a notebook and pencil upon entering. It had wonderful scavenger hunt like prompts. The littles enjoyed drawing what they saw but, I’m sure that my older daughter would have enjoyed reading the prompts and finding things among the art.
5. Take it easy! Don’t try to explain larger concepts to them that they can’t grasp. Talk to them about what they know. Point things out that they can relate to. Take a snack break. and know when to go home! If your child is feeling tired and fussy it might be better to go home and take a nap! Take a couple pictures and discuss what you saw later! You can get to the rest of the museum next time! Focus on building a love and appreciation for art first. Soon, your kids will be cheering at the suggestion of visiting the next art museum or exhibit!
6. Most museums will have some sort of kid’s activity or program to get kids involved. ASK about it! Usually, it’s tied to an exhibit and that could give you lots more to talk about and give you a much needed break!

I am a Visual Art Teacher (turned stay at home mom). I have an M.A. Ed. Happy to help you out with tips on your next art museum or gallery visit.

If you need additional help taking to your kids about art, I found some AWESOME book series called “COME LOOK WITH ME”. These books walk you through talking to your kids about art. They start by giving you a little art history about each piece of art. Each artwork is colorfully printed and gives parents prompts on how and what to talk about when looking at each piece. My kids have loved looking at the art pieces in the book and thinking about each piece. I pull it out when they want an extra bedtime story but I’m too exhausted for one more. It’s a great little extra time with them. I wouldn’t recommend analyzing a whole book of paintings at once, just like visiting a museum, quality over quantity! I’ll link them HERE! (**this is technically and affiliate link, I get like one penny, but doesn’t cost you any more than visiting amazon yourself… just conveniently placed for you 🙂

-“The earth without art really is just, eh.”