Kunstgarten: Early Childhood Learning in Art Museums

In an editorial article published on Hyperallergic, titled “Museums Could Help Families and Children While Saving Our Democracy,” painter Alison Elizabeth Taylor recalls a transformative experience she had while installing work for a group show at the John Michael Kohler Arts Center. Taylor was walking past a gallery where a group of preschoolers were engaged in an animated discussion. The topic was United States democracy, and the group of four year olds were discussing the act of voting, using objects from the gallery to supplement their comprehension of a complex and timely theme. 

Taylor (2021) puts forth an enduring question: “What if every regional museum could offer free or subsidized daycare that taught secular values about participatory democracy and culture?” 

While many local museums have programming geared to children of all ages and their families, the John Michael Kohler Arts Center runs its own preschool (in partnership with the Sheboygan Area School District). It seems as if the push for accessible and equitable childcare has been gaining traction across the country. Ali Faruk, the Policy Director of Families Forward Virginia, tweeted an image of a workstation at their local library where caregivers have access to work stations with computer access, as well as a structure that can function as either playpen or crib for babies. He expounded on this tweet by stating that “Public spaces available and accessible to all are so important. This is how we strengthen families and create a culture and community that values children.”

Providing services and resources for parents or caregivers and children throughout the day makes a great deal of sense for many reasons, and there are ample benefits for everyone involved. It gives peace of mind to parents and caregivers that their children are safe and being socially and intellectually engaged during the day. Children receive quality instruction from museum education professionals and develop diverse cultural understandings via object-based learning activities and thematic conversations. And for the museum staff, it is a potential way to expand their audience. According to The National Awareness, Attitudes and Usage Study of Visitor-Serving Organizations conducted in 2016, some of the main reasons why visitors were discouraged from visiting museums and other cultural institutions included that visitation conflicts with work and school schedules and/or presents child care challenges; and that they felt the institution’s content was not suitable for children. 

With a variety of cultural, creative and personnel resources within their reach, museums can design dedicated programs and curricula for children throughout the day. For example, the John Michael Kohler Arts Center’s preschool has a multidisciplinary curriculum that aims to foster critical and creative thinking through a combination of experiential and differentiated learning activities. It is carefully designed around frequent visits to the galleries where roving exhibitions of contemporary art provide ample opportunities for students to expand upon essential habits of mind such as observational skills and language building. Viewing art is supplemented with hands-on artmaking projects, which incorporate other general education disciplines such as literacy, math, science and cultural studies. The art-centered approach to educating across the curriculum embraces creativity, play, socialization, sharing and collaboration to help students establish well rounded understandings about themselves and their place within the world.  

The outcomes of such a curriculum was exemplified in Taylor’s account of witnessing a gallery discussion on democracy. She responded to this encounter by stating that: “There is nothing like the idea of autonomy for a small child whose entire existence is dictated by adults. I couldn’t remember the last time I’d been in a room with people so excited about the idea of voting — maybe November 2008? The kids continued to discuss the process by which their votes turn into the world they will live in.”

Taylor’s experiential narrative is supplemented by research and other examples of preschools and early childhood education programs within museums and cultural institutions. In an article titled “School At The Museum Improves Confidence, Communication, Social Skills,” author Lisa Geng (2016) cited a 2016 collaboration between King’s College London’s School of Education, Communication & Society and Kensington Children’s Centre and Tate Liverpool; St Thomas Community Primary School and the National Waterfront Museum, Swansea; Hadrian Primary School and Arbeia Roman Fort and Museum (TWAM). The project called My Primary School is at the Museum was an extended residency program where preschool through elementary school-aged students attended school within their local museum(s). The initiative was considered a pedagogical laboratory to evaluate the overall benefits of a symbiotic relationship between primary schools and museums. 

A summative assessment of the project by Director of Heritage Insider Ltd, Kate Measures (2016), highlights the benefits for museums, schools, and children: “Children experienced increased confidence as well as improved social and communication skills; greater engagement with and sense of ‘ownership’ of local cultural spaces and places; museums developed a deeper understanding of younger audiences, enabling the development of more relevant, engaging programs; an extended use of their spaces and collections; and it provided schools and teachers with examples of creative ways in which to deliver the curriculum and confidence using out-of-classroom spaces.”

There are definitive roadblocks to the idea of full-time childcare within a museum or other cultural institution. The most blatant complication is funding. However, costs can be offset by partnering with local school districts and state-run child care subsidy programs, which are already implemented to support daycare programs in religious institutions. When we are considering the education and care of children, nothing should be considered insurmountable.

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References, Notes, Suggested Reading:

Geng, Lisa. “School At The Museum Improves Confidence, Communication, Social Skills.” Cherab.org, 8 November 2016. https://pursuitofresearch.org/2016/11/08/school-at-the-museum/

Taylor, Alison Elizabeth. “Museums Could Help Families and Children While Saving Our Democracy,” Hyperallergic, https://hyperallergic.com/705668/museums-could-help-families-and-children-while-saving-our-democracy/