DO CHILDREN BELONG IN ART GALLERIES?
May 2nd 2012 13:56
A couple of weeks ago Jacqueline Maley wrote a post on Daily Life Why Kids Should Be Banned From Art Galleries
Now Im not about to attack Maley because she in her follow up post she stated that she wrote that post in jest and Im inclined to give her the benefit of the doubt.
But what Maley did do is tap into something that is a common held belief that children should not be allowed in the domain of adults. Even though they are public places.
Weve all heard complaints from travelers about children on flights or even my own post about visiting a local bistro.
For as vocal as the children are a nuisance brigade is, there is an equally vocal group of people who insist children be treated as people too. You just need to read the comments in Maley blog post.
How did we get here? Are we are a bunch of individuals who dont want children to encroach our lifestyle or are we a community voicing genuine concerns?
Theres seems to be a distancing of children, a putting them in a corner over there away from here sentiment. Its not enough to choose to be childless but people want to be childless in every facet of their life. And if they have to endure children in public spaces then they are certainly going to have something to say about it. That sounds harsh doesnt it? And it is. But is there an element of truth in it?
Lets take Maleys post on the National Art Gallery as a case study here.
Yes, the Gallery is certainly not a playground and parents need to be mindful of their childrens behaviour in public but children should not be banned from places like art galleries? Do children get bored? Yes. Will you wiz through it faster? Probably. But last time I checked, time spent admiring wasnt a prerequisite to enter a gallery.
And I disagree with Maleys point that taking kids to the gallery is aspirational not educational. Im not entirely convinced that these two things are mutually exclusive. I dont take my kids to galleries, museum, or theatre because I aspire them to become artists anymore than I take them to the movies to become a filmmaker or have them read books to become authors.
I do these things to provide exposure. Exposure is necessary. Its been accepted that, for example, active kids generally become active adults. Children who read books become adults that read books.
Its all about habit forming. Why not art, theatre, charity work, history tours? This is the time when kids start to form opinions on art and culture; what resonates and what doesnt. This is the time to fill in the vacant slots as it were.
Maybe kids wont appreciate a gallery as much as an adult but that doesnt mean they dont store that information in their brains to call on it later in life; like a planted seed. I mean, half the English texts I read during my highschool years were largely useless to me at the time. My Uncle Chris gave me Platos The Republic to read when I was 16. That text went over my head. But, it did plant a seed and now I have The Republic on my bookshelf and pick it up to read excerpts.
And yes you can expose kids to a range of things through books but you tell me, doesnt the Sydney Harbour Bridge look so much better up close and personal? Doesnt a song sound so much better when you see it performed live than listening to it on CD? Doesnt seeing Sidney Nolans Ned Kelly series impact you more than seeing it in a book? Why would children be any different? Are they not as open to experience as adults?
My eldest son who is one of those kids who gets bored very quickly and will wiz through things but he stopped at the Ned Kelly series. He even asked if he could buy the postcard on our way out. I was genuinely surprised because I thought he wouldnt be interested. But hey, I was wrong.
Now on our way out a kind gallery worker told us that upstairs there is a kids section where they could create their own art. And so we went. And my children created their own art. So if the curators of the National Art Gallery see the value of having kids visit, so should the rest of us.
And heres the thing. It doesnt take just one visit to a gallery, or the theatre to a) appreciate what you are seeing and b) how to behave in certain social spaces.
With every visit children learn how to behave in public spaces. They understand the social rules of being quiet, not running; This is how we learnt to read social cues, its how they will learn.
You dont just suddenly wake up one day and knowing all of societys unspoken and unwritten rules.
Now I cant speak for an entire generation but there does seem to be a widely held belief that children today are doing more adult type activities than we ever did. Restaurants, overseas travel, galleries, theatre, musicals.
Maybe thats true. The question is, is it so bad?
I know I didnt get any exposure to high brow type culture because my parents werent high brow type people. But they are Greek so they did bang on about philosophy and democracy a whole lot. But I did have a desire as a kid to visit museums and study history. And music, oh my goodness, I remember seeing Joseph and the Amazing Technicolour Dreamcoat when I was in primary school. That rocked my world.
But thats life isnt it? A coat of many colours? A jumbled mess of experiences that as we get older start sorting out?
Love & stuff
Mrs M
Now Im not about to attack Maley because she in her follow up post she stated that she wrote that post in jest and Im inclined to give her the benefit of the doubt.
But what Maley did do is tap into something that is a common held belief that children should not be allowed in the domain of adults. Even though they are public places.
Weve all heard complaints from travelers about children on flights or even my own post about visiting a local bistro.
For as vocal as the children are a nuisance brigade is, there is an equally vocal group of people who insist children be treated as people too. You just need to read the comments in Maley blog post.
How did we get here? Are we are a bunch of individuals who dont want children to encroach our lifestyle or are we a community voicing genuine concerns?
Theres seems to be a distancing of children, a putting them in a corner over there away from here sentiment. Its not enough to choose to be childless but people want to be childless in every facet of their life. And if they have to endure children in public spaces then they are certainly going to have something to say about it. That sounds harsh doesnt it? And it is. But is there an element of truth in it?
Lets take Maleys post on the National Art Gallery as a case study here.
Yes, the Gallery is certainly not a playground and parents need to be mindful of their childrens behaviour in public but children should not be banned from places like art galleries? Do children get bored? Yes. Will you wiz through it faster? Probably. But last time I checked, time spent admiring wasnt a prerequisite to enter a gallery.
And I disagree with Maleys point that taking kids to the gallery is aspirational not educational. Im not entirely convinced that these two things are mutually exclusive. I dont take my kids to galleries, museum, or theatre because I aspire them to become artists anymore than I take them to the movies to become a filmmaker or have them read books to become authors.
I do these things to provide exposure. Exposure is necessary. Its been accepted that, for example, active kids generally become active adults. Children who read books become adults that read books.
Its all about habit forming. Why not art, theatre, charity work, history tours? This is the time when kids start to form opinions on art and culture; what resonates and what doesnt. This is the time to fill in the vacant slots as it were.
Maybe kids wont appreciate a gallery as much as an adult but that doesnt mean they dont store that information in their brains to call on it later in life; like a planted seed. I mean, half the English texts I read during my highschool years were largely useless to me at the time. My Uncle Chris gave me Platos The Republic to read when I was 16. That text went over my head. But, it did plant a seed and now I have The Republic on my bookshelf and pick it up to read excerpts.
And yes you can expose kids to a range of things through books but you tell me, doesnt the Sydney Harbour Bridge look so much better up close and personal? Doesnt a song sound so much better when you see it performed live than listening to it on CD? Doesnt seeing Sidney Nolans Ned Kelly series impact you more than seeing it in a book? Why would children be any different? Are they not as open to experience as adults?
My eldest son who is one of those kids who gets bored very quickly and will wiz through things but he stopped at the Ned Kelly series. He even asked if he could buy the postcard on our way out. I was genuinely surprised because I thought he wouldnt be interested. But hey, I was wrong.
Now on our way out a kind gallery worker told us that upstairs there is a kids section where they could create their own art. And so we went. And my children created their own art. So if the curators of the National Art Gallery see the value of having kids visit, so should the rest of us.
And heres the thing. It doesnt take just one visit to a gallery, or the theatre to a) appreciate what you are seeing and b) how to behave in certain social spaces.
With every visit children learn how to behave in public spaces. They understand the social rules of being quiet, not running; This is how we learnt to read social cues, its how they will learn.
You dont just suddenly wake up one day and knowing all of societys unspoken and unwritten rules.
Now I cant speak for an entire generation but there does seem to be a widely held belief that children today are doing more adult type activities than we ever did. Restaurants, overseas travel, galleries, theatre, musicals.
Maybe thats true. The question is, is it so bad?
I know I didnt get any exposure to high brow type culture because my parents werent high brow type people. But they are Greek so they did bang on about philosophy and democracy a whole lot. But I did have a desire as a kid to visit museums and study history. And music, oh my goodness, I remember seeing Joseph and the Amazing Technicolour Dreamcoat when I was in primary school. That rocked my world.
But thats life isnt it? A coat of many colours? A jumbled mess of experiences that as we get older start sorting out?
Love & stuff
Mrs M
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Comment by Mrs M
on DO CHILDREN BELONG IN ART GALLERIES?
Mum's Word
I am always wary of others around me and am forever telling my kids they need to be mindful of that too. But it's a fine line between being welcome and feeling unwelcome.
Love & stuff
Mrs M