“In 2023, 90 percent of Museum Youth Summit Attendees believed museums were not relevant to them and did not view young people as important audience members…When they did visit [museums], they found interpretation and activities were rarely designed with them in mind.“
-Kids in Museums
Sienna Kang and Josy Hunter
About Us:
Prior to HGSE, Sienna received an art history degree while Josy received a history degree focused in American Studies. With these joint academic experiences, and both having professional experience working within art museums, we found a need in these spaces to increase accessibility, inclusivity, and comfortability for younger students. After discussing these ideas together we were able to understand that there is a visible gap for children’s education within museums in terms of dedicated children’s spaces connected to the main galleries, educational materials and youth programs and activities. We believe it is the duty of museums to provide children with age appropriate content and allow for all ages to feel excitement, equity and comfort in these spaces. Our project, “Artful Journeys: A Children’s Guide to the Harvard Art Museums” is our first step to lowering the threshold of pre-established privilege in art museums nationally and internationally starting with our local museum here in Cambridge. Our guide aims to encourage and increase children’s engagement with and excitement about art, with their interests in mind. It reimagines art museums, such as the Harvard Art Museums, as a place for children to feel a sense of belonging, explore their curiosities and have authority over their learning. We do not want to replace existing programs and materials, but instead we aim to improve upon what already exists to maximize its effect on young students. Our guide aims to support as an additional resource for learning in gallery spaces and connecting children’s learning to the broader art world.
Our Project:
We chose The Harvard Art Museums as the source for our initial activities due to its proximity and accessibility but, can see this expanding beyond the Harvard Community. For this particular project, we created a compilation of different interactive activities for children aged roughly 6-10 based on the current collection at the Harvard Art Museums. These activities consist of different game-like materials, and short child-friendly tours that explore 2-3 objects at a time. These materials would hypothetically be accessible at the customer service desk of a museum and be physically printed for in-person use. However, understanding there are different learning needs and preferences in any community we hope to eventually accumulate all of these materials into an online platform that could be downloaded for the visit, or in some cases used without physically having to come into the museum. Our goal of this project is to effectively integrate digital innovation with educational content, making learning more accessible, engaging, and culturally relevant. We hope that our guide can use digital platforms as a way to break down barriers to artistic expression and education, making art more accessible to all, regardless of their academic background, economic status, or geographical location. This would ensure that accessibility and inclusivity needs are being met, and more families are gaining access to these resources to help children interact with art and museum settings. Through this guide, even students in marginalized or underserved communities would gain exposure to art spaces, and the exploration of careers within museums helping them gain “museum literacy.” We would eventually like to provide translations of these materials as well into different languages to encourage all families to come to the museum, learn, and feel comfortable in the space.
The Need for Our Guide and Historical Harms:
When looking back at the history of museums in America, art and gallery spaces were intentionally mystified to support the social and economic desires of privileged white upper-class American society. This mystification of art and museums unfortunately is still a prevalent stereotype within our society. Museums can still feel intimidating, isolating, and unwelcoming for many people without previous exposure or connection to these spaces. In order to combat these harmful ideas of museums and art, our project aims to bring an element of enjoyment into the space for young audiences who may have previously felt excluded in these settings. In order to build a generation of museum-going individuals we believe welcoming children into these spaces from a young age and aiding them in age-appropriate interactions with materials, along with exposing them to the inner workings of museums will lead to their future involvement in museums and art as they have these early experiences to draw from. We also believe this type of exposure will introduce children of all backgrounds to potential career paths in museums that extend beyond just being an artist. Our guide helps transform art museums spaces from boring, white cube gallery spaces into fun, educational spaces, where learning, creativity, and curiosity can thrive. It uses art as a way not to divide people based on our differences, but to bring people together, fostering community building.
Future Goals for this Project:
As we continue our time at HGSE we hope to continue to explore questions about museums education, and museum content accessibility for all learners. As mentioned previously, this project is one that can be expanded on outside of this initial scope, and represents a hope we have of making room for children in all museum spaces around the world, regardless of their academic background, social class or geographical location.
All images were created using Canva.
