I saw an article online which made my eyebrow lift a bit. This is the article and though i see its point i have to make some remarks upon it. In general, i agree that museums should welcome all age groups and should not disregard children of any age because afterall one of the museum’s function is education and all of us need to benefit from it.
However, the article seems to me that pushes things a bit too far, until a dramatizing point, i would say. The author complains that young children are not welcome in museums and museums are not trying hard enough to become more accessible for very young audiences. I study in the field and i am a heavy museum visitor and here is my piece of mind on the matter:
1. In the first place most of museums have free entrance for children under a certain age. The smaller the child is, the more likely you won’t pay an entrance fee. Now if you ask to receive anything for free just because you have a child would be discriminatory towards other visitors.
2. Museums have developed facilities for a various kind of public nowadays and parents are more than included.
3. Museums have employees trained in museum education which take care of various activities for children.
4. Museums organize workshops, hand-on exhibitions which are specially designed for young audiences, children are entertained with all kind of games, some museums (especially open-air ones) even emulate artefacts for their young audiences to play with.
What disturbed me though is the assumption that children should be allowed to touch all kind of objects just because they are children. That is not a good argument and certainly not if you bring it up to museum specialists because there are well-grounded reasons why certain artefacts should not be touched. I won’t keep here a whole lecture on the touching policy of museums but certain objects are extremely fragile and even the very small particles of dust can be deadly for them. If you don’t believe me ask specialized conservators. They will surely elaborate more on the subject. It is difficult, time-consuming and not the least, expensive to take care of artefacts. Certain objects are meant to be under the glass case. I happen to have basic notions of preventive conservation and train myself in the field.
Museums need to keep a certain standard otherwise they would not be museums anymore but some other thing. If they become too child friendly they will turn into playgrounds. And that is not the aim of a museum. If you want children running around and touching everything then be my guest and attend a workshop meant for children. In one of my classes we discussed the necessity of cafes and relaxation points in a museum and one of my colleagues mentioned the fact that these facilities should have certain limits when it comes to cultural institutions otherwise museums are in the danger of turning into pubs/bars.
In the last decades museums have become very public oriented in my opinion but there are certain limits which have to be established. Cultural institutions have their own regulations and they need to keep a certain standard for their development and credibility in the field. And let’s not forget that the main function of a museum is still to protect the cultural heritage for future generations. The next time people complain about too strict regulations i should ask them to stop and think why those regulations are there. Because i strongly believe that those regulations are there with a grounded reason. People should understand the difference between an artefact and a toy.
