How to Help Children Connect With Art Beyond “Just Looking”

Whenever I walk into an adult-centered exhibit, event or beautifully designed space, I immediately begin thinking about children.

What are the essential pieces of this experience?

Why are we here?

What are we being invited to notice, feel or think about?

Then I consider how those pieces can be presented in a way that children can understand and genuinely engage with, without changing the purpose or atmosphere of the original experience.

That is at the heart of what I do as a Kid Experience Strategist.

A “Fancy Restaurant” at Home

Recently, while deciding what to make for dinner, I remembered something my mother used to do when I was a child.

She would turn our regular dinner at home into a fancy restaurant experience. She placed candles in the middle of the dining room table, served my water in a wine glass and announced that we were dining at a fancy restaurant.

The meal itself may not have changed, but the experience did.

It felt special. It felt imaginative. Most importantly, it made me feel included in something that seemed sophisticated and grown-up.

That memory came back to me during a recent visit to the Brooklyn Museum, where I saw Judy Chicago’s The Dinner Party.

Helping Children Experience The Dinner Party

The Dinner Party is a large triangular table featuring 39 individual place settings. Each setting honors a significant woman from history, mythology or culture.

Children may not immediately understand the exhibit’s themes of feminism, representation and women’s history. That does not mean the artwork is beyond them. It simply means they may need a different point of connection.

Instead of only asking a child to look at the table, we can invite them into the idea behind it.

Try asking:

• Who would you invite to your dinner party?

• Who is someone you would like to celebrate?

• If you could talk to anyone at your table, who would you choose?

• What would you want to ask that person?

• What would their plate look like?

• What colors, shapes or symbols would represent them?

• If you could invent a person or character to honor, who would you create?

These questions allow children to respond to the heart of the artwork through imagination, conversation and personal connection.

Adults can still discuss how Judy Chicago chose to honor women. Children can then consider whom they would choose to recognize and why.

The goal is not to simplify the artwork until it loses its meaning. The goal is to create an entry point that helps children connect with that meaning.

Bring the Experience Home

The experience does not have to end when you leave the museum.

Choose an evening and have your own dinner party at home. You do not need to cook a special meal or buy anything new. Prepare the same dinner you were already planning to make, but change the presentation.

Light a candle. Use the nice dishes. Bring out the special silverware. Let the children drink water or juice from fancy glasses.

You can even create place settings inspired by the people your children chose to celebrate at the museum.

Small choices can transform an ordinary dinner into an experience children remember.

Children Can Be Part of Sophisticated Experiences

Children do not always need an entirely separate activity to enjoy an adult-centered space. Sometimes they simply need a thoughtful way to enter the experience.

When we identify the purpose of an artwork, exhibit or event and present it through questions and choices children can connect with, they become more than spectators.

They become part of the experience.

And sometimes, all it takes is a candle, a special glass and an invitation to imagine.

Life is fun. Let’s celebrate.

Always exploring,

Keyanna Murrill Kid Experience Strategist Creative K Consulting