Description
Museums have the opportunity to provide a great learning experience for children but do not always seem to use their full potential. In this study, we examine child-friendly initiatives in the 100 most visited art museums in the world. Specifically, we examined whether museums offered workshops or audio guides for children, guided tours for children or families, interactive maps or children's guides to the exhibition, additional online materials for children, labels designed for children, and their pricing models. The results show that the focus tends to be on children's workshops. While 52% of the museums offer tours specifically designed for families and children, 58% offer additional resources inside the museum, such as interactive maps or children's guides. In addition, only 7% of museums offered labels specifically written for children or families, e.g. by using accessible language and focusing on aspects that might be of more interest to children. The review highlights the need for specialized child-friendly services and identifies areas for improvement.
| Names, affilations and contact information | Zsofia Pilz, Leiden University, PhD Candidate, z.p.pilz@fsw.leidenuniv.nl; Francesco Walker, Leiden University, Assistant Professor: f.walker@fsw.leidenuniv.nl; Mariska Kret, Leiden University, Professor Cognitive Psychology: m.e.kret@fsw.leidenuniv.nl |
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| Bio | Zsofia Pilz is currently a PhD candidate at the CoPAN lab in the Cognitive Psychology unit under the supervision of Dr. Mariska Kret and Dr. Francesco Walker. Her research is centred around the examination of visual perception in children, particularly in the context of art museums. |