Don't Touch!!

The Artsology Essay Series, #3, by Mark McKinney    

I was recently on vacation with my family, and we decided to take the kids to visit the local art museum. For some reason, on this day the boys didn't want to go (despite enjoying museum visits in the past) and said it would be "boring."

Nevertheless, we went to the museum, and sure enough the kids' interest was captured as soon as we entered the front door and saw a huge glass sculpture hanging twenty five feet above our heads. Facts found on the wall tag, such as the weight of this object approaching 3,000 pounds, and the ridiculous question (posed by me with attempts at dramatic flair): "what would happen if this came crashing down?" quickly grabbed their attention and primed them for a tour of the museum.

I've taken my kids, or at least my older son, to museums numerous times, and usually I can engage them in conversation about what we're seeing and we all have a good time. However, on this day, while the conversation was flowing and the interest was strong, the interest in touching the art was even stronger. We had to keep telling them not to touch, and the security guards seemed tuned in to us and followed us around to remind us of the very same thing.

But the boys' curiosity seemed to override our warnings and they continued to try to touch the art - sculptures, installations, paintings, even wanting to point at aspects of framed photographs they found interesting. It struck me that their natural instinct for exploring necessitated using more than just their sense of sight - they had to touch these objects to help make them seem real and to try to better understand them.

While traditional museums are not going to change their policies regarding touching anytime soon, it made me wonder how we could feed this tactile curiosity and give them a chance to really get physically involved with learning about culture. We saw a video in the African Art wing - we were sitting next to an amazingly-carved wooden mask (behind glass, so it couldn't be touched) and watching a video of this same mask used in traditional ceremonial dances. We could see how the people in the video created these masks by hand, wore them on their heads, and danced with other people. It allowed us to see this "artifact," now sitting behind glass, as an artistic object that once was meant to be "used" rather than just "seen," and it could be functional as well as beautiful.

Taking kids to museums is definitely a valuable experience for them. However, I think it's important to find ways to bring art into their lives in a way that they can touch, hear, smell, and see (I'm leaving out "taste" for lack of a good example). Encouraging the kids to make art is the easiest and most-direct way for them to get a hands-on experience. Another idea might be to have kids trade art with their siblings or friends, allowing them to handle their own art "collection." Kids need to know that art is not always untouchable and presented in sparse white rooms - it can be an enriching part of our everyday lives.

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