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NEil Osborne and her three-year-old daughter, Daisy, look at a small, glossy painting by JMW Turner of foamy waves crashing on a cliff. It is their second visit to the National Museum Cardiff (NMC). Daisy likes the dinosaurs in the museum downstairs, which Neil believes are more kid-friendly; the art galleries are quieter, with fewer children running around. “They started whispering when we got here,” he says, “but they like to see the paintings and say what they look like.” She asks him what he does with Turner, and he replies: “Fish.”
For us, today is nursery day, so I don’t have my reporter. Instead, I’m on my own in Cardiff to see if entering under-fives is fun or educational, and to gauge the feelings of my fellow parents. I can’t be the only one who thinks my two-year-old could learn something from watching art, right?
Catrin Rowlands was a school teacher for 24 years before becoming head of education at NMC. One of the seven museums that make up the Museum Waleswhich has the best outdoor education in the country, is dedicated to welcoming families, with a permanent collection that contains everything from antiques to beautiful paintings. There is a large learning space – “to the left of the animal,” says Rowlands – with a play area on one side and a regular classroom set up on the other. So I ask you, how do you keep children entertained without disrupting education? “Anything to do with a museum is to learn,” he tells me.
It is in the learning center that Mini Wonders takes place. The NMC is one of 15 museums in the UK partnering with the Art Fund and Nesta on a fully funded programme, which looks at how access to art and culture can support children’s development and increase school readiness. Families from disadvantaged areas with children between the ages of two and four are invited to take part in a free eight-week course that aims to make parents and children feel comfortable in the museum, and return again and again, as they would to the local library.
“Introducing creativity in under-fives is as much about their imagination as it is about learning – a place where wonder, surroundings and physical activity create a lot of interest before traditional schools,” says Rowlands. Each child in Mini Wonders is given a digital camera, and at the end of the program they have a photo scrapbook. When they are happy at the learning center, they are encouraged to go to the museum. Art, says Rowlands, “invites children to explore and discover an exciting and beautiful world that is fun and a foundation for young learning and lifelong learning”.
I met former NMC worker Emma Kempster and her son, Sebby, on the grand stone steps overlooking the cafe, now busy serving lunch. He tells me: “We come here all the time. “He knows where he wants to go. We start with dinosaurs and history, then he likes to see the drawings to finish.” Like Daisy, Sebby seems to see the change in atmosphere. “I think he finds it more difficult on land because there is less noise than in other places, but he also seems to like the change of scene. I ask if he’s here to have fun or to study, and Kempster says it’s fun right now. He is smiling. “Although, I mean, he’s a brilliant artist.”
Fortunately for Sebby, then, scattered throughout the galleries are art carts filled with paper and pencils, as well as bilingual books and soft toys. “We don’t monitor these little trolleys, and we only add them if something goes home,” says Rowlands. “It’s part of the memory, isn’t it?” His eyes are alert. “Not that we can recommend that!”
Throughout the year there are events aimed at tots, including free art classes in galleries. In April, the first evening of music and stories on the floor moon sculpture in the main hall he encouraged language learning in English and Welsh. At the end of May there will be a paint-along with Gwen John’s love of cats.
I want my son to enjoy art because he might not want to go to museums with me. I want us all to look at, and talk about, what we see and how it makes us feel. I know he’s emotional – he’s not happy about Peter Rabbit being chased by Old Brown (“No, no, no!”) – and I’m sure art would lead him to something as powerful as a book or TV show. I want them to go around and explain it. Taking his time, if he has the patience (safe to say we’re not there yet). Choosing what will make you happy. If it’s not learning, what is?
Rhian Evans started bringing her two-year-old daughter, Cari, to NMC when she was a baby. “I was worried about coming before, but now I know that it is well prepared for children, with things like this,” he says, pointing to one of the well-filled carts. “I want them to start saying the words: animals, colors.”
We talk about how it can be useful to get out of the house with a small child, and he mentions a play area, some kind of meeting place, another way to fill the day. But not all playgrounds are free to enter. Also, Evans says, “When we come here I think there’s an opportunity for them to learn something other than just throwing the ball.”
