Visiting Museums with Children - Making it Work!

Leonardo da Vinci's Mona Lisa

Art museums and children are a tricky combination.  We want our children to be exposed to great art, but museums don't always feel like the best place for this introduction - they are typically large, quiet, dignified places, often with crowds and lines.  Not exactly child-friendly oases filled with tolerance, paper towels, and cookies.  However, taking your kids to art museums can be very doable, provided you prepare carefully.

Here are some things that have worked for us, in no particular order.  The common theme -as always with kids - is: be flexible!

1. Don't expect transcendence.

Don't expect instant reverence for art; do cultivate a playful attitude towards art.  Look for art with interesting details that will appeal to your child's particular interests - try to spot all the animals in those 19th century european paintings for example, or imagine the feats of engineering required to produce that huge contemporary sculpture.

2. Minimize your financial investment.

Many museums have days or time periods when it is free to visit the museum.  I find it a lot easier to walk out of a museum after a mere 10 minutes (it happens!) if I haven't paid $30 or so to get in.  I figure I've seen at least one or two great pieces of art - and there's always next time!

Profiterole by Claes Oldenburg

3. Scope out the food options beforehand.

Find out ahead of time whether the museum has a decent cafe, or whether it's close to a good picnic spot.  Also find out whether you can leave the museum and return a little later - you may be able to step out of the museum for a quick snack or treat, and then return to see more.

Susumu Shingu Sculpture at the Hakone Open-Air Museum in Japan

4. Consider the taste of your audience.

Just as you have your own tastes, so does your child.  If you suspect that they may not have the patience for room after room of Old Masters, consider a sculpture garden instead - or the 20th century design museum, or the Naval History museum, even if there's less "art" to be seen.  Better to find something that will grab your child's attention a little bit (and give them some breathing room), than to turn them off the museum-going experience entirely.

5. Tag Team

This isn't always possible, but when you have two or more adults in your party, take turns with the kids.  This gives each adult at least a bit of quiet alone time with the art.

Louisiana Museum Children's Wing (in Denmark)

6. Look for museums with special facilities for children.

Many museums offer some sort of activity or experience tailored for children, and some even have special rooms or wings dedicated to children's art-making.  We had a fabuous experience at the Louisiana Museum of Modern Art in Denmark, which has an entire wing dedicated to children - it's a particularly thoughtful and inspiring place.  Check in advance if activities are offered at particular times, and plan your visit around them if possible.

The Rodin Museum in Paris

7. Think Small

Smaller museums often have smaller lines, fewer crowds, and are just smaller in scale.  It's also easier to make a quick escape if things suddenly get loud or messy! It may also be easier to visit several smaller museums during a trip than one grand one - meaning that your child is exposed to more art (as well as a wider variety of art).

8. Figure it out before you go.  

Before you leave on your trip, do some research. Find out what museums are in the area, when they are open (and when they are free, if applicable), whether they have facilities for children, whether they have a cafe, etc.  Decide what your options are before you go is much easier than figuring it out on the fly. 

9. Get into the creative spirit yourselves

Before your trip, make some art similar to the type you plan to introduce them to - make sure your kids have some recent experience in painting, sculpture, mixed-media, etc - it will help them relate more immediately to the work.

Copenhagen, Denmark

What follows is a verrrry incomplete list of Places You Must Take Your Child While in Copenhagen (or Kobenhavn) – after all, we were there for less than a week!  Not nearly enough time to do everything we wanted.  So instead of an exhaustive list, I’ll tell you what we did do that was wonderful – which was just about everything!  What fabulous spots did you find while in Copenhagen?   

Tivoli Let’s just get this one out of the way, because, come on: TIVOLI!  It’s always the first thing on everyone’s list.  Yes, it was fun.  However our son was too short to go on most of the rides (he was 5 1/2), so we spent much of our time there at Petzi’s World, which is an admittedly delightful playground within Tivoli.  We also spent an insanely long time in line waiting to order food. I think next time we may skip Tivoli and head to Bakken, another historic pleasure park located outside of the city, in a more bucolic setting. 

Petzi's World at Tivoli

National Museum of Denmark The National Museum is a winner for everybody – beautiful displays of art, artifacts, interior architecture, mummies, etc. There is also a wonderful kid’s play area that includes a Viking boat, enchanting settings for dress-up and make-believe, and lots of opportunities for climbing and hiding.

Rosenborg Palace Garden We could have spent all day here – the formal gardens are so beautiful, and so relaxing to simply wander around.  Our son could have spent all day just in the gorgeous playground here.  Its design is incorporated into the formal arrangement of the gardens as a whole, and is enclosed by hedges.  Four distinct play areas extend from a central sandpit, which has a "moat" and is presided over by two incredible carved wooden dragons.  The play areas are simple and even elegant – one was a small forest of wooden posts, some of them with little carved elements here and there.  Another area was similar, but with wooden stumps instead of posts. There is a small café across the path if you get hungry.

Rosenborg Castle and Royal Treasure The castle is beautiful, and do explore it.  But the Royal Treasure – good lord!  The collection of jewels is large and exquisite and so sparkly it made me crazy. 

The University of Copenhagen Botanical Garden We wandered into these gardens by chance late one afternoon, and were glad we did.  It’s a beautiful and fascinating place to wander and make discoveries.  So many winding paths and little botanical worlds within the garden.

                       

The Round Tower Do you need to exhaust your young one?  The Round Tower features a winding interior ramp that goes up and up and up…  at the top there is a small outside viewing area, with views all around.  We were grateful for the tiny and unexpected bathroom about halfway up.

Louisiana Museum of Modern Art This wonderful museum is a few train stops north of the city and we almost didn’t go for that silly reason – I’m so glad we did!  The collections and exhibits were terrific, and the site itself, studded with large sculptures, is just a delight to stroll around.  There is a large grassy hill (great for rolling down) that looks out over the sea, with a wooded hillside criss-crossed with narrow footpaths.  The footpaths are part of an art installation.  

At the rear of the building is a large children’s wing, with connected rooms for different art activities.  The small lego room features a table and wall covered in grey lego flat pieces – all of the legos were yellow.  This simplified color palette really makes you focus on form – I thought it was great.  At the bottom of the wing is a large sculpture studio, with generous tables and slabs of clay ready to be worked.  From here we headed right out into the back of the property, where a path winds around a small lake (look for the miniature houses hidden in the woods) and a long hillside slide proved irresistible to my son. 

Royal Naval Museum This museum is home to hundreds of meticulously crafted scale model sailing ships.  I didn’t think of this as my cup of tea before we went, but I found them stunning.  The ships were used as models for shipbuilders, who might not be able to read or understand technical drawings.  My son was more interested in the very detailed dioramas dramatizing historic sea battles.  There’s also a terrific children’s play area in the basement with a pirate ship and “docks”.

Eating

  

While I wish we had had the chance to dine at Noma, we mostly kept it cheap and no-frills when it came to meals.  This involved eating more hot dogs than I really care to admit.  We couldn’t believe how many hot dog vendors we came across, but apparently it is a Thing.  Luckily, we also found a great little pizza place near our hotel, right next to a skate park – we dined al fresco and O got to practice his version of parkour as soon as he was finished.

Pizzaria La Fiorita: corner of Nansengade and Ahlefeldtsgade Streets