Young Curators

The Wallace Collection in London has revamped its website, which looks good and behaves well (title link). One of the things I noticed was a 20-minute video of its Shhh! It's a Secret Exhibition (CLICK). I previewed this in May as a Family Public Tour by children, which I thought was an excellent idea (CLICK). I had no idea how deeply involved were these children from St Vincent's Primary School in their exhibition. They curated the whole thing from start to finish, selecting their favourite exhibits from the Collection. Predictably the boys mainly went for arms and armour (the Wallace Collection includes a world class armoury). Two of the girls plumped for Old Master paintings. Together they selected a wide variety for display.

This novel idea began with a comment that exhibits are often too high for children to view properly. Not only exhibits! I recall taking my 5-year-old son into a modern gents loo with those thigh-high urinals which look like wash basins without taps. For my son they were hip high, and to reach one my son tried to stretch his penis to abnormal length. The man standing next to him said "Jump!" and received a scowl of disapproval from junior. I had to hold my son up so he could urinate. This is merely one example of how modern designers tend to ignore the needs of boys.

How many children can see into those waist-high (adult waist) display cabinets in museums? I don't know if any curators read my blog, but those who do should watch the Shhh! YouTube video. The sound is poor and the lip synchronization gets progressively worse, but it's a must if you want to curate exhibitions for kids.