Museum Like A Kid at The Tate Modern

Has the fear of tantrums or sticky fingers ever precluded a museum trip or other cultural adventure in your family? Have you ever thought, if only I had a babysitter I would love to check out the Italian Fashion exhibit at the V&A.

Rarely do parents intend to let their adventurous streak lapse. But little ones really should not get in the way, at least as far as museums are concerned. Here’s why: Museums are enclosed parks with life-size picture book pages plastered to walls. And there is space to run! The perfect park for rainy days, if you museum like a kid.

Of course, this starts with a good story. Before every adventure with our daughters, I distill what we will be seeing into a really good story. If you have older children, the tawdrier the better! Affairs, illegitimate families, bare bums on the Sistine Chapel. My girls are 18 months and 4, respectively, so it’s more “look at the crazy colours!”, “that guy cut his ear off!” and “can you believe Seurat painted only with teeny tiny dots? How long do you think it took him to finish a painting?!”.

In a genius move, most museums offer audio guides, a/k/a iPhones on necklaces. Little people look cute enough in headsets that the bigger art enthusiasts are more apt to ignore the first three or four auditory disturbances.

Recently, my 18 month-old daughter and I visited Matisse: The Cut Outs at the Tate Modern. If you see one exhibit in
London this year, this should be it. Here is the story. In Matisse’s seventh and eighth decades, with his health failing, he began cutting shapes out of painted or printed materials for some of his commissions. Yes, cutting out shapes, just like kids do. Matisse then arranged these shapes on giant canvases to make something not entirely unlike the masterpieces our older daughter brings home from school. Some are wall-sized (“bigger than our house!” exclaimed our four year-old).

The Cut Outs exhibit takes you through a tour of the psychological and physiological conditions giving rise to the last great artistic push in Henri Matisse’s long life. The exhibit is laid out over fourteen largely open rooms. All save a few paintings are hanging unprotected from the walls. The unadorned concrete walls and floors encourage ambling. Which is precisely what my 18 month-old did.

Victory for all. I enjoyed my history and culture, the little one saw some bright colours and patterns and perhaps picked up a bit up from my recounting the artist’s rivalry with Picasso, the role of war and social disruption on his paintings and how he worked through illness to paint some of the most breathtaking works in his ninth decade.

'Matisse: The Cut Outs' at Tate Modern,  closed on 7th September.  Watch out for more child friendly exhibitions at the Tate Gallery...

Written by Susan.  Susan is an adventurer, former lawyer, current 'trailing' spouse and constant mother of two daughters. She writes on her blog www.SmartlyMomming.com

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