No.3563rd Cultural Industry Review
Nowadays, punching in various museums has become a "craze". With the deployment of the key tasks of "building a child-friendly city" in the Outline of the Tenth Five-Year Plan and the Long-term Goals in 235, how can museums be found in the creation of a "child-friendly" atmosphere as a valuable cultural space in the city? From the world's first children's museum, which was born more than 1 years ago, to today's various museums for children, what experiences and values can we learn from it?
Author | Liu Qijing (author group of cultural industry criticism, researcher of Sanchuan Huiwen Tourism Research Institute)
Editor | Time
Editor | Peninsula
Source | Cultural industry review
The theme of this year's International Museum Day is "The Power of Museums", which is interpreted as "Museums have the ability to change the world around us". The power of the museum is exploding with unprecedented vitality.
according to the latest data released by National Cultural Heritage Administration, in 221, there were 395 newly registered museums in China, and the total number of registered museums reached 6,183. Among them, 5,65 museums are open for free, accounting for more than 9%. National museums held 36, exhibitions and 323, educational activities. According to the latest data, in 221, China's museums received 779 million visitors, and planned to launch more than 3, online exhibitions and more than 1, online educational activities, with the total number of online visitors exceeding 4.1 billion.
among the expanding audience, children are an attractive audience, and with the deployment of the key tasks of "building a child-friendly city" in the Outline of the Tenth Five-Year Plan and Long-term Goals in 235, it is a more effective strategy to plan urban transformation and long-term development by giving priority to the needs of vulnerable groups such as children.
In fact, in the process of urbanization, children can enjoy very limited activity space. In addition to the natural environment in the urban environment, it is more in the artificially created space environment. From the classification point of view, it can be roughly divided into outdoor public spaces (such as streets, squares and parks), amusement spaces (such as amusement parks and theme parks), exclusive spaces for learning and education (such as schools and kindergartens), and experience spaces with educational purposes (such as museums, cultural centers and science and technology museums).
Someone once said, "Museums are halls of culture and new classrooms." Nowadays, many museums do take care of children's needs, while some professional children's museums have educational and service functions such as children's education, cultural and artistic communication, science and technology education, civic education, local education, cross-cultural education and parent-child relationship promotion. In this issue, Cultural Industry Review (ID: WHCYPL) focuses on specialized children's museums and children's areas set up by some comprehensive museums, and explores the path and value of sustainable development of modern museums in the children's world by taking stock of outstanding cases at home and abroad.
Taking "children" as the starting point,
How do museums show their magic power today?
Nowadays, children's areas are not uncommon in many comprehensive museums in China. They attract children's audiences with their own advantages and characteristics in the fields of history, art, science and technology, nature and so on. Through the inventory, let's look at several examples according to the scale-
Guangdong Provincial Museum Youth Activity Center:
△ The total area is 138 square meters, with the "arcade" with Lingnan characteristics as the main design element, and the interior is divided into three parts: multimedia playing area, youth activity area and work display area.
The Palace Museum's Palace Museum Wenchuang Children's Experience Store:
△ With a total area of about 2 square meters, it displays nearly 1 pieces of various Palace Museum Wenchuang products specially designed for children. According to the function, the store has set up three areas, namely "upper study room", "interactive teaching area" and "parents waiting area", which can accommodate about 2 children.
Social Education Experience Hall of Henan Museum:
△ With a total area of about 1,4 square meters, it can accommodate 5 people at the same time, including ancient science and technology experience area, field archaeological experience area, cultural relics restoration and protection observation area, audience independent learning area, research and education practice area, three-dimensional national treasure magic wall experience area and 5G+36° real-time panoramic experience area. In terms of children's education, the museum has focused on creating "special lectures" and other projects, developing special courses, and optimizing popular education courses such as the treasure series courses of nine major towns and academies, archaeological knowledge, guardians of national treasures, idioms and allusions.
Suzhou Museum West Hall Exploration Experience Hall:
△ It covers an area of 4,5 square meters and is a space designed for children aged 3-12. It consists of exhibitions and activities such as "Folding Time and Space", "Floating City", "Little Archaeologist" Learning Suzhou Dialect at Grandma's House ","Childhood Memories of Adults "and" Looking at the World in a Curious Cabinet ".
We can see that these museums have made many attempts and achievements in space design, special exhibitions and educational activities in order to build a second classroom outside the campus. However, due to the limitation of space, not every museum can fully display its value for children. Compared with specialized children's museums, some comprehensive museums are still in the stage of skimming the water, and there are still many places to play.
so, what is a professional children's museum like?
"Children's Museum" has a long history?
Children's Museum, as a kind of informal educational institution model, was first born in America.
The reason why it was accepted as a member unit by the American Association of Expositions (AAM) and thus became a member of the museum family is based on its purpose: serving children's needs and interests, and its form of establishment: providing exhibitions and activities that encourage learning and curiosity.
As the first children's museum in the world, the Brooklyn Children's Museum, founded in 1899, is recognized as the pioneer of children's museums.
The New York Times once commented that "before the Brooklyn Children's Museum, children went to school to study, played in the playground and felt bored in the museum". Its appearance not only completely subverted children's experience in the museum, but also made many children no longer resist going into the museum.
△ Appearance of Brooklyn Children's Museum (the picture comes from the Internet)
After the successful launch of Brooklyn Children's Museum, children's museums have been built all over the United States, including Boston Children's Museum in 1913, Detroit Children's Museum in 1917, Indianapolis Children's Museum in 1925 and so on. So far, there are more than 3 children's museums in the United States, and children's museums have become one of the fastest growing cultural institutions in the United States, and more than 2 children's museums with their own characteristics have been born around the world.
△ Boston Children's Museum founded in 1913
(the picture comes from the Internet)
△ Philadelphia Children's Museum founded in 1976
(the picture comes from the Internet)
△ Mississippi Children's Museum founded in 1994
(the picture comes from the Internet)
And in China, there are some in National Cultural Heritage Administration. Only the Shanghai Children's Museum, the China Women's and Children's Museum and the Qujiang No.2 Primary School Children's Museum in Xi 'an * * * (the children's museum with the suffix "Children's Exploration Museum" is not included). Although some commercial brands named "Children's Museum" have settled in in recent years, on the whole, the "Children's Museum" is still a new one in China, which has not yet become popular.
△ The picture is from official website, National Cultural Heritage Administration
What's the highlight of American Children's Museum?
how to "localize" in China?
As mentioned earlier, the model of Brooklyn Children's Museum has been copied in the United States, and its influence has gradually spread to other countries in the world in the past 1 years. During this 1 years, the children's museum has experienced four stages, from experiment, exploration and development to the new growth period since the 199s. The American version of the children's museum, represented by Brooklyn Children's Museum, is becoming more and more mature, and most children's museums in the world have borrowed and used this model. In 1996, China established the first children's museum in Shanghai.
So, what is the charm of this children's museum? What's remarkable about its practical path? In fact, the Brooklyn Children's Museum, which has developed to today, has become a model for other families. Apart from having the longest history, there are also very important reasons. On the one hand, it is dominated by "children's perspective" and respects the law of children's development; On the other hand, it builds a bridge between children and society. After the author's inventory, it is generally found that the American version of the children's museum model has made great efforts in the following aspects.
first, attach importance to "children's perspective".
In terms of exhibitions, Brooklyn Children's Museum has always complied with and respected the law of children's development, and divided children's cognitive development into targeted stages.
For example, for children before the age of 6, the museum has set up a recreation area that provides materials such as water, sand, building blocks, percussion materials and climbing frames for children, so as to stimulate and promote children's sensory development.
△ Brooklyn Children's Museum Recreation Area (the picture comes from the Internet)
When children grow up, they begin to master some conceptual thinking to think and understand the world. In view of this stage, the Children's Museum creates a corresponding "peer space" by dividing the theme exhibition area, and conveys the abstract theme clearly and briefly by enriching the concrete exhibits.
For example, the theme of "Brooklyn in the World" exhibition area is that Brooklyn is everyone's home, and a children's size Brooklyn has been created, which incorporates all the diversified elements of Brooklyn community: subway, grocery store, Italian pizza place, African market, Chinese bookstore and so on in new york. When children of similar age consciously play roles in the real world, they can create meaningful relationships in a community through mutual cooperation.
△ Brooklyn Children's Museum Theme Exhibition Area (the picture comes from the Internet)
On the basis of setting up exhibition areas according to children's ages and creating a "peer space" to understand abstract topics through concretization, Shanghai Children's Museum has made similar efforts in attaching importance to "children's perspective" in combination with its own regional characteristics and urban culture.
At present, the permanent exhibitions in Shanghai Children's Expo Hall mainly show the ocean, space, cities, nature and other scenes to children aged 3-1. Among them, the theme of "Travel @ Home" exhibition area is Shanghai's sister city, which permeates the concepts of communication, multiculturalism, science around us and community awareness, and encourages children to experience different regional cultures by participating in various small games and playing various social roles. Moreover, there is also a parent-child reading area and a literature memorial exhibition area in the museum, so that audiences of different ages can enjoy the fun.
△ Exhibition area in Shanghai Children's Museum (the picture comes from the Internet)
In addition, the "children's perspective" can also be cut into the spatial design of the museum.
Since the children's museum entered a period of steady development in 197s and 198s, the museum began to pay attention to architecture. Just last year, the Danish Fairy Tale Museum, designed by Kengo Kuma, a famous Japanese contemporary architect, and his cooperative team, was officially opened. Its design inspiration came from many children who grew up reading Andersen's fairy tales. The building created an atmosphere full of childlike innocence on the whole and details, and stimulated children's curiosity with extraordinary visual experience.
△ renderings of Danish Fairy Tale Museum (the picture comes from the Internet)
It can be seen that the most important thing to attach importance to "children's perspective" is to entertain and educate, and let children explore the outside world from play through the design of space, exhibitions and educational activities.
second, attach importance to the educational significance of the collection.
The research of Smith Institution, the most senior institution in museum and children's education, shows that compared with children's books, toys and animations, real things convey richer information levels, not only three-dimensional, but also more visual, olfactory and other sensory shocks.
It is understood that there are more than 3, collections in Brooklyn Children's Museum, and it is the uniqueness of this museum to implant the collections into educational projects and provide experiential learning opportunities for children.
These collections include musical instruments, masks, dolls and other works of art from all over the world, as well as specimens of rocks, minerals and animal skeletons. Brooklyn Children's Museum uses these collections for "object-based teaching".
For children's museums, "education" is undoubtedly the most important function besides "exhibition". For children, it is an effective exploration of history and culture that is different from school. However, at present, the educational function of Shanghai Children's Museum seems to be inferior to its exhibition function.
According to statistics, from its birth in 1996 to the end of 219, Shanghai Children's Museum has a collection of 2,791 pieces, covering furniture, calligraphy and painting, toys, navigation, aerospace and other categories. In addition, we also collect material and cultural collections related to children and creative and distinctive children's personal works all the year round. However, these collections, which highlight local history and folk customs, are currently limited to static display, but rarely seen in dynamic educational projects.
△ Navigation Hall of Shanghai Children's Museum (pictured from the Internet)
△ Cultural Collection of Shanghai Children's Museum
(pictured from official website, Shanghai Children's Museum)
Even during the epidemic, the teaching of the collection of Brooklyn Children's Museum will be transferred to online, and children at home can still easily establish contact with the collection in the museum.
However, in the official website of Shanghai Children's Expo Museum, we found that apart from the self-controlled 36-degree panoramic exhibition area, there were no related real-time interactive video education courses for children who were also isolated at home in the past two months. On the other hand, the live broadcast industry in China is so developed at present, and all kinds of "cloud tour" museum activities are on the rise. For children's museums, especially Shanghai Children's Museum, it is also worthy of attention to erase the physical distance and realize the contact with children more flexibly.
△ Shanghai Children's Museum's online "virtual roaming" exhibition area (pictured from official website, Shanghai Children's Museum)
Emphasis is placed on the collection, the power of real objects, and the most important thing is to skillfully establish the connection between the collection and children. Museums contain objects from different times and different cultural backgrounds. Only by conveying the history and reflected cultural customs behind the objects to children in a more flexible and interesting way can the greatest value of the collections be brought into play.
third, pay attention to interactivity.
At present, Brooklyn Children's Museum has an auditorium, a children's information library, workshops for children's photography, art, music, science and geology. Children have classes, exercises and experiments in the museum according to the projects formulated by the staff, and sometimes they visit historical sites and conduct simulated archaeological excavations. These rich and interesting studies and practices have broadened children's knowledge horizons.
In fact, many museums in China have done quite well in enhancing interaction with children, mainly focusing on various types of experience activities.
For example, the Shanghai Children's Museum mentioned above is on permanent display.