Neil Osborne and his three-year-old daughter Daisy are peering at a small, shimmering painting by JMW Turner of foaming waves crashing against a cliff. It’s their second visit to the National Museum Cardiff (NMC). Daisy loves the dinosaurs in the prehistoric galleries downstairs, which Neil believes are more kid-friendly; the upstairs art galleries are quieter, with fewer children charging about. “She actually started whispering when we got up here,” he says, “but she likes seeing the paintings and saying what they look like.” He asks her what she makes of the Turner, and she replies: “A fish.”
For us, today is a nursery day, so I’m without my cub reporter. Instead, I’m here solo in Cardiff to figure out whether getting under-fives into galleries is more about entertainment or education, and to gauge the feelings of fellow parents. I can’t be the only one who thinks my almost-two-year-old might be capable of learning something from looking at art, can I?
Catrin Rowlands was a school teacher for 24 years before becoming head of learning at NMC. One of seven national museums that make up Museum Wales, the largest provider of learning outside the classroom in the country, it’s dedicated to welcoming families, with a permanent collection that features everything from gnarled fossils to dazzling impressionist canvases. There’s a large learning centre – “to the left of the mammoth,” says Rowlands – with a play area at one end and a casual classroom set-up at the other. So, I ask, how do you keep children entertained without detracting from the educational activity? “Every engagement with the museum is a learning engagement,” she tells me.
It’s in the learning centre that Mini Wonders takes place. NMC is one of 15 museums across the UK partnering with Art Fund and Nesta on the fully funded programme, which looks at how accessing art and culture can support child development and increase readiness for school. Families from disadvantaged backgrounds with children aged between two and four are invited to take part in a free eight-week course that seeks to make parents and kids feel more comfortable in the museum, and return repeatedly, just like they might do with their local library.
“Introducing art for under-fives is as much about capturing their imagination as it is about learning – a space where wonder, surroundings and play spark curiosity before the formal structure of a traditional school setting,” says Rowlands. Each child in Mini Wonders is given a digital camera, and by the end of the programme has a scrapbook of photos. Once they’re happy in the learning centre, they are encouraged to venture out into the museum. Art, says Rowlands, “invites children to explore and discover a vibrant and colourful world which is both entertaining and a foundation for early and lifelong learning”.
I bump into former NMC employee Emma Kempster and her son, Sebby, on the grand stone staircase overlooking the cafe, which is now busy serving lunch. “We come here all the time,” she tells me. “He knows where he wants to go. We start with the dinosaurs and natural history, then he likes to see the paintings to finish.” Like Daisy, Sebby appears to notice the shift in atmosphere. “I think he finds it a bit spooky upstairs because it’s quieter than the other spaces, but he also seems to like the change of scene. We look out for dogs in the paintings, things like that.” I ask whether they’re here to have fun or to learn, and Kempster says it’s more about fun right now. She smiles. “Though, I mean, he is a brilliant artist.”
Lucky for Sebby, then, that scattered across the galleries are creative carts packed with paper and pencils, as well as bilingual books and soft toys. “We’re not policing these little trolleys, and we just replenish them if something ends up going home,” says Rowlands. “It’s part of the memory, isn’t it?” Her eyes widen. “Not that we’d encourage that!”
Throughout the year there are events targeted at tots, including free sketching classes in the galleries. In April, an early evening of music and storytelling beneath a sculpture of the moon in the main hall encouraged language learning in both English and Welsh. At the end of May there will be a paint-along inspired by Gwen John’s love of cats.
I want my son to have fun with art because otherwise he won’t want to go to a gallery with me. I want us both to look, and to talk about, what we see and how it makes us feel. I know he gets emotion – he doesn’t enjoy Peter Rabbit being chased down by Old Brown (“No, no, no!”) – and I’m hopeful that art can make him react as strongly as a book or TV show. I want him to move around and express himself. To take his time, if and when he has the patience (safe to say we’re not there yet). To choose what interests him. If that’s not learning, what is?
Rhian Evans first brought her two-year-old daughter, Cari, to NMC when she was a baby. “I was worried about coming before, but now I know it’s well set up for kids, with stuff like this,” she says, pointing to one of the art carts, fully stocked. “I’d like her to start saying certain words: animals, colours. We come and point out things in the paintings in the same way we do at home with books.”
We talk about how helpful it can be to get out of the house with a small child, and she mentions play cafes, another type of place to visit, another way to fill the day. But not all play cafes are free to enter. Plus, Evans says, “If we come here I think there’s a chance she’ll learn something as opposed to just throwing balls around.”