Visiting Art Museums and Museums with Children: From What Age, and How to Enjoy Them?

Why this topic is on your mind

“I’d like to start taking my 3-year-old to art museums and museums. But from what age can children enjoy them? I don’t want to go too early and have them run around and bother people…” This is a question we often hear from families raising children. Behind it lie several motives and hesitations.

• I want to give my child more intellectual experiences. Play at home alone doesn’t seem stimulating enough
• I want options for places to spend time indoors on rainy days and very hot days
• I want to add to our repertoire of “outings” the whole family can enjoy
• But can a 3-year-old really look at things properly? If they get bored and make noise, won’t they bother other visitors?
• If I force them to go “because it’s cultured” and make them hate museums, that defeats the purpose
• Art museums, museums, science museums, aquariums: which suit young children?

This is an area with a relatively solid body of research. Research on “the museum experience” by Falk and colleagues has accumulated over more than 30 years, and there are well-organized findings on “what a museum is for a child” and “how a family can make the experience rich”.

Art museums and museums were not originally facilities for children

There is a premise we want to establish first. Many art museums and museums were originally designed with adults as their main visitors. The height of exhibits, the amount of text in explanations, the rules about keeping quiet inside: these have long been arranged with adult viewers in mind.

ICOM’s museum definition: a place for “research, education, and enjoyment”

International Council of Museums (ICOM) (2022)

ICOM’s museum definition, revised at the 2022 Prague General Conference

positions a museum as “a not-for-profit, permanent institution in the service of society that researches, collects, conserves, interprets and exhibits tangible and intangible heritage”, and states its purpose as “offering varied experiences for education, enjoyment, reflection and knowledge sharing”.

What matters here is that the role of museums is not limited to “educating children”. If you go in with the premise that you are visiting, with children, a place that is a cultural and research institution for adults, you will neither expect too much nor hold back too much.

Japan also revised its “Museum Act” (2022)

Agency for Cultural Affairs (2022)

The Museum Act, substantially revised in 2022 for the first time in about 70 years

explicitly added, alongside the traditional “collecting, conserving, exhibiting, and research”, functions such as “collaboration with the local community”, “collaboration with other museums”, and “contributing to cultural tourism”. The role of museums as “places open to the community” is gradually being emphasized in policy as well.

For families raising children, the reality is closer to this: within this trend, more and more museums are putting in place programs for young children, stroller rental, nursing rooms, and worksheets for children. On the other hand, not every museum is friendly to visitors with children. It is realistic to check the “information for visitors with children” page in advance.

How to enjoy them by age: stop trying to “show everything”

Children’s development and range of interests change greatly with age. Before school age, the basic approach is to experience museums “briefly, focusing on what the child likes”.

1. Ages 2-3

   Hands-on and short visits as the basic approach

   Less 'viewing' exhibits and more 'walking through big spaces, looking up at big things, and using their hands in touch corners'. Aim for a visit of 30-60 minutes. Places with <strong>visually striking elements that can be touched or moved</strong> suit this age, such as children's museums, animal specimens and dinosaur skeletons at natural history museums, and hands-on exhibits at science museums. Trying to 'show everything' is a mistake; satisfaction is higher if the child can return again and again to one favorite.

2. Ages 4-5

   Focus deeply on favorites

   A period when understanding of language progresses and the direction of interests becomes visible. If you choose <strong>exhibits that match the child's current 'favorite thing'</strong>, such as 'I like dinosaurs', 'I like trains', or 'I like princesses', they can concentrate on looking. Aim for 60-90 minutes. Parent and child start to enjoy imagining together in front of the same exhibit: 'What do you think this is doing?'

3. Ages 6-7

   Toward conversation and questions

   Children become able to read hiragana and simple kanji, and some start to look at parts of the explanation panels on their own. If you ask questions like <strong>'Which one do you like?' or 'Why do you think it was put here?'</strong>, they start to think and answer in their own way. An age when children can also enjoy looking at paintings in art museums through conversation. About 90 minutes.

4. Age 8 and up

   Full viewing is also possible

   In fields they are interested in, children can concentrate for almost as long as adults. They read explanations themselves, want the exhibition catalog, and agonize over choosing a book in the museum shop. They also become able to enjoy <strong>highly abstract exhibits</strong>, such as at history museums and contemporary art museums. Visits of about 2 hours are also possible.

By type: which museums suit which ages

Even under the single word “museum”, their characters differ quite a bit. Summarizing the “fit” for children aged 3 to 6 gives roughly the following.

A realistic order is to start with “museums young children enjoy easily” and add art museums and history museums as options as the child grows older. If the first museum experience leaves memories of “it was boring” or “I got told off”, the child may dislike museums for some time afterwards, so in the long run it is better to deliberately choose “museums the child is sure to enjoy” for the first few visits.

How parents are involved: “conversation” decides the experience

Anderson et al. (Queensland University of Technology) (2002)

A study that observed and followed 127 families with children aged 2 to 5 at museums (published in Curator)

shows the importance of “family mediation” in young children’s museum experiences. Even in front of the same exhibit, children from families where the parents asked questions like “What do you think it is?” or “Do you want to touch it?” and took in the child’s words vividly recreated the experience in later interviews. On the other hand, children from families where the parents only read the explanations aloud, or hurried them with “Let’s go to the next one”, retained almost no memory of it.

Pointing and “What do you think?”

At a museum with young children, ‘looking together’ and ‘pointing and asking questions’ work better than ‘explaining’.

• “This is big, isn’t it?” “What do you think is here?” (empathy and questions)
• “To me it looks like ○○. What about you?” (giving your own impression first to invite theirs)
• “If we put this up at home, which color would you choose?” (questions that make it personal)
• “Oh, its face is different from the dinosaur we saw before” (linking one exhibit to another)

Rather than teaching “the correct interpretation”, draw out and take in “how it looked” to the child. This is at the heart of what Anderson and colleagues’ research shows to be “a museum experience that is meaningful for children”.

Don’t impose, don’t get ahead of them

What we want to avoid, on the other hand, is starting an explanation like ‘This is a famous work called ○○, painted by ~ in the ~ period’. For children aged 3 to 6, knowledge of proper names and dates means almost nothing. Adding a little if the child shows interest is just about right.

Length of stay and rhythm: keep it short, and always take breaks

Practical research, including Bowers (2012)a review of early childhood programming at museums in the US (published in the Journal of Museum Education), gives broadly consistent guidance on museum visits before school age: 30 to 60 minutes at ages 2 to 3, 60 to 90 minutes at ages 4 to 5, and about 90 minutes at ages 6 to 7. Beyond this, children exceed the limits of their concentration and stamina, and reactions such as fussing, running around, and falling asleep become more likely.

Build “breaks” into the schedule

The most important thing in a young child’s museum experience is to always take a break ‘partway through’ the exhibition areas. Many museums have a café, benches, or a lobby. A rhythm of ‘looking : resting = 2 : 1’, such as resting for 15 minutes after looking for 30, is realistic. Water before they get thirsty, a snack before they get hungry (in the lobby or outside the museum).

When the “I’m bored” sign appears, don’t push on

When a child starts saying ‘I want to go home’, ‘It’s boring’, or ‘My hands are tired’, that is the natural end of the museum experience. If you push on to show the remaining exhibits, the memory gets fixed as ‘museums are boring places’. Wrapping up with ‘Let’s come again next time’ leads to the next opportunity.

Have some rescue options ready

Just in case, it is reassuring to prepare a few “escapes for when they get bored”.

• A short rest at the museum café or restaurant (more museums welcome children)
• If there is a courtyard or rooftop terrace, a change of mood in the fresh air
• Moving to the museum shop early (see below)
• Retreating gracefully with “It was short today, but let’s come again”

Rather than “getting through the plan”, ‘going home while the memories are happy’ matters far more in the long run.

The museum shop and souvenirs: taking the experience home

A place often visited at the end of a museum experience is the museum shop. If you see it not as “something extra” but as ‘an extension of the experience’, it becomes much more valuable.

• Even one postcard or one sticker becomes an anchor for memories if you take it home and display it or use it for crafts
• A thin explanatory book for children, rather than an exhibition catalog, is more likely to be opened again and again at home
• If you choose something related to ‘what we saw today’, the topic continues later: “We saw this at the museum, didn’t we?”
• There is no need to buy anything expensive. ‘A small item for ¥100-500’ is enough

If you set a rule like “Choose a souvenir from among the things we saw today”, it also gives the child a chance to look back on the exhibits.

Free admission and discounts: to keep going without straining your wallet

Many people feel that “museums are expensive”, but young children are free at many museums. Most museums are free for children below elementary school age, and with some planning, admission fees for parents can also be kept down.

• Many national and public museums and art museums are free for children (many are free up to junior high school)
• National museums and art museums in Tokyo, Kyoto, Osaka, and elsewhere hold “free admission days” several times a year (Culture Day, International Museum Day on May 18, etc.)
• There are regional museum passes such as the ‘Grutto Pass’ (a booklet of admission tickets and discount tickets for about 100 facilities in Tokyo and the surrounding area) and the ‘Museum Grutto Pass Kansai’ in Kansai
• Many corporate museums are free (vehicles, sweets, electric power, telecommunications, etc.)

In recent rounds of the Japanese Association of Museums (2024)‘Comprehensive Survey of Museums in Japan’, conducted regularly by the Japanese Association of Museums, museums with admission reductions or exemptions for families, or free admission for preschool children, are also the majority. Setting aside the image of ‘a place that costs money’ and trying free museums first is one way to start.

Museums on trips: as “an accent to an outing”

Including a museum in a trip deepens your understanding of where you are going and also hedges against rainy days. However, the golden rule is to keep ‘museums on trips’ even shorter than museums at home.

• On trips, children use up a lot of stamina. Up to 60 minutes is plenty
• Main exhibition halls at tourist spots get crowded. Aim for first thing in the morning or late afternoon
• It is easier to keep it up if you don’t make it “today’s main event” and instead treat it as ‘one hour in the morning’ or ‘somewhere to drop in if it rains’
• A routine of one postcard as a souvenir of each trip can also become a lovely habit

Common mistakes in how to go: five kinds of “overdoing it”

From research and practical knowledge, here is a summary of ‘ways of being involved that you do with good intentions but that make the experience poorer’.

Some of you may have felt a jolt reading “Things people tend to overdo”. All of these come from parents’ good intentions of ‘wanting to give their child a rich experience’. But those good intentions can end up turning the museum, for the child, into “a tiring place”, “a place where I get scolded”, or “a place where my parents get in a bad mood”. ‘Short, with lots of conversation, so that they want to come again’: this is the principle consistent with the research.

What to do if you actually go ahead

Based on research and practical knowledge, here is how to put together museum visits as a family.

1. For the first few visits, choose “museums your child is sure to enjoy”

Start with museums with ‘big, moving, touchable’ elements, such as science museums, natural history museums, children’s museums, and large corporate museums. Save art museums and history museums for when your child is older, or for special exhibitions with concrete themes (dinosaurs, trains, sweets, etc.).

2. Check “information for visitors with children” in advance

Look on the museum’s official website for information on ‘stroller rental’, ‘nursing rooms’, ‘worksheets for children’, and ‘kids’ spaces’. Museums that offer these are in practice easier to visit with children.

3. Narrow it down to “3 favorites”

Take a quick look at the exhibits online in advance and narrow ‘the things we definitely want to see’ down to 3-5. The rest depends on time and stamina. If you let go of “seeing everything” from the start, you won’t overdo it on the day.

4. Keep the stay short, and always take breaks

30-60 minutes at ages 2-3, 60-90 minutes at ages 4-5, and about 90 minutes at ages 6-7. Build in a rhythm of resting for 15 minutes after looking for 30.

5. Look “with lots of conversation”

“What do you think this is?” “Which one do you like?” “What do you think is here?” Instead of teaching the right answer, ask questions. Take in your child’s impressions: “What an interesting way of seeing it.”

6. Retreat gracefully at the “I’m bored” sign

If your child starts fussing or running around, don’t push it. ‘Going home while the glow of enjoyment remains’ leads to the next opportunity.

7. Take the experience home from the museum shop

One postcard or one sticker is fine. Choose a small item related to ‘what we saw today’ so that you can look back on the memories at home too.

8. Grow it into “a place you go regularly”

Rather than going once and being done, repetition, such as ‘once a month to the local science museum’ or ‘buying an annual pass and going again and again to a favorite museum’, makes museums “an extension of daily life”. Even the same exhibits look completely different as children grow older, so they can enjoy them however many times they go.

Closing dialogue

Research details

Primary sources

StrongFalk, J. H., & Dierking, L. D.2013Left Coast Press / Routledge ('The Museum Experience Revisited')

Book category: A standard textbook of museum studies and science communication research (a revised and expanded edition of ‘The Museum Experience’, first published in 1992)

Content: Systematizes the findings of behavioral observation, interviews, and follow-up studies of museum visitors carried out by the authors over more than 30 years. It frames learning in museums as the contextual model of learning, in which learning is determined by the interaction of three contexts: “the personal context (motivation, interests, prior knowledge)”, “the sociocultural context (who you came with, what conversations you had)”, and “the physical context (how the exhibits are made, how people move through the building, the indoor environment)”. It also proposes the concept of free-choice learning, arguing that the essence of learning in museums is that it is curiosity-driven rather than compulsory.

Position: The most widely referred-to framework in research on informal learning institutions such as museums, art museums, science museums, zoos, and aquariums. As a basis for understanding family museum experiences, this book’s framework remains the standard.

Limitations: A theoretical summary by the authors themselves, different in form from a meta-analysis or systematic review. Experimental research rigorously testing the predictive power of the contextual model itself is limited. Even so, it continues to be used around the world as a common language among museum researchers and practitioners.

Anderson, Piscitelli, Weier, Everett & Tayler2002Curator: The Museum Journal, 45(3), 213-231

Study design: Observational study + follow-up interviews (mixed methods)

Participants: 127 families including young children aged 2 to 5 who visited museums, art museums, and science centers in Queensland, Australia. Family conversations and behavior on the day were observed, and the children’s memories of the experience were then checked in follow-up interviews at home.

Main results: Showed that the quality of young children’s museum experiences depends strongly on ‘family mediation’, how parents asked their children questions and how they responded, rather than on how lavish the exhibits were. Children from families where the parents encouraged conversation, such as “What do you think this is?” or “Do you want to touch it?”, vividly recreated the experience in later interviews. On the other hand, children from families where the parents only read the explanations aloud or hurried them retained almost no memory of the experience.

Limitations: An observational study in a specific region of Australia, with a sample that is not large. Differences due to families’ socioeconomic background are also not fully controlled for. Even so, it is a representative study in this field showing the central importance of “family involvement” in young children’s museum experiences.

Bowers, B.2012Journal of Museum Education, 37(1), 39-48

Paper category: Practice review paper (summarizing the practice of museum education)

Content: A review surveying the current state and challenges of programming for early childhood (mainly ages 3 to 5) at museums in the US. Sets out design principles for exhibits, workshops, and family programs for young children, rough guides to length of stay, and ways of encouraging parental involvement.

Main results: Summarizes, as practical knowledge, that about 30 to 90 minutes is realistic for young children’s museum visits, beyond which the quality of the experience falls because of the limits of concentration and stamina; that elements that can be touched, moved, and physically experienced are especially important in early childhood; and that features that encourage family conversation (question panels, worksheets for children, etc.) improve the quality of the experience.

Limitations: Not a meta-analysis of empirical research, but a review paper integrating practical knowledge and existing research. It centers on museum practice in the US, so contextual differences need to be considered in generalizing to Japanese museums. Even so, it is literature referred to as a practical guide to early childhood museum programming.

StrongInternational Council of Museums2022ICOM Prague General Conference resolution (August 2022)

Material category: International museum definition (official document of an international organization)

Content: The museum definition substantially revised for the first time in about 50 years at the ICOM (International Council of Museums) Prague General Conference in August 2022. It positions a museum as “a not-for-profit, permanent institution in the service of society that researches, collects, conserves, interprets and exhibits tangible and intangible heritage”, and sets its purpose as “offering varied experiences for education, enjoyment, reflection and knowledge sharing”. Accessibility, inclusiveness, participation, ethics, professionalism, and working with communities are emphasized in the new definition.

Position: The most authoritative international consensus document, forming the basis for how museums, art museums, and science museums around the world define themselves. Japan’s Museum Act also refers to this definition as domestic legislation develops.

Limitations: A definitional document, not empirical research. Even so, it is an essential reference point for sharing the premise that museums are positioned not only for “educating children” but as “cultural institutions in the service of society”.

StrongAgency for Cultural Affairs2022文化庁(博物館法改正関連資料) [Agency for Cultural Affairs (materials on the revision of the Museum Act)]

Material category: Official materials on museum policy in Japan (materials on the legal revision)

Content: Materials related to the Museum Act (Act No. 24 of 2022), substantially revised in 2022 for the first time in about 70 years. In addition to the traditional “collecting, conserving, exhibiting, and research”, ‘collaboration with other museums’, ‘collaboration with the local community’, and ‘promoting cultural tourism and other activities’ were explicitly stated as functions of museums. It also includes a review of the registered museum system and responses to the diversification of museums.

Position: An official document showing the direction of museum administration in Japan. One of the legal grounds for trends such as museums open to the community and expanded programs for families and children.

Limitations: A legal document, not an evaluation of effects. In practice, how each museum accommodates visitors with children varies widely, so checking in advance is essential.

Japanese Association of Museums2024日本博物館協会(『日本の博物館総合調査報告書』) [Japanese Association of Museums (Report of the Comprehensive Survey of Museums in Japan)]

Survey category: Nationwide survey of the state of museums (conducted on an ongoing basis)

Content: A comprehensive survey of museums, art museums, science museums, and similar institutions in Japan, conducted regularly by the Japanese Association of Museums (a public interest incorporated foundation). Covers visitor numbers, how admission fees are set, programs for children and families, the state of education and outreach activities, and barrier-free facilities.

Main results: Museums that offer free admission for preschool children and reductions for elementary and junior high school students are the majority, and museums running education and outreach programs aimed at families are on the rise. On the other hand, issues such as a shortage of specialist staff (curators, education and outreach staff) and variation between museums in accommodating visitors with children are also shown.

Limitations: Mainly a self-reported survey, so it cannot capture the depth of each museum’s actual situation. Even so, it is referred to in both policy-making and research as basic material for understanding the overall picture of museums in Japan and the current state of accommodation for families.