Friends on the Walls

July 18, 2024

Some years ago, I was dragging leading my kids through the Metropolitan Museum of Art on a hot summer day when we were visiting New York City. The cavernous rooms were cool and comfortable, but that was all my kids felt the experience had going for it... until suddenly, when we were in Gallery 637, Ella said loudly, "Look, there's Angela!" I looked around at the passersby and saw no one familiar. But then I saw that Ella was staring up at a painting of a bunch of people at a fish market. And there she was, a 1550s Renaissance European version of our friend! So the girls started looking at those walls with fresh concentration and inspiration, racing through a self-made scavenger hunt to see what other friends they could find in those faces.

Ella's observation changed the tone not only of that trip to the Met, but all subsequent visits to all art museums. Her strategy became one of seven major tips my fellow mom colleagues and I compiled into our article Seven Tips for Visiting Art Museums with Kids. Even if they weren't positively eager to stare at things hanging on walls, my kids no longer saw it as torture.

Several years later, when Ella was a teenager, we took the Vertical Tour at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine. I watched her fascination as the tour guide waxed on about the stained glass windows, and at one point, she caught me glowing at her. She leaned close, and I thought she was going to hug me or thank me or something. Instead, she whispered, "Oh, don't look so smug!"

She was right: At that very moment I was patting myself on the back for all those years of strategizing. The tips really work—especially, in my experience, #4 and #7. So no matter whether your family consumes museums as "studiers," "strollers," or "streakers," make it a point to give it a whirl at least once before the summer ends. With the right framing, art brings joy... so help the kids in your orbit make friends with it as early and often as possible.

—Deb