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Personalisation and Playlore: Intangible Cultural Heritage and Childhood History in Museums
Abstract
Children are everywhere; we all are or have been children, and some of us have children of our own. So why are they largely invisible in so many aspects of cultural heritage? This article examines the intangible cultural heritage (ICH) of children and childhood in Western cultures, a specific aspect of ICH relating to the youngest in society. It asks what we mean by "child" and what might be their intangible heritage, considering aspects such as oral traditions, social rituals, folklore, playlore, and children's skills in crafting their own toys. It provides an overview of the literature relating to ICH and childhood in museums, arguing both for greater recognition of children's intangible heritage and for the value of incorporating it into exhibitions, considering some examples of where this has been done. While examination of the archaeology, history, and material culture of children is growing, there has been limited consideration of how intangible cultural heritage might be developed in the museum context with regard to presenting childhood, something this article aims to address.
... Children's spaces are often designed according to adult agendas (Firinci-Orman, 2013;Yates and Oates, 2019) and within museums, an historical education agenda dominates, as exhibitions are utilised by adults to meet curriculum outcomes (Birch, 2018;Franklin and Sansom, 2018). The selection, interpretation and curation of exhibits therefore remain in adult hands and children have little voice on what is presented and how (Brookshaw, 2016). Furthermore, exhibits presented for children's consumption, represent an adult interpretation of children's interests, and are often separated from adult spaces, in specific 'children's areas' (Franklin and Sansom, 2018). ...
... This highlights how children's interests may be lost through these layers of power and the selection and curation processes that occur in public institutions, hence the need to consider children's responses and interests in these spaces. Brookshaw (2016) posits the need for intangible heritage which, 'embodies practices that are transmitted non-materially from the past to the present such as stories, performing arts, crafts, beliefs, and ceremonies' (Brookshaw, 2016:1). We argue that inclusion of children's intangible heritage is an important way to increase their interest and engagement in museums and make links between the past and their contemporary lived experiences. ...
... Bruner (1977) and Donaldson (1978) both acknowledge the capacity of children to understand complex ideas when they are presented in ways that they can relate to and understand. Furthermore, young children show positive engagement in museums when they have freedom of choice, opportunities for collaborative, play based activities (Piscitelli and Weier, 2002); when they have ownership, and can exercise their agency (Brookshaw, 2016;Yates and Oates, 2019) Inclusive spaces Inclusion takes on many forms, an inclusive enabling environment, however, offers children a stimulating environment that is relevant to all age groups, cultures and communities (Early Education, 2018). Hands on experiences help children to develop an understanding of concepts that are usually difficult for their age (Kaltman, 2010). ...
This research aimed to evaluate young children’s engagement, participation and inclusion within a city museum by utilising observations and semi structured interviews with children and families. Both groups requested more interactive exhibits, sensory experiences, making and doing activities and role play opportunities. In this article, we argue for increased visibility of children’s ‘intangible heritage’ (Brookshaw, 2016) and opportunities for responding which make links with children’s lives contemporarily. We further argue that museums should view children as experiencers rather than learners.
... The highlight of this gallery was a six-minute original film conceived, written by, and starring the curators as actors. 13 Titled 'The Dance of the Minotaur' (2016), the film reinterprets the mythological story of King Minos, the Minotaur, Theseus, and Ariadne. Co-produced by a professional crew, the young curators designed their own costumes and chose the set locations. ...
For decades, Museum Studies scholars have called for a new ‘critical museology’ with greater inclusion of marginalized communities and diversification of exhibition content, but children have been largely ignored in these efforts. This paper explores the possibilities for what I call a new ‘Critical Children’s Museology’ through in-depth analysis of the Anything Goes exhibition at the National Museum in Warsaw, Poland in 2016. Curated by 69 children, this ground-breaking exhibition radically broke from current and traditional museological practice by offering prominent institutional space and professional support for children’s cultural production in the form of curated exhibition galleries and programming. I analyze the exhibition, its production process, and its strengths and limitations to consider the possibilities and challenges of bringing child-centred praxis into museology. This work contributes to the larger charge of democratizing museum and curatorial practice by upending the patronizing view of children as passive recipients of museum offerings, focusing instead on their capacities for cultural production, critical interpretation, and curatorial innovation.
This article considers how museums of childhood in Britain were imagined as racialized spaces, designed to simultaneously project both a notion of universal childhood and of racial hierarchies. The legacies of this work matter for efforts today to decolonize museums. The case study is the ethnographic doll collections of Edward Lovett (1852–1933), an amateur folklorist best known for his collection of home-made dolls. The ways in which these dolls were collected, described, cataloged, and displayed reveals the racialized assumptions of British imperialism in the early 20th century, including the infantilization of other cultures and the widely held belief in evolutionary biology. These doll collections are still displayed for children, and this article considers how contemporary museums negotiate the conflicting impetuses to decolonize museums, to teach today’s young people about the prejudices of their ancestors, and to engage with the widely accepted idea that all childhoods are defined by play.
How are children remembered in public memory? Within most history museums, children are superficially represented in well-worn, overly simplistic tropes overwritten by adult nostalgia, romanticism, and sentimentalism. Rarely are the details of their lives—not to mention their ideas or perspectives—engaged in a substantive and nuanced way. This representation is especially true for racialized children and those from other historically marginalized groups. Children are often presented as examples of a generic type (“ten-year-old boy”), and overwhelmingly as historical victims. But curating traces of children’s material and immaterial culture can offer insight into young people’s understandings of cultural, political, and social matters—unique and valuable perspectives that deserve closer attention. This article explores the dominant narratives used to represent children as historical actors in the recently revamped Canadian History Hall at the Canadian Museum of History. Focusing on the possibilities and challenges of presenting children’s perspectives, experiences, and voices, we take the new Canadian History Hall as a case study, and analyze both the narrative form and content of the many representations of children and childhood found in its three galleries.
