​About the speaker

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Dr. Ceciel Brouwer joined the Research Centre for Museums and Galleries as a Research Associate. She will be undertaking a postdoctoral fellowship from October 2020 to develop her research on children’s rights-led museum practice and publish a monograph on the representation of children in museums. 

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​Transcript

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My name is Ceciel Brouwer, and I'm research fellow at the University of Leicester - the research Centre for museums and galleries. I'm going to share with you today some ideas about a newly emerging field within the museum studies, Children's Museology. 

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At no other point in modern history have children and young people been as active, and engaged in the challenges that society faces as they are in the current time. In recent years, children have actively voiced their perspectives independent, on human rights, climate change, and gender equality. And there is now a growing recognition that young people's voices can contribute to museums in significant and fundamental ways. As museums across the world have lived up to the challenges of developing inclusive and responsive practices, so have we seen more attempts by museum practitioners to develop participatory projects and programming that invite children and young people to take on the role of co-curators and co-creators.

 

These gradually emerging practices that approach children as active holders of rights as artist, experts, historians, researchers and curators, rather than passive learners, is a move away from viewing children merely as the beneficiaries of the museums educational mission. This is accompanied by an emerging body of work in child studies, and sociology that sees young people is more capable and more complex than is often assumed. This is called a new sociology of childhood. 

As of yet, this kind of work is often limited to child-friendly topics, to young curator programs which are often impactful in the short-term but under-researched or temporary in nature, contained within the realm of museum education alone while their effect on museum’s permanent collections and narratives is limited. The Critical Children's Museology, as my colleague Monica Patterson of the University of Carleton in Canada and myself are calling this newly emerging field, recognizes the need for a shift in the ways in which we include and engage children in museums, taking children and their perspectives on the issues that concern him seriously. Children's Museology not only inspire museums and cultural institutions to think of children as active stakeholders, it also advances practices that enable children to contribute to the museum.

 

Young people often are creative, observant and have immensely insightful perspectives to contribute to the ways in which adults see the world. When given the opportunity, their curiosity and critical contributions can make museums more inclusive and accessible. In museums and galleries, engagement with these ideas and adoptions of participatory practices with children, is only just the beginning. Some progress has been made. Museums in the mainstream generally offer an abundance of museum programming for families and under 18s. And as a demographic, children are unique and have an increasing number of museums dedicated entirely to their culture. Within the academic world, there is an increasing interest in children's experience of museums. “And yet, even within research, children are often positioned explicitly and exclusively as different or other from adults,” as Joe Berts writes. As a result, researchers and practitioners rarely consider children beyond their dependence as a group of learners and in terms of their potential contributions to museums as experts, as creators of art and material culture, as curators and researchers.

 

Children’s Museology encourages researchers and practitioners to develop ethically- informed methods by, with, and for children and young people. It contributes to the development of methods for children's participation as co-creators and active contributors and it highlights the diversity and the complexity of children. Children's Museology recognizes children’s expertise and think critically about the ways in which we might value, learn from and support children and young people.

      

In defining this field, I borrowed from a rich body of theory outside museum studies. To think about the ways in which organizations that are generally organized according to the needs of adults and can become more inclusive for children. I find the UN framework of Children's Rights especially interesting. 

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In 1992, Children were granted a specific set of rights through the UN convention of the Rights of the Child. One important part of the convention, is that it grants children cultural citizenship and it recognizes children and young people’s distinct and complex identities, as well as their rights to be cultural citizens. There's much valid criticism towards this framework of Rights, although the UN-Children’s Rights Convention (UN-CRC) was ratified by most countries in the world. UN right conventions tend to be more Western-centric, and more abstract in language than practical. While taking this critique into account, children's rights can provide an imperative for museums to invite children's views, to encourage them to participate fully, and to design museums that are accessible and inclusive of their needs. The UN- CRC also demonstrates why it is important to have a specific strategy, focusing on children and young people. Different from adults, children have a very sophisticated set of rights that offer them protection based on the status as children. Participation rights should always be balanced with the right to protection. There is a need therefore, for researchers and practitioners to develop a robust, ethically-informed methods to better involve children in museums, especially when working with potentially vulnerable young people. 

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Let's have a look at the number of case studies, starting with the International Slavery Museum in Liverpool in the UK, which tells the story of transatlantic slavery from the 16th to 19th century in the city of Liverpool in the United Kingdom. The international slavery museum is a member of the Federation of International Human Rights Museums, which is recently very active in the Asia-pacific region, and is a rights-based, campaigning Museum-meaning the museum stuff recognizes the Museum's role in supporting rights activists and campaigners in their fight to advance human rights. The museum is running successful school programs for children for a number of years. It attracts an extraordinarily high number of visitors under the age of 24, and engages teens through Young Ambassadors Program. However, as in many mainstream museums, co-curated exhibitions they produce are always temporary and often displayed within educational spaces, rather than in gallery. Although there is a willingness to do more participatory work with children, funding restrictions and staff sources have limited staff from doing so. 

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My postdoctoral research at the Museum revealed the enormous potential and the importance of the international slavery Museum as a territory for children to learn about, shape, and exercise their rights. Some researchers estimate the under-18s accounted for 50% of all the enslaved people transported from Africa to America towards the end of slavery. One of the most important sources of information about the experiences of formerly enslaved people, the Federal Writer's project, is the collection of more than 2300 first-person accounts of slavery most of which by people who were children at the time they were enslaved. 

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Now on gallery and in the collections, there are very few clues that allude to children's ubiquity in transatlantic slavery. But objects such as William Lindsay, The Black Boy, a painting of a formerly enslaved boy who travel to the UK as a stowaway, offer exciting opportunities for children to research, interpret, and write about enslaved children's experiences, which ranged from hardship and family tragedy to resilience and advocacy. Very little is currently known about the black boy. However, the painting conveys powerful questions about the ways in which children lived through trans-Atlantic slavery differently, about Children's advocacy and role in the abolition, as well as the legacies of racism that continue to impact contemporary children and adults today. While undergoing capital development, the museum is looking to redress the absence of children’s perspectives in the next few years, by ensuring they are given more opportunity to influence decision-making across the organization. 

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Difficult histories such as the ones (those abiding) in the International slavery Museum can be challenging to negotiate with children. But, as Monica Patterson argues, “Children have and continue to live through difficult histories everyday, as members of the household, as members of communities, as spokesperson, as activists and as agents of change.” Patterson talks specifically about the South African Kwazulu-Natal Children's Hospital. A hospital that had a long history of transformation and is currently being restored (into a museum) owing to a long struggle by children themselves, a community of activists, health workers, researchers and government officials. The hospital itself is decorated with children's drawings. Patterson writes about the ongoing work too within the hospital. The Children’s hospital museum, that represents difficult knowledge that’s deeply entangled with South Africa's history of apartheid, is curated for, by, and about children. 

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The hospital and its future museum are situated within the community where the HIV AIDS epidemic has left major scars on the health of society and its children. HIV AIDS rates amongst women visiting antenatal clinics in the area remains exceptionally high. Stories that young patients bring to the hospital and its museum therefore includes knowledge about racism, inequality, illness, poverty, suffering and death. As Monica Patterson writes, “Proposing strategy that draws on the critical consciousness of children, the patients that stay in hospital, and the Kwazulu-Natal community, as well as the combined strengths of education, healing, and museum making.” Patterson describes a child-centered space, where children curates, create art, and produce curatorial statements. “Would it be possible,” she asked, “to create a dynamic space that is nourishing for all children, including those who may never ever leave the hospital, those who lives may be cut short, while simultaneously engaging with the painful histories, the historical realities that they faced and often continue to face.”

So what would that look like in practice? While work at the Kwazulu-Natal Children's Hospital museum is ongoing, my next case study provides a powerful example of the ways in which museums can become more inclusive, equitable institutions when engaging children as active holders of rights, whose perspectives can provide new inroads into the ways in which we think about difficult histories.

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Dr. Corinne Fowler, who is professor of postcolonial literature at Leicester University, writes that, “Country houses and gardens rarely seem to explain or contextualize their links to a person’s colonial past, and in particular, Britain's colonisation of India which lasted from 1858 until the independence of 1858 India and Pakistan in 1947.” These absences are one of the many reasons why young black and Asian persons feel alienated from England's Countryside, according to research. While working together with the National Trust, UK's largest keeper of country houses, Fowler established the Colonial Countryside Project to redress these absences. Over the course of three years, the project engaged over a hundred children as writers, researchers, historians, tour guides, and exhibition makers inspiring a new generation of young advocates for black history and creating a strong presence of children's voices in country houses. 

 

In their capacity as researchers, some of the children, spoke at the professional museum conference at the British Museum, as you can see in this image. One of them explains, how the untold history, embedded in the histories of British country houses, resonated with her family history and their Indian backgrounds. She describes visiting the National Trust Charlecote Park, seeing an 18th century Indian dress sword that was described as being taken during the Indian Mutiny. In reflection of the colonial history, she argued the label should be changed to say that the sword was stolen during the first war of Indian independence. This generated an important discussion about how very different accounts of historical events are told in India compared with how we talk about it in Britain. Owing to her determination and impressive networking power, the students went onto generate partnerships between the national museum in Delhi, which she visited on a holiday to her parents’ home country and the National Trust. 

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Now, projects like Colonial Countryside demonstrate the value that the children can offer when we are willing to listen as well as the opportunities museums can create for them to develop their research, critical thinking, and ethical decision-making skills. Colonial Countryside is one example that shows that even at a young age, children can express unique points of view conduct robust research, articulate profoundly insightful ideas, mediate international relationships, and most importantly, help adults understand the world from their own, often compelling points of view. As museums across the world have become more confident with their ability to impact positively upon their communities. Creating shifts in how to include children would enable museums to become more self-reflexive, inclusive, and engaging.