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My toddler threw a toy pig at an artwork – and inspired this guide for small kids in galleries | Art and design
It all began at the Royal Academy. I was trying – and mostly failing – to look at epic, inventive paintings by Kerry James Marshall. My toddler was trying – and mostly failing – to career around the gallery spaces without colliding with anybody’s legs. As he hurled his toy pig, bowling ball-style, beneath one of the low, string barriers installed to keep a safe distance between us and the canvases, it got me thinking: are small children and art compatible? Was it selfish of me to have chosen the RA over, say, the Young V&A? What could I do to make gallery-going a happy and stress-free experience for us both?
These are just a few of the questions I hope to answer over the course of this series, which will explore the delights and dangers (just imagine if one of piggy’s trotters had pierced a KJM) of introducing knee-height people to art. Over the coming weeks, I’ll be visiting galleries, museums, immersive exhibitions and sculpture parks with my toddler – some aimed at him, others … well, aimed at me. Along the way I’ll share my thoughts, his reactions, key strategies and notes on buggy access, child-friendly menus, entrance fees and changing facilities.
According to research commissioned by Art Fund in 2024, 92% of parents in the UK believe that visiting a museum or gallery is beneficial for their children. Yet 45% consider some hushed halls to be unwelcoming to kids, and 68% have felt judged for bringing them. Just over half of the parents surveyed worry their children would run around and potentially damage something.
I get it. Just the other day I was told – and I really was told – to hold my son’s hand in a museum, which I did, before the tiny, squirmy hand inevitably wriggled free. One friend ditched a video installation for which she’d bought a ticket after a man moaned that her young child was disturbing him. Another described a recent trip to Tate Britain with her own hard-to-wrangle toddler as a high-intensity workout.
The question, then: is the niggling worry, the possible embarrassment, the physical torture, the downright fear really worth it?
Yes! I think. I hope. And not just because I want to spend time with art – and, on the days when I don’t have childcare, where I go, my son comes, too. It’s true that, on a purely selfish level, I prefer paintings to stay-and-plays, and that I don’t feel entirely relaxed in rackety play cafes. I’ll admit I’m not a joiner – poor child, you might be thinking, for the love of god take the boy to rhyme time! But checking out the art on offer across the country is just as enjoyable for him, and heaps more enjoyable for me.
It’s important to me that he feels at home in our national institutions, which, by the way, are often free. Research shows that if you visit a museum with your family as a child, you’re more likely to become a long-term visitor. And then there are the benefits to learning, mental health and wellbeing.
Thankfully, things have changed since former Guardian columnist Dea Birkett and her twins were shown the exit at the RA after one of them screamed with delight “Monster! Monster” at an Aztec sculpture 20-odd years ago.
“I thought I was the cleverest woman in the world,” she tells me. “Here I was with a two-year-old appreciating pre-Hispanic art. So, I bent down to say ‘yes, yes, it’s just like a monster’, then a gallery assistant asked us to leave because we were being too noisy.” The experience led her to establish Kids in Museums, a charity dedicated to making cultural organisations more welcoming for families.
Historically, museums might have been places of quiet contemplation and static displays. But more and more now cater to children – particularly under-fives, who, with their adults, make up a large part of the midweek audience. Last year, Brighton & Hove Museums collaborated with Sussex Baby Lab to create a trail based on eye-tracking technology and headcams, which revealed what infants were most drawn to during cultural visits. And Dulwich Picture Gallery in London opened a new ArtPlay Pavilion – the centrepiece of a £5m renovation – furnished with bridges and swings inspired by paintings in its collection.
Off the back of its 2024 research, Art Fund launched Kids Aloud, a scheme that encourages children to visit museums and galleries, and, during two-hour slots, be as lively as they like. Look up your local and I bet there will be a kiddy-focused offering. After a quick Google search, I have a long list that includes Art Baby at the Whitworth in Manchester, Toddle Tours at MK Gallery in Milton Keynes, and Art Rebels at Turner Contemporary in Margate.
The trouble is, do I want something kiddy-focused, or do I want to simply bring my son with me to an exhibition I’ve been longing to see? Am I after education or entertainment or both? What happens when we leave the iPad behind, only to encounter art on a screen? Is an outdoor sculpture park the answer to a day of art that’s free from constant cajoling and scooping? And, speaking of which, how on earth can we plan for the fact that small children are entirely unpredictable?
Back at the RA, I sheepishly told the nearest gallery attendant about the toy pig, cordoned off behind the string. I wanted to tell him that, as well as a mum, I’m an art critic. I didn’t.
He followed me across the polished wood floor before kneeling down to peer into one of the metal grills (my son loves to dance on those) and regretfully inform me he wasn’t sure how to retrieve it.
“Not there,” I said. “There.” I pointed towards the base of the painting behind him, mercifully unharmed.
“Oh, you can get it,” he replied. “Those strings are just for show.”
Top tips for survival when visiting a gallery or museum with a small child
Snacks, lots of snacks
Time it well (bear in mind naps, meal times, rush hour – you name it)
The figures provide the first official look at the impact of the Iran war on the cost of living in the UK.
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Depression candy and death stares: inside the secret world of the tennis locker room | Tennis
Back in the locker room after a successful first-round performance at the Australian Open in January, Coco Gauff caught a glimpse of a friendly face across the room. The player was scoffing sweets soon after a match, prompting Gauff to joke things must have gone well for her on court.
That laughter was not returned, for the player was stewing after a miserable day on court: “They were, like, ‘No, this is depression candy,’” says Gauff, wincing.
Part of the job description is sharing locker rooms around the world with the same people they are charged with battling on the court, an arrangement that can lead to awkward interactions for all involved. For many, such as Paula Badosa, part of the preparation for matches includes avoiding eye contact at all costs. “That’s the thing we do, I think, all of us,” she says, smiling. “We try to avoid it and just say hi. That day you avoid the conversation and eye contact for sure.”
Gauff concurs: “[With] the people I know really well, it’s not really that awkward. We’ll talk and be, ‘OK, see you out there,’ and that’s fine. But always with people you don’t know, you don’t know whether to say hi to them or not. I’m someone who usually always says hi, but the responses vary. And I understand – get in the moment.”
For Belinda Bencic, the situations where she and her opponents are grouped closely together, such as sharing a golf cart en route to the court, are more uncomfortable than sharing a locker room. Still, even she cannot avoid the strangeness of some of these scenarios: “Sometimes you are doing your hair or getting ready for the match and your opponent is right there,” she says. “You don’t know if you should say small talk or not. Everyone is different. Some players are very relaxed – we are talking – and some players don’t want to talk to you before the match.”
The awkwardness does not merely extend to the opponent that day. As Gauff’s faux pas in Melbourne illustrated, dozens of players pass in and out of the locker room after their matches each day, meaning it is a minefield of emotion. Some players are in tears after an excruciating defeat and others are raging. Sometimes it is impossible to know exactly what happened.
“The worst thing about sharing a locker room is seeing someone, knowing they played, but not knowing how the score went,” says Gauff. “You don’t know what mood they’re in. I always find that hard to navigate.”
After spending so much of their lives in communal locker rooms from their junior days, players quickly become used to these interactions. Madison Keys does not know any other way: “I quite enjoy it because even though you’re sharing a locker room with your opponents, you’re also sharing a locker room with friends,” she says.
“There have been moments where I know that either myself or other players have had really tough moments and you always have someone around you who can give you a hug and talk you through it. There is that immediate support. I guess other sports have that, but it’s your own teammates. It’s nice there’s an immediate sense of community versus [being] isolated.”
One obvious way to minimise awkward interactions is to spend as little time as possible in the environment. Jannik Sinner has perfected the art of getting in and out as quickly as possible: “When I started to come on tour, I was on-site a lot,” he says. “I would spend a lot of time in the locker room, a lot of time in the restaurant area. Now I’m a bit different. Especially on training days, I come here [and] when the training is over or I eat something very fast here, then I leave or I leave straight away.”
Stefanos Tsitsipas believes most players are on good terms with each other, but observes that some are less willing to greet when they cross paths. He is particularly unimpressed by people who interact differently once they achieve a modicum of success.
“One thing I don’t understand is how they develop a bit of an attitude and a bit of an ego once they make one or two good results. Their whole personality changes. I wouldn’t say arrogant – perhaps some of them.
“I just wish more weren’t attached to their results and to what they do that determines who they are. I love humble people. That’s one of the reasons I admire Giannis Antetokounmpo a lot. He’s achieved so much through basketball. He’s one of the most humble athletes I’ve ever met and spent time with. I wish more tennis players were like that.”
Others have no problems with their peers. Daniil Medvedev says his coaches, Rohan Goetzke and Thomas Johansson, often tell him stories about how messy relations between players used to be. “I heard from them that 20 years ago it was as toxic as it could be,” he says. “I was shocked. I was, like: ‘But that’s why you guys finish your careers early because it’s constant pressure.’
He told me some stories where from when you wake up you’re already under pressure. Going to the locker room, you’re under pressure.”
Nowadays, Medvedev says, the locker room is far more peaceful and largely drama free. The sport is a melting pot of different cultures, customs and background, but, according to Bencic, along with a potent serve, groundstrokes and a cool head under pressure, a key quality for a top player is tact and discretion. “It can be a little bit awkward if someone has had a bad day or just lost or something, then someone else comes in and is all happy,” she says. “It’s a shared space, so you have to really also be a little bit respectful to everyone else. Just be respectful and normal.”
The ‘chill’ follows the sacking of lead civil servant at the Foreign Office Sir Olly Robbins by the prime minister.
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