Children Take the Lead
Researching with local children and their families how to help new visitors enjoy contemporary art
Which way to go? What do we do?
What does it mean? What if I don’t like it or understand?
Visiting contemporary art galleries can be difficult especially if you feel you ought to understand or like what you’re looking at. Children don’t seem to suffer from these anxieties. We’d like to find out how to explore contemporary art through a child’s eyes.
CCI believes that children are the most implacable enemies of boredom. They are full-time researchers, untiring makers of actions, ideas and theories. They are born strong, interested, capable and curious and will show us what they are thinking in many ways – they move, draw, paint, build, act, sing – they use ‘100 languages’. So in Children Take the Lead, CCI wants to let them lead us in finding out about contemporary art.
CCI have been awarded a Grants for Arts Award to run an innovative research programme with clusters of local children and their families. Working in partnership with Wysing Arts Centre and Kettle’s Yard Gallery, CCI artists will explore alongside groups of young researchers to discover how to help other families enjoy visiting these contemporary art galleries.
By inviting them to take the creative lead through a programme of workshops and linked events, CCI artists will enable the children and their families to offer us the world of these contemporary art galleries as seen through their eyes. Through their responses, discovered through words, images, movement and discussion, we believe we can all re-enter the joy of a world full of the fascinations and possibilities that we once knew as children too.
Inspired by these creative responses and imaginings, CCI will then develop new family-friendly resources for both galleries to support encouraging new family visitors to two of the UK’s leading contemporary arts organisations.
We are delighted by the enthusiastic response of our primary school partners for the project. Spinney Primary School in Cambridge will be working with us on the research for Kettle’s Yard Gallery whilst The Vine Inter-Church Primary School in Cambourne will be showing us how they explore Wysing Arts Centre.
Hear from children from the Vine Primary School about their experiences:
Hear from families who came to Kettle's Yard to try out the prototype Props Box:
Hear from the children what they noticed about Kettle's Yard House and Gallery:
A project blog offers regular updates and more information. Follow this link to read more and sign up to follow.
To download a pdf copy of the above please click here.
To visit the Children Take the Lead blog please click the image below.
