The Landscape of Children’s Museums Around the World
Leigh-Anne Stradeski, Eureka! The National Children’s Museum

Interest in providing museum experiences for children has been steadily increasing worldwide for more than thirty years, the main growth in Europe having occurred primarily since 1990. Much of the inspiration for this has come from the United States, where the concept of the "children's museum" originated with the establishment of the Brooklyn Children's Museum in 1899 and later with the pioneering work of Michael Spock at the Boston Children's Museum in the 1960s, which successfully put children at the center of the experience and gave play based learning credibility. Driven by educational theorists and committed parents and teachers, creating a fun and effective alternative to the classroom that helps children learn about themselves and the world around them is a concept that has found a foothold regardless of continent, country or culture. But in every region, city or town, the cultural, political, societal, economic and educational context influences the way in which the children's museum experience has been conceptualized, funded and executed.

Hands-On! Europe (HO!E), the European-based version of ACM, serves as a useful barometer of the international children's museum movement. Starting in the mid '90s as a small group of European museum professionals with a keen interest in children, HO!E has grown to encompass members from around the world. The 2007 Hands-On! conference in Berlin involved 217 delegates from thirty-two countries-the highest and most diverse group of participants ever. A majority of European countries was represented, from Finland to Greece, from Portugal to Slovakia and, for the first time, seven Eastern European countries joined the discussions and shared their experiences. Also welcomed were participants from Kosovo, Turkey, Israel, Jordan, Russia and the United States, and from as far away as India, Nepal and New Zealand. This representation is indicative of the growing recognition that children's museums fill a valuable role and provide an environment and experience not offered by any other existing cultural resource.

Unlike the U.S., where a children's museum movement and unified sector has evolved over the years, in most other parts of the world children's museums have invented themselves on a very individualized basis, drawing inspiration from the concept of play-based, hands-on learning but interpreting it to reflect their unique culture, context and environment. Consequently, the modern American model of a purpose-built children's museum, containing several themed multi-disciplinary interactive galleries and creative spaces geared to children from birth to twelve is not the norm internationally. With its proximity to the U.S., Canada has followed this model quite closely, and the first Canadian Children's Museum based in London, Ontario, established the standard for the Canadian sector when it opened in 1975. On the other side of the Atlantic, Eureka! The National Children's Museum in Halifax, U.K., which opened in 1992, is an example of a European children's museum that has followed the U.S. example but adapted it to its own heritage. Part of its experience is the archetypal "Living and Working Together" community-based exhibition built up around a typical English town square. Its other galleries reflect relevant, topical themes such as the environment, the human body, the science of sound and creative performance plus two areas specifically for the under-fives-again mirroring the American model from which the Eureka! founders drew inspiration.

In contrast, one of Europe's first children's museums, established in Brussels in 1976, has taken quite a different approach. Although inspired by a visit to the Boston Children's Museum by its founder Kathleen Lippens, Le Musée des Enfants creates a single-themed exhibition every three to four years, the content of which is driven by the stages of emotional development in children. Its current exhibition is themed around the color red. Through its exhibits, different aspects and associations with la couleur rouge are explored — life, anger, love, passion — and children gain a deeper understanding of and capacity to deal with their emotional lives.

This approach has been quite influential in Europe. For many years single-themed children's museums or, more often, single themed exhibitions for children within a traditional museum built around its permanent collection, have prevailed. In a 2004 research project on European children's museums, 75 percent of the questionnaire respondents indicated that they are specifically dedicated to one or two macro-themes, such as arts, science, technology or anthropology (Dimichino 2004).

A variation of the single-themed approach has been the evolution of the children's museum without walls; a good example of this is MUBA, an organization established in 1995 with the original goal of opening a children's museum in Milan. However, with no permanent site, it developed a series of single-themed playful exhibitions designed and made of modular structures that could be set up at various venues in Milan and elsewhere in Italy. Some of the themes have included money, color, boxes, signs and sounds. All the exhibitions are play based and look at various aspects of arts, culture and science. Their emphasis is on enabling children to explore and develop their creative potential. MUBA still has its eye on a permanent site and is currently part of a regeneration scheme where it will be one element of a Children's Cultural Centre. In the meantime, it has found a means to bring the benefits of a children's museum experience to thousands of children in Italy.

Much further afield, Te Papa Tongarewa, the Museum of New Zealand, is a traditional museum that includes four dedicated, themed discovery centers for children that complement the museum's collection and offer a multidisciplinary approach to delivering a national museum for diverse audiences. The Discovery Centers — Nature Space, Inspiration Station, PlaNet Pacifica and Te Huka a Tai — are colorful, vibrant, inviting places, specifically designed to encourage children and families to explore, touch, play, ask questions, research and learn. For example Te Huka a Tai has a Maori focus, allowing tamariki (children) to try their hand at weaving a k‚kahu (cloak) or catching a bright fish to take home. There are stilts, rakau (stick) games and children can record a mihimihi (greeting).

Although the diversity and individual nature of the children's museum movement internationally makes it difficult to generalize, there are some key values and commonalities that can be said to be universal and consistent with the U.S. model. These include the emphasis on:

• building family and community;

• developing children's potential and creativity;

• helping children understand the world and themselves-including current and evolving issues;

• addressing disadvantage;

• reflecting cultural values and experience; and

• working in partnership with others with shared values.
  

Beyond these, the unique context of each region comes into play. Therefore, it is useful to look briefly at the key elements that have influenced the growth and development of children's museums in America and around the world.

Political Context

At any given time, the political situation and the political will of any governing authority will impact the kinds of developments and projects that are encouraged, established and funded. In most countries this comes down to economics and strategic priorities. In the U.K. for example, significant funding from lottery sources was allocated to opening science centers in the late '90s through a Millennium Fund. The goal was to increase public understanding of science and to encourage more young people to take up careers in science in response to the shortage of scientists and the consequent lack of new scientific R & D taking place in the country. More recently, the U.K. government has put an emphasis on children and their right to opportunities for "free play." Funding streams have been created to support development in this area, and hopefully will ultimately bring benefits to children's museums.

A unique example of political influence and its impact on the development of children's museums can be seen in the establishment of The National Children's Museum of Jordan by Her Majesty Queen Rania. In a message published on their Web site, she describes the children's museum as "the realization of a personal dream of mine for Jordan's children…it is a place where they can come together…play… laugh…and make new friends. A place where imaginations are lit…ideas sparked…and connections made." The children's museum will help move the national agenda of Jordan forward, she says, by equipping children "with the knowledge, skills, strategies and values that will allow them to excel in a fast-paced and competitive world" (Her Majesty Queen Rania Al-Abduhllah of Jordan 2008).

The Funding Context

Children's museums everywhere require funding to open their doors in the first place and then to keep them open from year to year. The extent to which children's museums rely on earned versus contributed revenues varies enormously not only from country to country but even between and within the same cities.

There are four main funding sources- statutory (government), foundations and trusts, corporations and individuals. Always tied to the current political agenda, statutory funding is generally only made available if a children's museum can demonstrate that it is fulfilling a government priority, as with the U.K. science centers. Oftentimes, other sources of funding will be leveraged if statutory support is in place. Although the situation is changing in some parts of the world, it is fair to say that the magnanimous culture of philanthropy that is part of the fabric of American life, and the availability of government support for children's museums at local or state levels in the U.S. does not exist in many other countries.

The significant funding challenges therefore have hindered the growth potential of children's museums outside the U.S. Funding challenges account for the more prevalent model of a themed exhibition reflecting children's museum principles and developed as part of an existing museum or cultural center that already has secure funding in place.

A new variable in the funding context is the growth of the European Union (E.U.). Eastern European states new to the E.U. are interested in opening children's museums including Slovakia, Czech Republic and more recently Bulgaria and Romania. Many children's museums have been able to tap into new E.U. funding streams; however, the complexities of the partnerships required by E.U. funding criteria and the resource commitment to evaluate and report on outcomes is so onerous that it discourages many smaller organizations.

Societal Values — The Importance of the Child and the Family

The cover page of Child Poverty in Perspective: An Overview of Child Well-being in Rich Countries, which measured twenty-one industrialized countries across six dimensions of children's well-being, states that "the true measure of a nation's standing is how well it attends to its children-their health and safety, their material security, their education and socialization, and their sense of being loved, valued, and included in the families and societies into which they are born" (UNICEF Innocenti Research Centre Report Card 7, 2007).

Children's museums are a celebration of childhood and proponents of the value and importance of children within family, community and society. Museum development can be driven by a need to provide children living in disadvantage with experiences and opportunities they would not otherwise be able to have; this is the case with Discover, the children's museum in the London borough of Newham, one of the most deprived localities in the U.K. Alternatively, in places where children are highly valued and appreciated, a children's museum may be developed out of a desire to enhance the opportunities already available to further develop children's potential or to contribute to some aspect of their worldview that is not being fulfilled elsewhere. Such is the case at Tropenmuseum Junior in Amsterdam, which runs a highly successful immersive program focused on developing children's understanding of different cultures.

In the UNICEF study, the Netherlands was the highest ranking country across the six dimensions, the U.K. the lowest, so these two examples could be said to reflect the respective contexts in which children are being raised and the value they are being accorded. The U.S. ranked just above the U.K., which is perhaps indicative of the differences that exist from one city to the next or from state to state in terms of the value placed on children and family. This is, of course, an oversimplification of a very complex issue, and the UNICEF report is only one indicator. Further analysis would need to be undertaken to draw any valid conclusions; however, the point is that around the world children's museums are established to serve the needs and improve the lives of children and stand as emblems of children's importance in their respective countries.

The Educational System

Since their inception, children's museums have been influenced by a huge range of educational theories and theorists from constructivism to multiple intelligences and Piaget to Reggio. For all children's museums, school groups as well as families are a key part of the audience served, and therefore there is a need to link in with national or state curricula. While there are no universal trends in how curriculum is established, delivered and monitored, there has been increasing recognition over the past several years of the learning potential of children and that it cannot be entirely fulfilled within the formal structure of the school.

In addition, the latest findings in brain research and the capacity for early childhood development have had a significant influence by shifting the focus of children's museums internationally to ever younger children. Early learning is viewed as a critical factor in securing higher levels of intellectual attainment to better equip the workforce in our increasingly technological, knowledge-based economy.

These developments account in part for the more recent development and increasing role of children's museums in Europe and around the world, as they stimulate the learning capacity of children by addressing many styles of learning-something that is more difficult to achieve in the classroom (Lord 2005). In the U.K. in particular there has been a recent interest in reintroducing individualized learning and elements of play into the primary curriculum. This is complemented by a national agenda to provide children with greater access to outdoor and free play opportunities within communities. The Children's Plan and the National Play Strategy have been initiated by the Department for Children, Schools and Families to provide a framework for achieving these goals. And although there is a precedent for outdoor play areas in some parts of Europe, the movement towards greater use of outdoor spaces and nature in American children's museums is influencing the international children's museum movement.

In conclusion, the children's museum movement that originated in U.S. at the end of the nineteenth century has had a major influence on serving young audiences in museums throughout the world. Rather than replicate the U.S. model, however, each museum has built upon the experience of American children's museums, gathered information from other spheres of children's learning and provision and applied them to their own culture, context and environment. The result has been unique play-based participatory exhibitions and experiences that help children successfully navigate the challenges of childhood. Hands-On! Europe and its conference provide a forum for sharing the global experience of our sector, and the combined membership and knowledge of ACM and HO!E provides an unparalleled international perspective that can be used to enhance the future development of children's museums.

REFERENCES

UNICEF Innocenti Research Centre, Report Card 7, Child poverty in perspective: An overview of child well-being in rich countries (Florence: The United Nations Children's Fund, 2007)

Elena Dimichino, European Children's Museums: A Quest for Identity, Research Report (Milan: Universita Commerciale Luigi Bocconi, 2004)

Her Majesty Queen Rania Al-Abdullah of Jordan, Letter of Her Majesty Queen Rania (Jordan: The Children's Museum of Jordan Web site: www.cmj.jd, 2007)

Gail Dexter Lord, Keynote Presentation: Hands-On! Europe Conference, The Challenges of Identity and Influence for Europe's Children's Museums (Vienna, 2005).

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Leigh-Anne Stradeski is the chief executive of Eureka! The National Children's Museum in Halifax, England, and was executive director of the London Regional Children's Museum in London, Ontario, Canada between 1994 and 2000. She is currently president of Hands-On Europe, the European equivalent of ACM.

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