One of my favorite art bloggers, Edward Winkleman, posted on a gallery’s responsibility is to warn visitors before they enter a potentially upsetting exhibition. Like many museum and gallery people, he’s waffling on the issue: he can see that parents might appreciate knowing in advance that an exhibition includes “mature” content, but he also makes this very valid point:
The main problem with warning signs, of course, is how they frame the work before the viewer encounters it, setting up a predetermined context in which the viewer should approach it. In other words, the viewer is not permitted to make up their own mind about the work, free of the institution’s instruction.
He argues that a sign puts visitors in a position of entering the gallery with their defenses up — I agree. But – - on the other hand, I wonder if for a lot of parents, any show at a contemporary art museum would get their defenses up. Would you be more on guard with no signs, and no guidance on what to expect, or with signs at the entrance to each potentially upsetting gallery?
I have an 8 year old and I’d rather there not be warnings on these exhibits. My daughter constantly asks my where the naughty stuff is.
Even if I am not prepared for a situation, life is like that. You have to be prepared to explain life to a kid. It is one of the tools we can pass on to them to prepare them for life. Do parents really expect that kids don’t run into “mature” content just because they are not with them in other parts of their day.
If you can’t teach them how to handle situations like an art museum then good luck with Junior High and High School.
“If you hide your kids from everything they will most likely hide most things from you”. – I think Ladybird Johnson said this.
Comment by Bill McGuire — May 16, 2008 @ 6:27 pm
I can completely imagine that happening — that my kid would read the sign, and then the rest of the trip to the gallery would be a seek-and-find for the “naughty” stuff. Good point!
Comment by Margaret Pezalla-Granlund — May 20, 2008 @ 11:57 pm
Who is to define naughty? While I don’t consider the nude human body or sexuality naughty, others will consider a bare ankle naughty. There tends to be no pleasing these latter people. They will find fault with anything not done their way. Unfortunately, they tend to expect the same extremes in belief with their children, whether their children agree or not. How long can we expect to protect the youngest among us from the fullness of the human experience, disagreeable or not? It is not up to museums to be the morality police. In fact, I think we have to be cognizant of trying not to cater to the sanitized view of art or history. As for the forewarning, I wouldn’t put one up. Let people live a little.
Comment by Mary Warner — May 22, 2008 @ 1:07 pm