Art museum goes hands-on to escape stodgy reputation with kids

By: Associated Press - | Saturday, February 3, 2007 6:45 PM PST ∞

CINCINNATI -- Scavenger hunts, scaled-down tours with child-friendly guides and exhibits encouraging kids to touch items they see in paintings are part of the Cincinnati Art Museum's efforts to grow a new generation of art enthusiasts.

The museum is trying to shake the stodgy reputation of art museums as forbidding places with creepy statues and guards yelling at children to hush and keep their hands to themselves, according to The Cincinnati Enquirer.

The museum has "touch carts" stocked with carved or beaded objects, and a Closer Look Gallery to go with a recent exhibit in which tiny doors concealed objects such as oranges, lace and marbles that could be seen in the paintings.

Families with children are among the fastest-growing audience segments and this month the museum attracted a record 1,503 children and their families for its "First Saturday" program. The children were sent on a scavenger hunt through the galleries, where they could ask questions of visiting sculptors, and got to make their own sculptures out of fuzzy wire.

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