I’m visiting a preschool a couple decades ago. The kids are having a wonderful time cutting and pasting. The teacher comes over to me with her best professional whisper: “We’re working on our fine motor skills today.” I wondered, If the kids knew they were working on skill development, would they still be having fun?

I guess surrounding a child with good art may be developing their Visual-Spatial Intelligence. I’d rather think we were just surrounding them with good art. What I like about these three museums is that the focus is on cool things. They slip up and mention their potential value for children now and then, but forgivably.

I guess it’s just my own kooky streak, but my first vote for kids goes to MoMa, The Museum of Modern Art. MoMaStore has a bunch of imaginative goodies for kids, guaranteed to give anyone’s “Whooee-that’s-cool!” Intelligence a bump up.

My favorites this time through:
The Chair Game

and the Concept Kitchen.

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Much as I enjoy their catalog, it appears that The Art Institute of Chicago hasn’t particularly noticed that kids exist. Now wait a second, Dave, aren’t you the guy who’s always saying that we need to respect kids’ innate capacity to resonate to beauty, whether or not it’s “Child Certified"? Or did someone else write the previous paragraph? Well, that’s a good point, and as soon as I look through the catalog with that standard in mind, there’s hardly a page without something I know would have delighted our kids. For one example of many, what say you to this?

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On the other hand, the Metropolitan Museum of Art has most definitely discovered kids. The category is called MetKids, and the categorized display makes it easy to look around. How about that Snake Charmer Flute? The cobra is optional.