Washington Winter Show 2016

50 Through the Eyes of a Child This page is sponsored by Mr. and Mrs. David Booth Beers H ow can we as collectors, art historians, educators, and parents help children see, understand, and appreciate the art and culture of the past, or of the present day, for that matter? The entire discipline of art education has evolved to help answer this question, but this short essay outlines only a few insights, gained during a project at the National Gallery of Art to develop family guides for the museum. Two booklets were written and evaluated, one to be used with the American collection and a second for nineteenth- century French paintings (Figures 1, 2). Writing for young audiences is not child’s play: to explain ideas with directness and simplicity, to boil them down to their essence, if you will, requires a thorough understanding of the subject and of its wider context. That is only a first step, however. Consideration of current educational theories must also be part of the process. Many of the activities in the National Gallery guides were informed by the work of Project Zero, an educational research group at the Harvard Graduate School of Education since 1967. Its Artful Thinking routines suggest ways to prompt young viewers to make rich connections with art. Many of the routines start by asking what children see, then what they experience, think, and wonder. The final by Heidi Nasstrom Evans Figure 1: Cover, Family Guide: American Art at the National Gallery of Art, Washington, 2011. Figure 2: Cover, Family Guide: French Painting at the National Gallery of Art, Washington, 2013.