Lively Museum
- An Educational Perspective

September 7, 2015

Museums for Children
About the structure of "Museum Start iUeno"

Kazumi Kumagai, Tokyo Metropolitan Art Museum

"Museums for Children." This is the slogan for this year's pamphlet "Museum Start iUeno" supporting the introduction and debut of a museum for children, in collaboration with nine cultural institutions in Ueno Park. Museum Start iUeno began in 2013, and is based on the idea that children should have the chance to enjoy art galleries and museums just as adults do. This idea has been advertised to children, school teachers, and parents/guardians in the form of Museum Starter Pack tools and various other programs.

The nine participating cultural institutions are: Ueno Forest Art Museum, Ueno Zoological Gardens, National Museum of Nature and Science, International Library of Children’s Literature, The National Museum of Western Art, Tokyo University of the Arts, Tokyo National Museum, Tokyo Metropolitan Art Museum, and Tokyo Bunka Kaikan. By arranging information on a variety of different topics such as nature, history, and art, as well as organizing the layout of the exhibits so that it is easier for children to understand and use, we hope to provide an opportunity for children to discover the things that interest them by exploring museum objects. Additionally, in order to promote this self-discovery, the children may participate in the program with someone else. The active participation of Art Communicators, who are adults affiliated with the Gateway Project (a collaboration between the Tokyo Metropolitan Art Museum and the Tokyo University of the Arts) is essential as they listen to what the children are saying and provide education in a conversational manner.

Specifically, the program consists of an appreciation class as part of the school curriculum, where the students go to a museum with their teacher, and an individual component where students visit a museum with their family during the holidays or after school. The appreciation class is held in an auditorium at the Tokyo Metropolitan Art Museum, and museum staff and professors at the Tokyo University of the Arts can support the teacher in creating the curriculum from before the visit to the follow up afterwards. This year, for the individual component, we have planned a special program involving the exhibit "From Norway to Ueno, Tokyo: Kubbe's Museum - see, collect, research, arrange" as a part of Museum Start iUeno. Children will be able to appreciate this exhibit facilitated by an Art Communicator and visit one additional museum to complete their experience (the Kubbe crew).

Kubbe's Museum exhibit is based on the story about Kubbe, a boy who decides to open a museum with the things he has collected. The idea is to help children realize that we interact and communicate with the world around us by observing, collecting, and arranging things. In addition to the activities of Museum Start iUeno, the museum's renewal process in 2012 made us realize the meaning of observing things and the value of sharing our discoveries, through the highly-attended Art Communication project. The children have the opportunity to observe the collection of natural, historical, and artistic items curated by adults, and create their own collections, allowing them to observe the things around them creatively. There is a fresh perspective to be gained on ordinary, everyday things through the power of observation.

The aim of the Kubbe Crew is to observe the cultural properties housed in participating museums in Ueno with the new perspective gained while experiencing the exhibit on Kubbe's Museum, and re-examine what they learned at the museum individually. The children can observe the cultural properties in participating museums (National Museum of Nature and Science, The National Museum of Western Art, Tokyo University of the Arts, and Tokyo National Museum) accompanied by the Art Communicator, choose a cultural property that aligns with the theme of the museum, and write down their discoveries in a show-and-tell scrapbook provided as part of the Museum Starter Pack.

Children are not the only ones who learn by sharing their discoveries. Being able to see the forest from the trees as the children do is an exciting perspective that could lead to new discoveries for adults. We will continue to support activities, learning through objects, and deepening our connections to other museums in Ueno through greater collaboration.

• Museum Start iUeno: http://museum-start.jp/
• Kubbe's Museum: http://kubbe.tobikan.jp/