- art for children
- the historical development of the children's art lending program
- pressure points
- the child as starting point The children's art lending program
- the ideal design
- art lending program for children or a department for juniors?
- the importance of the children's art lending program for children
- the importance of the children's art lending program for parents and other adults
- the importance of the children's art lending program for art lending programs in general
- the importance of the children's art lending program for artists Art for children
- does art for children exist?
- when is it art for children?
- autonomous art versus illustrations Once again: what is art for children?
Art for children
When one wants to teach a child of five years old about the pleasures of reading, will we read
aloud from James Joyce ? Or will we choose a Winnie the Pooh book? If one wants to make
children enthusiastic about films, will we take them to see the marvelous film "Death in
Venice"? Or do we prefer to take them to see "Matilda"? When one tries to make children
interested in theatre, will we take them to a sublime performance of "Who's afraid of Virginia
Woolf" Or rather to "Annie"?
When one tries to make children enthusiastic about classical music, will we choose for the
integral Ring by Wagner? Or will it
be "Peter and the Wolf"?
Within every form of art it is usual that there are (also) works especially made for children,
except in the area of visual art. This is unexplored territory. The aim of the children's art
lending program (kinderkunstuitleen), within the boundaries of art lending, is to fill this gap so
that one can already
at an early age come in contact with and enjoy visual art.
The children's art lending program will be an alternative for the large selection of posters and
other products which inundate the market and where during manufacturing not really enough
thought is given to the development of the perception of art.
Within every form of art it is usual that there are (also) works especially made for children,
except in the area of visual art. This is unexplored territory. The aim of the children's art
lending program, within the boundaries of art lending, is to fill this gap so that one can already
at an early age come in contact with and enjoy visual art.
The children's art lending program will be an alternative for the large selection of posters and
other products which inundate the market and where during manufacturing not really enough
thought is given to the development of the perception of art.
The historical development of the children's art lending program
Most art exhibitions were usually dull for children, but the children were regularly taken to
them by their parents. That was also the case with the bookstore-gallery Bellemans in Axel (the
Netherlands).
Fortunately, here was also a large department with books for children. The enthusiasm of the
children when they flew to this department was one of the reasons to start, somewhere in
1982, special art exhibitions for children. In spite of the problem of finding a professional artist
every month with enough work to interest children.
A request by children's book writer Rindert Kromhout to exhibit Sylvia Weve's drawings from
his latest book lead to the solution; children's book illustrators are professional artists who
make highly qualified work that is also very accessible for children.
A few years later, in 1985, when the art lending program and also the children's art lending
program were started, there was so little art available for children out the free sector that the
starting inventory of the children's art lending program mostly existed of original book
illustrations.
When again a few years later children's art lending programs where set up in Dutch cities like
Den Bosch,
Groningen, Middelburg and Geleen, it was probably because of this same reason that the
inventories of these programs also mostly consisted of works from children's book illustrators.
In the elder children's art lending program we still find lots of work from children's book
illustrators. However in the younger children's lending program this kind of work cannot often
be found anymore. Partly out of principle and partly because of financial reasons one has
started to search in one's own inventory for work that's suitable for children.
Pressure points
In 1993 Femke Lockefeer sketched in her thesis "Kinderen leren Kijken naar kunst - 10 jaar
kinderkunstuitleen" (University of Utrecht 1993) the pressure points at that time. She noticed
four types of problems: financial, lack of space, knowledge and experience with the children's
art lending program. These same problems are still mostly actual, mainly because not everyone
really sees the importance of children's art lending program. The reason for this is that the
children's art lending program has a different basis in comparison with that of a general art
lending program. This difference has existed from the beginning. The most art lending
programs have arisen out of a healthy market-oriented reasoning. Because modern art is not
often
accessible, the supply was then larger than the demand, something that's also true now days.
One can choose to make
more popular, easy selling art; or one can choose to make the introduction to and the
purchasing of art accessible. Art lending was born out of this last option and, although some
things
have changed, this way of thinking is for the most art lending programs common policy.
Most art lending programs try to avoid popular art in their inventories and instead buy art of
high quality. That's why people with a good knowledge of art are especially selected for the
acquisition and hiring committees. For the grown up audience this is a good thing, for the
children's art lending program however it's a different matter.
The child as starting point
The children's art lending program has grown out of thinking aimed at an audience. The
client/child is central, not the work of art. For a lending program in those days, and indeed also
recently, this is something quite unusual. It is more usual for the work of art itself to be the
starting point and to work from there to find the best way to present it to the public. This
approach is derived from that of museums. In the children's art lending program one takes the
public as starting point and asks oneself with what kind of work one can help the child in
his/her development of their enjoyment of art.
If we consider the child, we notice that children don't only experience art differently than
grown ups, but that there are also essential differences in the way children aged five or children
aged ten for example experience art.
Also children first have to learn just to look, to observe and to interpret art. Looking at art has
a positive influence on that learning process, but then the art in question has to be connected to
this and must not include any, or as little as possible, disturbing elements. In practice we notice
that there is not much art on offer at the moment that complies to these high standards, after all
the art has to be of superior quality. Waiting until some work might coincidentally appear
complying to these high standards is one possibility, stimulating artists to make some work
especially for children is another.
The last-mentioned possibility is maybe a step too far for the employees of the art lending
programs. The main idea of art is that it should be autonomous and not made for a target
group. According to this idea art cannot be made especially for children. We will come back to
this point later on because in fact this discussion before whether or not to set up a children's
lending program is less relevant.
The most important question is whether the art-lending program considers it as its duty to
breed tomorrow's public according to its inventory.
Is it important, from a continuance point of view, for the art-lending program to let the public
get in touch with 'art lending' at an early age? That is the most fundamental question that
should be asked. Because of the market-oriented way of thinking when the art-lending
program began it seems self evident that a children's art lending program be received with open
arms.
In the following chapter will be sketched how a good children's lending program can be
built-up. In the second chapter we will go deeper into the question; 'when is art for children
satisfying and why'.
The children's art lending program:
The ideal design
It would be ideal to set up the children's art lending program around four different age groups
as follows:
a) The youngest children, until about six years of age At this age they especially pay attention
to the subject, shape and colour. They look at the details but don't yet have an idea about what
"art" is and accept all they see.
It is important that the work is quite simple and that it's also a kind of 'recognition experience'.
The inventory should exist mainly out of the work of children's book illustrators, together with
works especially
made for this age.
b) Children aged from six to eight years
For this group already some additional 'free' work, but still made especially and/or selected for
children so that it suits their living environment.
c) Children aged from nine to twelve years
Increasingly freer works and fewer works typically for children. This group also has to be
approached less individually. It is important to start with school projects such as small
exhibitions by theme. Original illustrations are extremely suitable for exhibitions and projects at
school. They offer all kinds of extra possibilities, for example they can be connected to the
children's book week and the school could receive an illustrator instead of a writer. Many
schoolbooks are illustrated and that lends the possibility of, from the children's art
lending program, of making a connecting with even a subject like mathematics.
d) Children aged twelve and older
This age group does not join their parents at exhibitions so easily anymore, neither do they
come alone: this group should be approached mainly via schools, preferably in combination
with educational- and art projects.
Involve the children and teachers intensively in the selection of works, this also to be connec
ted with themes that are actual at school.
Children's art lending program or a junior's department?
The children's art lending program must be seen as the doorway to the total art lending facility.
The department should (preferably) not be situated somewhere out of sight; it should in fact be
directly visible on entering. Special signs can be nice but shouldn't be necessary because one
can see by the inventory that it's the children's
department. Here and there are some drawbacks with the word "children's art lending
program" because children do not make the art. That's why some lending programs have a
"Junior's department". The most logical thing to do is to hang up a sign "Children's art lending
program" at the department for young children
and to hang a sign "Junior's department" at the department for elder children.
When one lends out art to children and also art made by children, one can also make a
difference between "Children's Art Lending program" and "Art Lending program for Children".
At the library adults may borrow children's books, but children may not borrow books for
adults.
With the art lending program it ought to be
exactly the other way around; children may borrow work from the stock for grown ups but
grown ups may not borrow work (they can buy) from the children's art lending program.
Going by the thought that one can breed tomorrow's public via the children's art lending
program, then the subscriber's expenses should be kept as low as possible, certainly for very
young children. This also counts for the borrowing cost. When children get older and start
borrowing more works out of the general lending program, the prices can then be raised.
To build up a good children's art lending program is not a simple task, leaving the financial
aspects and the fact that many programs have a big stock of works aside. Just like the general
lending program the children's art lending program must grow.
There is still one big difference: the audience of the general lending program is, in comparison
with the children's art lending program, much more stable en easier to get to know. Those who
work with children know
that this is a much more difficult group. In two years time there are constant changes.
For the manager of the children's art lending program this is quite troublesome. It can
go well for a few years and suddenly there's no interest any more or the selection
doesn' t connect any longer with the interests of children.
Managing a childrens art lending program is not something that one does as a
hobby, within this branch (art lending) a very high level of skill is demanded and it is important
that the manager is involved with all kinds of activities derived from the children's lending
program. It's like all the other things: a good start is half the
work
The importance of the children's art lending program for children
The most important reason to start a children's art lending program is maybe that children
appreciate there being a special department for them. Children are very self-assured; they want
something for themselves. A special department indicates that they are treated seriously and
that they are not seen as an appendage or small versions of their parents.
The importance of the children's art lending program for parents and other grown
ups
One has to put a name on things for children, they like to know why something is nice or why
it isn't.
Children have lots of questions about the work of art they choose and it's important that
parents can react to them. The selected works in the children's art lending program are not only
accessible for the children but also for the parents, which makes reacting on
the questions easier. Certainly with illustrations from books a child knows well.
Seeing original illustrations makes parents look more carefully at illustrations when they
choose a book for their child. The reaction of the parents is also important in order to test the
selection in the program. The standard point of view of parants is usually:"If I like it,
it's also nice for my children"
.
The importance of the children's art lending program itself
Usually parents (especially of young children) are very enthusiastic about the
children's art lending program. This is also the case for schools in the neighbourhood and, for
example, (educational services of) museums and libraries. Of course generating enough interest
for future visitors is very important.
It is good for the children's art lending program to co-operate with all kinds of
institutions, so more people will get to know about it's existence. As a result of this the
organisation will become stronger and this will also lead to interesting networks. This kind of
co-operation strengthens the position of the lending program and it generates lots of free
publicity.
The importance of children's lending program for artists
At the moment it can happen that an artist finds it a problem that his work is exhibited in the
children's art lending program. That can be out of principle or because the children's art lending
program can be considered as somewhat inferior.
To see that children have their own taste, fantasy world, and sense of humour and that they can
be incredibly pleased when work connects to these, can be very stimulating for artists. This is
also the case when artists see that children can react in a totally different way than grown-ups
to the same art. These reactions can be wonderful, so inspiring that the artists may already try
to act on them when making art.
Art for children
Does art for children exist?
The opinions about this are very varied.
In the first place the behaviour of children and adults doesn't make this less complicated:
children seem to like to choose works from the adults' selection just as much as from that
specially selected for them. The other way around is also the case, adults also like to borrow
work out of the children's selection.
This behaviour led some children's art lending programs to the conclusion that it's nonsense to
make a special selection for children. It would also be too patronising.
This is a shame because things are not always what they seem to be.
Anticipating the following it has to be said that the attraction
adults have for the children's art lending program selection is not so strange, because
the less experienced adult has the same preferences and aversions as children do. That children
like to choose out of the selection for adults has many reasons. A child is an individual with
it's own taste and one can't always find something sensible to say about that.
Besides it's fun and challenging for a child to choose something
from the selection for grown-ups. The child can prove in this way that he has reached another
stage.
And about being patronising: that happens to be an aspect of working with children. If
you like it or not, you're always educating and patronising in some way. It is
like Sartre said: even when you don't choose, you choose not to choose.
The question if art especially for children exists, can be best answered by children themselves.
We won't talk about the differences between autonomous and
applied art now, we will come back to this point further on in detail taking a work of art by
Dick Bruna as an example. Here and there people react denigrating on his simple drawings, but
Bruna is still one of the few Dutch artists who ever had a solo exhibition in the Centre
Pompidou in Paris. So we can establish that Bruna enjoys a very good international reputation.
We ask a child of about ten years old if he wants to borrow a work by Dick Bruna. In nine of
the ten cases the child's reaction will be negative, and this because the child
finds itself too old for this kind of work.
At a certain point children don't want to borrow certain works anymore because they
think that they have outgrown them as fas as their taste and intellect is concerned. The last
mentioned, when a child finds the content of a work too simple, gives the child the opportunity
to acertain itself that he or she has developed. The offer of art only for grown ups will
intellectually always be of a (much too) high level for children. This can be quite frustrating for
them.
It is also of great importance for the esthetical development of the child that there is art which
fits in with the children's environment. I would like to refer now to the thesis of
philosopher Jos de Mul (Grondslagen van de esthetische opvoeding), that the development of
the esthetical can't be put exclusively in the subject or object, but in the
dialogue between a work of art and a spectator. My opinion is that the dialogue starts by the
maker of the work of art, who concentrates on the observer and when this is a child then he
should concentrate on them.
That's why the question can also be answered by turning it around: does art which
isn't suitable for children exist? Here you don't even have to think about the
work of Jeff Koons, because that level is extremely suitable for children.
In the first place one seems to think that all kinds of (painted) art is fundamentally suitable to
lend out or to explain to children, but that isn't true. The idea that all kinds of art can be
explained to children is quite absurd. In the extreme we could say that works of art become
infantile in this way. Some conceptual art can't be explained to children of about five years of
age, simply because the concept is too complicated. As the form also renders the contents it is
also impossible to point out the form. Of course you can make up a story about anything, but
in fact you're not really explaining the piece of work to the child
then. For the art lending program we have also to think about the fact that some works of art
can, in the loneliness of the children's room, have such a strong effect on the child that it
lead to lead to nightmares. That has happened sometimes. A work of art hanging between all
those other works is much less threatening than when it hangs at home on a further empty wall.
Also not every work of art is childproof, with vulnerable works one should first talk with the
artist.
We can conclude that on the one hand there's work which isn't suitable for the
children's room and on the other hand that there's art children think they are too old
for. In short there are reasons enough to make a selection.
When is it art for children?
The question:
"What exactly is art for children?"
can't be answered univocally. An important characteristic anyway is the superior quality
and the high rate of accessibility.
Also here it is easier to take the needs of the child as starting point instead of the needs of art if
we want to get an answer to this question.
There hasn't been much researce done into this yet. In her thesis
"Kinderen leren Kijken naar kunst - 10 jaar kinderkunstuitleen", Femke Lockefeer has made
some interesting findings which, in combination with experiences from the children's art
lending program, give quite a good indication of how children experience art.
It is only since the nineteen forty's that one started to take the preferences of children
into account. Until then the selection was made on behalf of art education while the choices
were based on what grown ups found interesting themselves.
Later research showed us that children look at art in a totally different way than grown-ups do.
At a young age children mostly pay attention to the subject, colour and style. When they get
older colour becomes less important and from around nine years old the feeling for the
esthetical starts getting an increasing influence.
Important for the perception of the child is that the subjects ought to come from the social
world of the child and that young children understand because of the detail shown. Each detail
catchs their attention and the child wants to know everything. It is also interesting that style is
so important to children (Hardiman, 1977: Influence of style), also for young children.
Also interesting is the research by Paul Machotka (1960) which pointed out that the
preferences of children for subject and style are not subject to culture. The development of
being able
to observe and the ability to take in information were very important.
As the practice also shows, boys have different preferences than girls. The first group rather
chooses works with pictures of airplanes and cars and the second group prefers for example
horses. This is an important point, one who doesn't want to take this into account is
also patronising, but in a negative way.
The abovementioned findings also explain certain behaviour of children while looking at art.
Children are much more direct in their judgement, they like some piece of work or they
don't. Someone used to looking at art usually has a more complicated judgement.
This difference in reacting is not really about the 'spontaneity' of the children, but
about the ability to experience a work of art. The spectator has to learn to observe and to cope
with these observations. A work of art exists of many levels and offers all different kinds of
points of contact. Children and laymen still have to learn to look, they only have a limited
amount of possibilities to experience a work of art: the subject (and that has even to fit in with
their social world) and the style (which you also only can recognise if you have seen it already
more often). So it's quite logical that children form a judgement quicker. An
experienced spectator would like to judge a work of art on all it's merits and that
takes much more time.
It explains also the difference in opinions between children and a professional jury, as we can
see every year during the children's book week while awarding the 'Penselen' and 'Griffels'
(given by adults) and the 'Kinderjuryprijs' (given by children). Both opinions are equally
valuable.
The more we know about how children cope with art, the better we can make a suitable
selection.
The collection should be composed in such a manner the development of the children can go
step by step. How big and how quickly those steps will be taken will be different for each child.
The selection will not be easy. It's equal to judging art on whether it has quality or not,
there's good and there is rubbish and in between there's a large grey territory. This
problem also exists while selecting art for children. There are wild life documentaries for adults
and for children. Even then when there's not one word spoken and when everything is filmed
at the same location, there still will be one difference. So a grown up can watch pictures for a
long time which are hardly changing and keep enjoying this, while a child gets bored after a
few minutes. The child has less to look at than the grown up.
The children's art lending program isn't something that one
can do as a hobby. It really is of great importance to see how the children and their parents
react to the art selection. It is also important to be and to keep being involved in projects
which, in co-operation with schools and artists, are set up out of the children's art lending
program.
Because when acquiring new works these projects have to be taken into account, it is evident
that it's the manager of the children's art lending program who has to hire or buy new
work.
Also for the hiring of work for the children's art lending program one prefers to obtain
works of professional artists. This is due to various reasons, for example that there has to be
continuity in the delivery of work of superior quality. Professional artists have to able to
support themselves by means of art and that does have consequences for the prices.
When the art lending program goes by the usual percentage for hiring can this cause problems
as children often have less to spend. So some children's art lending programs choose to
let the children only borrow work of a certain value. This is a pity, because that little difference
in income, if a more expensive work of art will be hired, is not equal to the principle that a
child should be able to borrow every piece of work.
Autonomous art against illustrations
Usually people see autonomous art and applied art as different things. Illustrations are seen as
practical art, but are still, and one does admit this, specially made for children. Autonomous art
isn't made for a target group and according to this way of thinking there is no such thing
as special autonomous art for children.
Autonomous art:
Autonomous art is in this way sketched as very idealistic and as something quite separate from
the normal world, in practice the freedom to create is quite a distressing situation.
Artists often work under great pressure because they have to make lots of works by order or
for an exhibition. Work that has to satisfy the expectations of the museum or gallery-keeper.
Karel Appel who does a painting on a pencil for the ABN-AMRO bank.
Art is not made for a special target-group, but it's made out of a
certain background, culture and attitude. The consequence of this is that, especially people
with the same background, culture and attitude will be able to experience this art and
appreciate it. So the work isn't made for a special target-group, but sometimes you
can't escape from that.
What's autonomous art? Can art that's made to sell be considered autonomous? Or is
it also applied art?
My father, Frans Bellemans, was an 'autonomous' artist and he
didn't want to make concessions. The consequence was that he sold very little. Because
there had to be food on the table, he started to work in a factory. There wasn't much time left
to paint anymore. My brother, also a painter, learned from this and he almost only works by
order.
The difference between them was (my father has passed on) that the one was bound to the
market and the other on the possibilities (my father), in both cases one can't talk about real
autonomy. Since my birth I have been in contact with artists, and in fact I've
met 'autonomously working' artists only in stories.
Autonomous art or not, an extremely interesting subject for a discussion, for the
children's art lending program this question isn't really relevant.
For the children's art lending program we don't think from the
artwork itself but we think out of the child and it's needs. Whatever the motivation or
inspiration of the artist might have been is not important then. If the artist has been inspired by
an
environment, a feeling or the text of a children's book that doesn't matter. The only
thing that matters is the work of art, does it have quality and is it suitable for children?
Someone might want to make art for children, but if it finally becomes art for children, is not
up to the artist.
Not everybody has the capacity to make art for children. The work of art has to be suitable for
children but it must definitely not be childish.
Illustrations:
Many of the younger children's art lending programs have no original children's book
illustrations in their collection and that is without doubt a pity. Illustrations
aren't just 'drawings underneath the text' anymore. Not only do children's book illustrators who
live and work here, just like the children's book writers,
make work of an extremely high quality, it also happens regularly that the drawings are made
first and later on the text. Can we still talk about illustrations when somebody makes graphical
work and somebody else writes text about it and when it's later on published as a book? Or
should we talk about autonomous graphical work? A typical example of this are the books
made by Friso Henstra and Max Dendermonde. For one book Max took the free work of Friso
as starting point, for the other one Friso make drawings to the text written by Max. Is Friso in
one case a free artist and in another illustrator? In the books one can't see the difference.
Illustrations will probably be closest to autonomous art. To be able to draw well is considered
a basic skill of an artist. The step from drawings to illustrations is easy to take. That is maybe
the reason why many artists have made illustrative work. Finally the illustration and the
autonomous work are born to the same mother: the narrative rock-drawings. The scripture has
proceeded out of these epic drawings, partly it has stayed as drawings and partly it has become
the abstracted from the scripture as text.
It is interesting that for example in China the scripture is still seen as a form of autonomous art.
Chinese calligraphy often can't be read, it also isn't meant to be read.
When the art of printing was found out, the illustrations in Europe disappeared for a while
because of technical reasons, until new printing methods made it possible to use all the
graphical and other techniques. For the book "Honderd jaar geleden", Fiel van der Veen
made for example oil on canvas paintings which showed no difference to other 'autonomous'
work. In the past century the picture was seen as pure
illustrative, around the nineteen fifties it got a position equivalent to text.
Nowadays the illustration is often as autonomous as free work. The difference is that
illustrations get into books and they are printed in large impressions, but if that's a criterion, we
should call Picasso an illustrator too. Relatively much more people see his work in a printed
form than in the original realisation.
Free from the discussion about autonomous art and art in order, could one ask the question
whether one copes better with image information when this is related to text. Recently it
appeared that children who read a lot of comic strips, had also developed a better
understanding of language. There's also a big correlation (about 80%) between people who
read and people who are interested in art.
When a child learns to read, there's a lot of image material intensively used, because the
learning of written language is easier then. In that phase the child uses the pictures to control
the understanding of the text well. There is not much attention paid to (the question is mostly if
the child can read and not if the child has looked properly at the picture), but the other way
round works also. Certainly for young children illustrations in children's books seem to
link up with the way they look at art. Illustrations belong to the stories they know and they
recognise also the style. They will also recognise work out of the inventory of the children's
lending program in the same style. That makes that work very accessible for children.
Again: what is art for children?
Besides the theoretical consideration about what art is for children, there is also a practical
side. In 2000 the following projects starts: The Choice
Of the Children
For the Children's art lending program
And the adult's one
At regional exhibitions a children's jury makes a choice out of the offer of art. Also a
jury of teachers makes a choice.
The selected works will be exposed on a rustic exhibition where two rural juries will make
their choice.
The finally selected works will form a travelling exhibition under the title "De Keuze van de
Kinderen".
The office for children's art lending program will organise this every year. Everybody can see
then what art for children is about.
ChAKiF (link doesn't work yet) (Children's Art Kite Festival)
While making kites, Children meet Art
Artists meet Children, while helping them to the top