Maya Meets Mommy’s Latest Assignment

Excited to showcase the great Dutch artist Rembrandt van Rijn to my four year old, Maya, I decided to bring home the catalog for the exhibition. For Maya, flipping through exhibition catalogs is as commonplace as reading an Eric Carle book. We sat down one the bed, and I said, “Tell me what you think.”

Even as a museum professional, I sometimes feel challenged to make art exhibitions accessible to my four-year old daughter. You may be surprised, but the current special exhibition, Chinese Art in an Age of Revolution: Fu Baoshi (1904-1965), has been one of her favorite museum exhibitions. How did that happen? When we went to the exhibition, we focused on something she already liked. In our case, my four-year old daughter and I are always ready with our cameras to capture the world around us.