Engage Families

Encouraging family learning in museums and libraries

  • Family Learning
    • What It Is
    • Why It’s Important
    • The Family Audience
    • Resources
  • Exhibits
    • Design Strategies
    • Drafting Text
    • Steal This Idea
    • Resources
  • Programs
    • Setting Goals
      • Actively Engaging All Ages
      • Content and Learning
    • Design Strategies
      • Authenticity
      • Distinctiveness
      • Relevance and Connections
      • Environment and Set Up
      • Setting Expectations
      • Inclusionary Design for Everyone: Flexibility and Access
      • Encouraging Conversation
      • Layering Content
      • Fun & Play
      • Continuing the Experience
    • Facilitation
      • Establishing Engagement
      • Maintaining Engagement
      • Maximizing Engagement
      • Conclusion: Ending on a High Note
      • Hiring and Training Facilitators
    • Steal This Idea
    • Resources
  • Evaluation & Prototyping
    • Evaluation
    • Exhibit Prototyping
    • Program Prototyping
    • Revising Programs
    • Resources
  • About
    • 2013-2016 Engage Families Project
    • 2004-2011 Family Learning Project
    • Contact Us
Home / Archives for art museums

Family Gallery Tours at the Bruce Museum

Family Gallery Tours at the Bruce Museum

Family Gallery Tours at the Bruce Museum in Greenwich, CT are designed to provide families (with children aged six and up) with an interactive museum experience. Tours are discussion-based and led heavily with open-ended questions. The tours are held almost every Sunday, run about 45 minutes, are free with Museum admission, and require no advanced […]

Filed Under: Examples from the Field Tagged With: art museums, examples success stories and tips, programs, science museums

Toddler Time at the New Britain Museum of American Art

Toddler Time at the New Britain Museum of American Art

The New Britain Museum of American Art hosts a program for toddlers and their caregivers which features art-making, and a self-guided scavenger hunt. Serving children ages 24-36 months, ‘Museum & Me, Too’ includes story time, singing, and dancing for toddlers and adults to enjoy together. Children explore a variety of art materials in the art […]

Filed Under: Examples from the Field Tagged With: art museums, examples success stories and tips, programs

Best Practices in Cultivating Family Audiences

Best Practices in Cultivating Family Audiences

This booklet lays out the lessons that the Crocker Art Museum learned through their “All About Families” initiative. The staff at the Crocker traveled to several art museums around the country to explore how those museums successfully engage families. The Crocker staff found that fostering creativity is a key component of engagement and learning, and […]

Filed Under: Understanding Families Tagged With: adults, art, art museums, audience development, being a community resource, benefits, children, engagement, family learning, getting to know your audience, imagination, institutional identity goals and mission

Next Practices in Art Museum Education

Next Practices in Art Museum Education

Members of the Association of Art Museum Directors from across the country, Mexico, and Canada sent in examples of the best educational programs at their museums. This collection of 100 submissions highlights programs designed for a variety of audiences ranging from young children through older adults. Also included are programs for teens, college students, teachers […]

Filed Under: Resources Tagged With: adult learning, art museums, children's learning, examples success stories and tips, family learning, informal learning, programs, special needs and disabilities

Families & Art Museums: Denver Art Museum

Families & Art Museums: Denver Art Museum

This two-part report details the Denver Art Museum’s commitment to making the Museum a creative and fun destination for families. With a grant from the Pew Charitable Trusts, the Museum developed several programs geared toward families with children age six to twelve. The report explains the Museum’s perspective on a family-friendly art museum which emphasizes […]

Filed Under: Resources Tagged With: adults, art museums, engagement, examples success stories and tips, family learning, hands-on, libraries, program design and development, programs

Changing the Rules: Making Space for Interactive Learning in the Galleries of the Detroit Institute of Arts

Changing the Rules: Making Space for Interactive Learning in the Galleries of the Detroit Institute of Arts

Abstract: “Three years after the Detroit Institute of Arts opened with all new, ‘visitor-centered’ galleries, the museum’s executive director of learning and interpretation shares the processes, successes, and lessons learned at an institution that embraced an array of hands-on learning models.

Filed Under: Resources Tagged With: art museums, exhibits, hands-on, interactives

Evaluation Can Be Fun

Evaluation Can Be Fun

Marianna Adams of Audience Focus Inc., reflects on some of the problems with traditional evaluation and suggests more imaginative options. Surveys and written questionnaires are the most common but not always the best instrument for capturing the nuances of the visitor experience. Surveys can interrupt the experience for visitors, so Adams walks us through some […]

Filed Under: Resources Tagged With: adult learning, art museums, demographics, evaluation, examples success stories and tips, getting to know your audience, methodology, programs

Engage Families

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Engage Families is a project of the USS Constitution Museum
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Funded by

Funding for Engage Families is provided by the Institute of Museum & Library Services
IMLS

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