Unlocking your treasures, how to make a visit fun for children?

How do you speak to children, who do not yet have the same grasp of the world of art, science, history or culture as a regular museum visitor? Two Dutch museums recently launched new kids’ tours and they’re happy to share their experience with us. Both museums engaged experts and even the target group itself in creating the tour, deciding on stops, pinpointing what topics could be made more relevant, and how.

“If you want children and teenagers to be able to relate, it’s really important to connect the past to the present. That is why, when we were setting up our new tour, I knew it had to feature Covid. It’s what we did with #Pandemic,”says Niko Bos of the Hermitage Museum in Amsterdam.

Make it relevant

Connecting past and present is exactly what the Hermitage did with their new Hashtag Tour for teenagers and young adults (ages 15-24) as part of their exhibition Tsars and Knights. Together with their Youth Advisory Board – a group of young people that advises the museum – the museum determined two key questions to making the visit more appealing to the target group. First: how do we make this topic relevant for our times -hence the hashtag- and second, how do we make it tangible and recognizable for children? The museum knew their choice of voice actor was crucial. They went with tv and YouTube personality Tim Hofman. “He speaks the language of a youthful audience, and once there is that connection, kids will be open to what he has to say.”

Make it fun

As a part of the same exhibition, the Hermitage also created a radio play for younger visitors (6-11 years old) which takes them back to the era of chivalry, evoking a vivid imaginary world. The purpose was to stimulate children’s fantasy by inviting them to participate in a dragon hunt set in the Middle Ages. Interaction is key here: the young visitors don’t just get to listen to a description of that era, but they become time travelers, and are sent back to the world of kings and knights. “We wanted it to be fun, and educational in a playful way.”

Get their attention

Fun and play was also the main goal of the children’s tour in the Dutch National Lifeboat Museum Dorus Rijkers in Den Helder, where children can learn all there is to know about rescue practices throughout the ages. The museum’s goal was to create a tour that is so much fun, that the young ones don’t even realize that they are learning at the same time. It’s the voice of a peer, 10-year-old Mees, speaking to the children as the guide of the audio tour. A competitive element was added, making them pay closer attention: during the tour, the children have to answer questions, with a medal awaiting them if they do well. “At the end the children go around showing off their medals,” says Sylvia van der Most of the Dorus Rijkers Museum. “It’s how we make sure children enjoy their visit. Because fun is the most important thing.”

Let us guide you

If you want to get started on your own kids’ tour: let the many wonderful tours of other museums serve as a guiding inspiration. At Guide-ID, we have made a selection of the most appealing stops and I would be delighted to lead you to them… because I now know where these treasures lay hidden!