How Child-Friendly Are Art Museums? A Landscape Review of Programs and Initiatives in the 100 Most Visited Art Museums

Museums have the opportunity to provide a great learning experience for children but do not always seem to use their full potential. In this study, we quantify child-friendly initiatives in the 100 most visited art museums in the world. Specifically, we looked at whether museums offered workshops or audio guides for children, guided tours for children or families, interactive maps or children's guides to the exhibition, additional online materials for children, labels designed for children, and their pricing models. The results show that the focus tends to be on children's workshops. While 52% of the museums offer tours specifically designed for families and children, 58% offer additional resources inside the museum, such as interactive maps or children's guides. In addition, only 7% of museums offered labels specifically written for children or families, e.g. by using accessible language and focusing on aspects that might be of more interest to children. This landscape review highlights the need for specialized child-friendly services.