A child at the museum. Polish museums In the context of the popularization of art

Abstract

The issues discussed in the article are the result of two contemporary trends both in culture and science: the democratization of culture and the growing interest in the issues of children and childhood. The issue of the democratization of culture was analyzed from the first half of the 20th century in the texts of José Ortega y Gasset, Theodor Adorno, and later Karl Mannheim. John Dewey took up the issues related to childhood and democracy at the beginning of the 20th century. As one of the pioneers of pragmatic aesthetics, he emphasized the importance of aesthetic experience in human development. The basis of his upbringing was triggering individual abilities to achieve social goals. The issues of childhood in sociology in the 1950s were addressed by Talcott Parsons, who still viewed children rather more objectively. Since the 1990s the problem of childhood has been reflected in the development of interdisciplinary research within the framework of children studies. By juxtaposing both problem areas, the following text is an attempt to analyze the educational activities of exhibition establishments in terms of making art more attractive for children. The main issue discussed in the article is whether and to what extent educational programmes constitute an efficient tool for promoting art. Are they a form of reaching children who have no contact with art, or are they only a tool for reproducing the existing hierarchy based on the elitist role of art, to which only privileged groups have access? And finally, what is the role of a child in these educational programmes: an active subject realizing their needs or an object necessary for the implementation of cultural policy?