Learning from Children’s Art and Curation (Pre-recorded)

What can we learn from children’s art? Children are innately creative, and often prolific producers of art. They are also natural curators, constantly collecting, arranging, and interpreting groups of things they have assembled. Throughout history, children have mainly been seen in terms of what they lack, whether that is education, discipline, or experience. But children possess knowledge and skills that have much to teach the adults of the world if only we are open to learning from them. This talk will consider what–and how– we can learn from the youngest members of our society by focusing on their creative outputs.

Speaker:

Dr. Monica Eileen Patterson is an Associate Professor of Childhood and Youth Studies and the Assistant Director of Curatorial Studies at Carleton University in Ottawa, Canada. She holds a PhD in Anthropology and History, and a certificate in Museum Studies from the University Michigan. Patterson is author of several articles and co-editor of two books: Curating Difficult Knowledge: Violent Pasts in Public Places (Palgrave Macmillan, 2011) and Anthrohistory: Unsettling Knowledge and Questioning Discipline (University of Michigan Press, 2011). Currently, she is completing a book about childhood in late-apartheid South Africa.

Her latest project, “A New, Critical Children’s Museology” identifies and develops approaches to producing exhibitions not just for or about children, but by and with children across the globe. It explores how children can change museums and the world through their active participation as creators. As a curator, scholar, and mother, Patterson views children as important knowledge-bearers whose creativity and insights have much to contribute to society.