'I Would Have Worried About Her Being A Nuisance': Workshops for children under three and their parents at Tate Britain

Abstract

This article reports on a series of eight workshops for children under three and their parents. The workshops took place at Tate Britain, London, and they were collectively known as 'Big and small; short and tall'. The article outlines the approach used to evaluate the workshops, particularly the way in which parents' experiences, and their views on children's experiences, were given prominence. Despite the potential difficulties of taking very young children into an art gallery, most parents said they were pleased with their children's engagement. Parent feedback suggests that the structure and content of the workshops did much to enable them and their children to learn about art and artists together. Moreover, some confirmed that their joint involvement had stimulated further learning at home and life-wide learning more generally.