Art appreciation for preschoolers

(Goblin is 4 years old)

Goblin and I took a trip to the Royal Academy of Art in London to see an exhibition that had been recommended to us as good for kids. It's called Sensing Space and it will be running until 6 April. The exhibition is, unlike many art exhibitions, entirely interactive. This is perfect for little kids. 

Goblin's favourite room contained four spiral staircases and a giant ramp. He spent a good hour running up the staircases and down the ramps, and then doing it the other way. At first, while I thought it was fun I didn't entirely appreciate the 'art' of it. But as I stood there some adults walks past the tops of the staircases and got to the ramp and said, "Oh its just a disabled ramp" and turned around. That's when the penny dropped. "Sensing Space" is about making what you will of the space the artists have provided. For the adults all they saw was a disabled ramp, but for Goblin is was a source of huge entertainment.

In another room a giant arch made of plastic honeycomb stood invitingly. Boxes of long coloured straws were placed around the edges, accompanied by many art students busily weaving their straws, twisting them, tying them and trying to place them into the holes at the highest points of the dome. For a long time Goblin refused to actually give up any of his straw stash. But eventually, after going round the rest of the exhibits twice, he begrudgingly gave up a few straws to poke into the lower holes that he could reach.

My favourite exhibit was a beautiful maze made of branches with a stone and mirror room in the centre. The noise when you walked on the stone was disproportionately loud and Goblin loved crunching around on it. I couldn't get any decent shots because the lighting was low and Goblin was running at breakneck speed to hide from me - yes I still haven't learnt not to play hide and seek in a maze with a four year old.

There were several other rooms to investigate as well. The exhibition is quite pricy for adults at £15.50 but kids get in free. We spent a good couple of hours there and would probably have stayed longer if we didn't have plans. Plus you get to sound very posh when you say that you took your child to an art gallery!