Art Trek: Looking at art with young children

The Art Trek is a learning programme for families with children between the ages of 5 and 12 at Metropolitan Museum of Art (Met). It interactively exposes children to different artworks across cultures and styles in multiple artistic experiences, by questioning, listening, discussing, playing and drawing in a group setting. With access to museums at an early age, children can experience impressive images, explore cultures and develop skills to interpret visual language. I was able to observe the Art Trek programme with five pre-service elementary art teachers who were university undergraduate students in an art methods class I taught. In this article, I will discuss the importance of art and museum education for children at an early age. I then will address some suggestions on how art and museum educators can provide more meaningful and quality art experiences for young children as they view and explore works of art.