Foundational Experiences in Museums

Museums want to matter. They want to matter to the families, children, learners, friends, and communities they serve in large and small ways, now and for the future. Their hopes and aspirations about the positive changes they believe are possible are expressed in their visions, missions, and values. Everyday, the good intentions and good works of museums are shared as museum experiences through programs, exhibits, collections, publications, events, and interactions with staff and volunteers; at the museum, in neighborhoods, schools, community settings, and on-line. These experiences which might be a once-in-a-lifetime event, an annual or monthly visit, brief or extended are, nevertheless, core to how museums matter. This is true particularly for children. 

Early life experiences, whether beneficial or harmful, have tremendous effects on human development, behavior, long-term health, and opportunities through life. Child development theory and research indicate that, in addition to children having basic needs such as food and shelter met, there are experiences that are essential to their becoming strong, caring, and responsible adults. These are experiences that children should be able to enjoy throughout their childhood and in settings across their lives—home, school, recreation, faith, and community, including museums, zoos, art spaces, and gardens. 

For all children, regardless of age, ability, or background, these experiences provide a solid foundation for a good start in life. For some children, these experiences are important as protective factors against the challenges and risks they face in life. These are children who may grow up exposed to a limited range of experiences or face adverse childhood experiences. 

The term adverse childhood experiences (ACES) refers to neglect, abuse, and potentially traumatic events that occur before age 18. These experiences can interfere with health, learning, and opportunities over a lifetime. Not as uncommon as they might seem to be, more than 60% of adults report having had one or more ACE. Research also suggests that social support, building healthy families early in the life of the child, and stress reduction strategies can help mitigate the damaging effects of ACES and build resilience. 

Where Museums Can Matter 

Among the many and varied museum offerings for children in family, school, and community groups—which many if not most museums offer—are foundational experiences.* When museums create experiences that emphasize relationships, socializing, rich environments, agency and choice, and varied interactions with families, friends, and peers, they are helping to build assets that help children get a firmer foot-hold in life. 

A child builds a gizmo that spins and whirrs; climbs to the top of a 4-story climber; takes part in a biological survey; or figures out how to build a zipline with other children. In those experiences they feel included, successful at navigating physical challenges; they problem solve and work together with other children. They are exploring their world, growing their confidence and competence, and developing a robust sense of self and belonging. These are building-block experiences that support physical, affective, and cognitive developmental processes, tap into children’s capabilities and strengths, connect children with others, and shine a light on each child's spark. 

While there is no set list of such experiences for museums, direction and starting points for a museum’s foundational experiences are in plain sight. 

• A museum’s vision, mission, and values highlight the positive changes it believes are possible for its community. Those statements often include greater social cohesion, strong families, supportive relationships, engaged and caring citizens, and equipping children for the future. 

• How a museum views its audience and its shared understanding of children in its age range reflect the qualities it values and hopes to encourage such as curiosity, feeling valued, and confident in exploring the world. 

• The promises and challenges facing the city or region a museum serves highlight where a museum can be helpful, related to, for instance, collective well-being, a more connected community, or valuing youth. 

• The hallmarks of a museum’s most powerful experiences are frequently starting points for foundational experiences: play as a way of learning, shared experiences, a time and a place to be children, or coming together as a family. 

• In addition to these museum-based sources for foundational experiences is what research, theory, and community wisdom say about what contributes to children’s thriving and what concerns us now about children during the pandemic. 

Shaping Foundational Experiences 

Shaping a set of foundational experiences is an iterative process that engages staff from across the museum to pare down, clarify, and organize a preliminary list culled from the museum’s core documents, best practices, and museum research. Lively discussions grow a shared understanding around these experiences in the context of a museum and help arrive at 5 to 7 clusters of essential experiences. Through this process, a team will discover some characteristics that foundational experiences share that are described below. (Examples below in italics.) 

• Building blocks of experience 

• Naming experiences 

• Both goals and outcomes 

• Inclusive 

• Not just for children 

• Part of a community effort 

• Integral to museum planning, processes, and efforts 

Building-blocks of experience. A foundational experience such as A sense of connection, acceptance and belonging is the accumulation of many varied and positive moments, interactions, and opportunities that a child enjoys. Those are building-block experiences that occur over time and in multiple settings. Being valued for who they are, having supportive relationships with peers and caring adults, and making memories with their family work together might be among 6 or 7 building-block experiences that contribute to one of a museum’s set of 5 to 7 foundational experiences. 

Naming experiences. By naming its foundational (and building-block) experiences, a museum develops a shared language for understanding and working with them intentionally. Naming helps clarify what children need for healthy development and gets at the roots of these assets of great interest including what these assets might look like in younger and older children. This process also helps place children’s developmental needs such as A Sense of Well-being in the context of a museum and the experiences it creates. 

Both goals and outcomes. A foundational experience such as, Children enjoy growing capabilities, confidence, and independence expresses a hope and aspiration for them. It serves as a goal. At the same time, when a museum describes what positive developmental change in a specific area looks like, it frames possible outcomes of these experiences. These outcomes point to additional ways a museum might support them and how it might track them. 

Inclusive. Foundational experiences are concerned with nurturing a child’s developmental foundation. They value and span all domains—sensory-motor, cognitive, social and emotional—and accommodate the constantly unfolding development of children and their growing capabilities. Foundational experiences recognize and respect children’s age, gender, race and ethnicity, ability, and family income. While not exhaustive, the range and variety among the 5 to 7 sets of foundational experiences and their building-block experiences nurture strengths and develop assets in many ways. 

Not just for children. Foundational experiences relate readily to children’s growth and development. Many experiences that are essential for children’s optimal development, however, are also critical to adults’ on-going health and wellbeing. At what age do we stop needing to feel accepted and included? A sense of joy, wonder, and awe? Foundational experiences also help museums in shaping and supporting the roles of adults—parents, caregivers, teachers, museum facilitators, and volunteers—in contributing to foundational experiences. 

Part of a community effort. Museums make critical contributions to creating and providing foundational experiences. They are committed to being safe, accessible spaces that offer children rich varied encounters, environments, and materials that open an expanding world full of possibilities. Equally important, museums are part of a larger eco-system of families, schools, and other community and cultural organizations with shared interests, complementary roles, and special resources. All of this is essential to building strong, resilient children and positive futures. 

Integral to museum planning, processes, and efforts. Integral to its work, foundational experiences can be incorporated into museums at any stage of development or planning whether it is a new museum, renovation or expansion, strategic planning, learning experience framework, or a pivot during the pandemic. They are embedded in a museum’s processes, planning, and practices; communicated to staff, trustees, partners, and supporters. 

In the Museum Context 

Foundational experiences fill a child’s experience bank and self-confidence with successes and small triumphs that will serve them well when they encounter setbacks, have to make difficult choices; they will cheer them in the moment and last into a hopefully brighter future. While these experiences alone are not guaranteed to change life outcomes, planning with them in mind represents a commitment to adding positive factors to the lives of young members of our communities and building on children’s potential. Museums are fortunate to be in a position to contribute to those foundational experiences and the building-block experiences that can make a difference into the future. In fact, as museums step forward, adapt, and respond to the pandemic, health concerns, and educational disparities, they have an even greater opportunity to be more deliberate about delivering foundational experiences. 

The next Museum Notes post will continue to explore foundational experiences and look more closely at a set of foundational experiences I am developing from my work on learning frameworks.

*I have been exploring the idea of foundational experiences over the past decade and have written about them here as essential experiences. I have used essential experiences in dozens of learning frameworks with museums. But, this is only one way of looking at look at nurturing strengths and changing futures for children—and in the context of museums. Check of The Search Institute and its Assets for Healthy Development and the GAR Foundation's Essential Experiences.

--- Jeanne Vergeront

     Museum Notes

     November 17, 2020