CHILDREN ARE EVERYWHERE,
especiallyin the museum world where exhibitions on the material culture of childhood
have been increasingly cropping up since 1990.
Kid Size: The Material World of Childhood might be considered the blockbuster of this genre (fig. 1&2). Organized by the Vitra Museum in Weil am Rhein, Germany, Kid Size spans four centuries, touches on five continents, and features 130 objects on loan from multiple museums and private collections.
Yet, these exhibitions also seem to speak to a set of cultural anxieties that are (to a certain extent) independent of scholarly trends. Indeed, while scholars focus on childhood as a cultural construct inexorably linked to the attitudes and actions of adults, the exhibitions tend to emphasize childhood as a special realm to which adults can only gain entre´e by visiting the museum.
Are these museum simply attempts to harness nostalgia in the name of enhancing museum visitation rates? Or could they be a response to more profound concerns that childhood itself may be on the brink of extinction? After all, it is not just that prepubescent children are aping adult behaviors but that puberty itself is arriving earlier than ever before (at least in Europe and the United States). Might the appeal of exhibitions on the material culture of childhood rest in their reassurance that childhood itself still exists?
Ladislav Sutnar. Build the Town building blocks. 1940–43
Jonathan De Pas, Donato D’Urbino, Giorgio DeCurso, and Paolo Lomazzi. Chica modular children’s chairs. 1971
Jean Prouvé. School desk. 1946
Paul (Geert Paul Hendrikus) Schuitema. Nutricia, le lait en poudre (Nutricia, powdered milk). 1927–28
Mariska Undi. Design for children’s room. 1903
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