A museum which educates its own public

The Children’s Museum in Győr – a unique initiative

MúzeumCafé 21.

What does the name Children’s Museum imply? The Children’s Museum in Győr is a temporary exhibition space for the display of works of fine and applied arts thematically selected and put together with children in mind. These are complemented by creative games which have devised by artists and museum educators. In addition there are art education and other creative activities. This initiative of the Municipal Museum of Arts in Győr is the first of its kind in Hungary. The Hungarian National Museum’s Paletta Children’s Museum is part of a museum education programme but it doesn’t have its own exhibitions. There are similar educational projects taking place in the Hungarian National Gallery and the Kunsthalle in Budapest, as well as in Székesfehérvár and Miskolc, but these do not have their own space for exhibiting, either. Other institutions, for example the Toy Museum in Kecskemét and the Castle Museum in Eger, have displays about aspects of childhood in different ages, but they are not dealing with the surrounding world of today and its broad spectrum of visual arts, as does the museum in Győr. Among foreign examples perhaps some similar museums in neighbouring Austria are the most well known. The Freda und Fred children’s museum in Graz is somewhat comparable to the Palace of Wonders in Budapest in that it is a hands-on science museum where young people through playful experience directly learn about how things work and why. The Children’s Museum in Schönbrunn displays children’s furniture and toys, while the Zoom Children’s Museum in Vienna’s museum quarter stimulates learning and discovery in a playful manner. There are interactive, hands-on Children’s Museums, both scientific and artistic, in many North American cities.