NEWSLETTER

Society for the History of Children and Youth

While vacationing in Norway after the conference, Emily Cahan visited the Barnekunstmuseet.   Photographs were not permitted inside the museum; the accompanying images are from the museum's courtyard.

Museum Review

The International Museum of Children’s Art in Oslo

Reviewed by:  Emily D. Cahan, Wheelock College

Just a short train ride outside of the center of Oslo, Norway lays a pretty blue house – much like many of its suburban neighbors.   But the inside of this house is different; it is the International Museum of Children’s Art.  Founded in 1986 on a shoestring budget by a Russian Film Director, Rafeal Goldin and his wife, Dr. Alla Goldin, the museum collects, preserves, and promotes children’s art and supports children’s causes.  The collection includes over 200,000 paintings, drawings, and sculptures by children from more than 180 countries around the globe and enjoys the support of both private and public funding.  The works provide a window into the hearts and minds of children  -- their hopes and fears as well as their ordinary and extraordinary experiences.  Bucolic scenes of domestic life stand beside intimations of loneliness and fears of abandonment.  One child dreamed of spending more time with her working parents as she painted a seaside scene of herself on her father’s shoulder and by her mother’s side.  Snowy landscapes stand beside a stark sculpture of the 9/11 attack on the twin towers in New York.  Children’s commentaries sometimes accompany the works such as a child’s wish that she do something right to please her mother who is graphically depicted at the doctor’s office pregnant with twins.

Exhibits are often based on themes or places.   Themes from past exhibits include: father, mother, family, disaster, children and nature, and society as seen through the eyes of children.  Other exhibits have highlighted children’s art from different nations or special populations of children such as orphans from Eshowe in South Africa, children with disabilities, or children from Singapore. Sri Lanka, Greece, or Iran.   The ages of the child artists range from early childhood to adolescence. The art works are not dated in the museum’s showcase book – certainly a major disadvantage to anyone who wishes to gain insight into the art in its own time and place.  Curiously, and for reasons that are entirely unclear, not a single young artist from the U.S. was represented in the museum's collection. 

Many world-renowned artists such as Picasso, Klee, Matisse, and Miro long held children’s art in high aesthetic esteem and as adults they tried to recapture its magic in their own art.  They would surely be pleased with the existence of this museum.  As noted by the president of the Norwegian Parliament “no one can visit the international museum of children’s art without being moved.” 

Reference:

Goldin, Alla and Angela (no date, 1996 by inference),  Wide Open Eyes. Oslo, Norway: Labyrinth Press.