Children weren’t turned away for petty reasons

Editor’s note: This is in response to the letter, “UNM Art Museum shuts out young connoisseurs,” published in Friday’s Daily Lobo. In the letter, a Monte Vista Elementary School student describes his class trip to the UNM Art Museum, where he said they were turned away because they were too young to appreciate art.

Editor,

Sam Allred’s letter to the Daily Lobo gives me a wonderful opportunity to share with readers the UNM Art Museum’s commitment to educating public school children as well as the University community. Without exception, we are delighted to host children from pre-kindergarten through high school at our exhibitions.

We do, however, request that teachers schedule classroom visits in advance so that a museum educator may design learning experiences for them that will connect with and support their classroom curriculum as well as assist them in understanding the art. We also require one adult per every eight children, which is standard for field trips, because we have a responsibility to safeguard the artwork as well as our visitors.

As a university art museum, education about and through art is our mission. Unfortunately, Sam’s teacher had not scheduled her visit to the museum and I, the only educator on the museum staff, was engaged in leading a University class when Sam and his friends arrived. Also, only two adults accompanied the estimated 30-40 first- and fifth-graders, not the one adult per eight children which is standard practice.

Because the exhibition they wished to visit, “The Transformative Surface,” has several works of art that are especially vulnerable to curious hands, and two of which can potentially trigger seizures — children younger than 12 are particularly conducive to photosensitive epilepsy, which the teacher may not have known — I dissuaded them from entering and suggested that the teacher make a reservation to visit at a later time.

As the founder and director, from 1985-2005, of the nonprofit organization Art in the School Inc., which kept art education alive in APS for more than 10,000 children when the district disbanded the fine arts program, and having written my dissertation on elementary children’s aesthetic experiences in art museums, I am deeply committed to facilitating meaningful and transformative experiences for young children with works of art.

Unfortunately, Sam was misinformed, as I did not tell his teacher that “children under 12 years of age do not appreciate art.” I have built my professional career on the fact that they do.

Sara Otto-Diniz
interim director
curator of academic initiatives
UNM Art Museum