It was heartening to see this morning that Young V&A was named on the shortlist for the prestigious Art Fund Museum of the Year prize. That this glorious site in Bethnal Green takes its place alongside such heavyweights as the National Portrait Gallery on the five-strong list of nominees is much deserved, but it will also come as a surprise to many.
Most culture aimed at children is written off and looked down on as little more than fluff to keep the screaming tykes quiet. There is a fair amount of dross it’s true, as with any art form, but when it’s good – walking the line of enthralling children and parents at the same time – it can take its place alongside anything aimed at adults.
Yes, when it comes to screen time, you don’t have to spend long on the web to fall into a hell of autotuned voices and featureless computer-generated faces designed to essentially hypnotise the young.
But contrast that with something like Bluey, the Australian cartoon about a Blue Heeler puppy which has become a global phenomenon. Mums and dads are as hooked as the kids for the smart writing, the imagination, the sometimes-difficult subject matter and the heart. Over here Hey Duggee provides laughs, lessons and genuinely good writing for all ages too.
For theatre, London also has extraordinary children’s work throughout the year – many shows at the Polka, Unicorn and Little Angel theatres keep the little ones delighted, and won’t have the parents staring at the clock dreaming of bolting for the nearest pub.
Yet there remains the sneaking snobbishness that shows made for kids can’t be as well made or interesting as those for adults. As a former colleague of mine at The Stage once wrote, three-year-old are much more demanding than adults, fail to engage them and you’ve lost them completely.
Young V&A shows how kids’ culture can match its grown up counterparts. It opened last July, a total overhaul of the V&A’s Museum of Childhood, where all the dusty toys were imprisoned in glass cabinets, and it displayed objects like Victorian bathing chairs. Not items to have the teenagers flocking.
In completely overhauling it they took the decision to ask children what they’d actually like to see, with the brief of creating “the world’s most joyful museum”. I went a few days before it opened with my son, then four, and the quota of joy was certainly high.
There are the imagination playgrounds, the giant building blocks, marble runs and the sand spinners, and then for older kids properly exciting ways into exploring how everyday objects were designed.
And it is clearly paying off with visitor numbers soaring compared to the site before it was transformed and has received almost universal acclaim. My family has undertaken the long journey from south-west London several times, and it’s always buzzing, and there’s always more stuff for our kids, and us, to discover.
It's important also because places like this will implant in so many that galleries and museums are places for them, where they can have their minds opened and embrace new ideas, hopefully starting the habit of a lifetime. So are important, and it’s important to celebrate when it’s done well.
So yes, it’s only right that a gallery which allows kids to dream big should take its place on a shortlist against some serious heavy hitters from around the country. It is about time we all took the best of what London has to offer children much more seriously and, like the Museum of the Year judges have, give these venues the respect they deserve.
