When we think of the Louvre, we imagine all the people there wearing tweed jackets and holding very serious conversations about art history.
And yes, there is plenty of that.
But we can’t forget that, at its heart, art is a joyful experience. It’s full of vibrant colors and dream-like scenes. It’s fantastical, bold, daring, and interesting. There are tales behind every painting and sculpture — stories that take you to distant lands. There are bright and colorful scenes as well as dark and spooky landscapes.
In short, the Louvre is an amazing experience for kids!
Parents already know that children thrive when they are engaged in the arts. But it is often difficult to bring their kids along for most art tours.
Why is that?
They all seem to be designed for adults, with no material made to engage the imagination and curiosity of children. That’s why we are changing that.
We’ve created an amazing Louvre tour for kids that is focused on enriching the lives and minds of children. The material we’ve put together gives them an art education while also using their budding detective skills to solve a mystery. And when they’re done, they get to take home treasures that remind them of all the artwork they enjoyed at the museum.
Let’s look at all of the benefits that an arts education gives children and then look at our Louvre tour for kids, how it works, and how to sign up!
The Benefits of Arts & History education for kids
Obviously, an education in art teaches children about artists and the works they make. It also gets them thinking about making art themselves. That alone is valuable for a lifetime of enjoying culture.
But there is far more to it than that.
It turns out that an education in art brings with it a huge number of related positive experiences for children. These build skills that last a lifetime.
Especially as the future of the world involves more and more communication, creativity, and problem solving to succeed, a varied education rooted in enriching experiences is a must. And that’s what a child gets when they learn about art.
When you go through all the major ways that it impacts a developing mind, it’s clear that art needs to be a priority in our children’s lives — not the afterthought it often ends up being.
1 - Art improves Self Expression for kids
Learning how to express yourself is a lifelong journey. And the sooner people begin that journey, the better off they are.
Think about how much the ability to communicate benefits you on a day-to-day basis. From the home to the workplace, being able to know what you are thinking and feeling, then being able to express that, is crucial.
And an arts education is one of the single best ways to get kids thinking about expressing themselves.
It’s especially powerful because children can approach art activities through joy and play. Rather than feeling like homework, these practices are as entertaining and fun as they are edifying. Play is a way to learn things on a deep level and enjoy it at the same time — and play is at the center of the artistic experience.
Sure, the initial skills will be understanding how to communicate through art, both by appreciating it and trying to make it themselves. But those fundamental skills are applicable across the board.
2 - Art boosts confidence for kids
Kids are like anybody else — the more they know and the more they can do, the more confident they become.
This education uses a creative space to encourage children to understand works of art and make their own. That builds their confidence, especially when they can begin to point at things in the world and say, “Hey! I know what that painting is!” or when they can look around their own surroundings and say, “Hey! I made that!”
These might seem small, but they mean the world to children.
With more confidence, people of all ages end up doing more, experiencing more, and accomplishing more. When we have an expectation of success, the world seems like a much less scary place.
3 - Knowledge, Culture & Soft skills for their future
Something that art history in particular can do for kids is open their eyes to the wider world. Rather than trying to connect to far off places just by hearing about them, we can show them incredible works of art from other cultures.
By seeing other people this way, children start from a place of respect and interest.
Art is a gateway, letting you see things through the eyes of people who live much different lives than you. For kids, this is especially important. It is a safe and powerful way to travel across continents and even travel through time!
By broadening their horizons, art can help children understand, appreciate, and celebrate the differences between cultures.
And kids can take up from there, with their curiosity piqued. What new interests will they have? What new things will they learn on their own? It’s this kind of open ended exploration of the world that art can inspire.
4 - Art increases creativity and motivation
Art is, if anything, a creative endeavor.
And looking at art — especially the masterpieces at the Louvre — unleashes the wide open possibilities that can happen when you let your creativity free.
In the end, everyone is capable of being creative. But if that side of us isn’t fostered at an early age, it can take a long time to understand just how creative we are.
By nurturing children with art experiences, we show them just how magical the human mind and spirit can be. We teach them to honor the creativity in themselves and others.
Not everyone goes on to be an artist. Nevertheless, we all go on to pursue our own creativity. In our lives and in our careers, we rely on creativity all the time to succeed. Giving a child access to their creativity sets them up to excel in the years ahead.
5 - Art supports Cognitive Skills
Understanding art integrates a lot of cognitive skills into a single activity, bringing many threads of their general education together.
Learning about art and viewing it in person connects things they read to actual experience. Linking those two things improves the ability to understand things they read in the future. Plus, it gives them a chance to check their comprehension.
By merging these two forms of learning, children pick up on their own strategies to synthesize the information. This teaches them not just about art, it gives them better learning skills.
And wonderful works of art pull in focus, something that everyone today can benefit from — especially kids. Going to the Louvre is a chance to put down your screen and look at real works of art in front of you.
Being able to keep focus for an extended period of time is in short supply. The more you give a child this advantage, the more rewarding their life will be.
The Kids Tour at the Louvre
So with all of these many benefits, parents have been asking me to make a Louvre experience specifically for kids.
After all, adults go there all the time and have these moving moments that stick with them forever.
When you’ve felt that power of art, you naturally want to share it with your children.
In the last decade of leading tours, I’ve devised a fun and interactive activity that makes their trip to the Louvre something they’ll never forget.
It all focuses around a mystery. Like a certain adventuring archaeologist, they must play the detective through the Louvre and discover treasure. The story takes them through the majestic museum and its wealth of wonders, getting them a first hand view of this historic collection.
The mystery unfolds through a colorful booklet that includes a guide to the art work they will have to encounter to figure out the secrets of their journey.
The treasures they find along the way become momentos from their time at the greatest art museum in the world. And the memories they make interweave an interactive story with works by the masters.
It’s a great time for children, and a wonderful way to introduce the world of art to them. By the end, they’ll be begging to go to more museums in the future!
Plan a Family Louvre tour with a Kid-Friendly team in Paris
Do you want an engaging Scavenger Game to get to know Art and its History? Then contact me and we can put together your children’s art experience in the Louvre or outside, in the City of Paris.