The Conditions of Children’s Agency in Modern and Contemporary Art Museums: Children’s Programs at Louisiana Museum of Modern Art and Tate Modern

This thesis investigates how children’s agency is configured within modern and contemporary art museums through a comparative study of the Louisiana Museum of Modern Art and Tate Modern, focusing on children aged 5–12. Rather than treating agency as an individual attribute, the study approaches it as a relational process emerging through institutional structures, spatial arrangements, and material encounters. Drawing on childhood studies, participatory museology, and posthuman theory, and based on qualitative analysis of site observations and institutional materials, the research shows that children’s participation is simultaneously enabled and delimited by museum frameworks. While Louisiana consolidates agency within a spatially integrated yet bounded Children’s Wing, Tate Modern disperses it across interconnected physical and digital environments. The thesis ultimately argues that children’s agency in contemporary art museums is produced through negotiation within institutional...Show moreThis thesis investigates how children’s agency is configured within modern and contemporary art museums through a comparative study of the Louisiana Museum of Modern Art and Tate Modern, focusing on children aged 5–12. Rather than treating agency as an individual attribute, the study approaches it as a relational process emerging through institutional structures, spatial arrangements, and material encounters. Drawing on childhood studies, participatory museology, and posthuman theory, and based on qualitative analysis of site observations and institutional materials, the research shows that children’s participation is simultaneously enabled and delimited by museum frameworks. While Louisiana consolidates agency within a spatially integrated yet bounded Children’s Wing, Tate Modern disperses it across interconnected physical and digital environments. The thesis ultimately argues that children’s agency in contemporary art museums is produced through negotiation within institutional conditions rather than through unrestricted participation.Show less

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The Conditions of Children’s Agency in Modern and Contemporary Art Museums: Children’s Programs at Louisiana Museum of Modern Art and Tate Modern