Story telling through fine art: Public histories of childhood and education in exhibitions in the Netherlands and Belgium C. 1980 - C. 2020

Jeroen J.H. Dekker*

*Corresponding author voor dit werk

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Samenvatting

Since the 1980s in art exhibitions in the Netherlands and Belgium, public stories were told on the history of childhood and education. They have a large timespan with objects and stories from the Middle Ages until c. 2000. This chapter investigates the relationship between the exhibited art and the exhibition's educational messages. The exhibitions told a story about children and education in the past by showing fine art and sometimes also other objects. Two exhibitions at the start and at the end of the sample based the exhibition design on the view of children as miniature adults. The other exhibitions assume more continuity. They become more didactic in the course of the years with various didactical activities for both children and educators. Past and present were connected in various ways: by taking a timespan until the present, by connecting the seventeenth century with the present, by a complementary didactic program, and by embedding the exhibition in a broader project with Radio and TV broadcasts. All exhibitions show boys and girls of various ages, but differing in social diversity. Two of them focus on a specific social group, respectively the marginal and the upper classes, while the others tell a story of social variety notwithstanding the fact that before the nineteenth century most paintings of children were commissioned by the well-to-do. The relationship between art and reality is differently interpreted. The Child in Our Art and Being Young tell stories about miniature adults. Pride and Joy, while focusing on well-to-do children often seemingly dressed as miniature adults, interprets the portraits as images of children with their own world and stage of development. The exhibitions confirm Frank Simon's view on the role of artists and historians: they should work together to bring us inside the history of childhood and education.

Originele taal-2English
TitelExhibiting the Past
SubtitelPublic Histories of Education
RedacteurenFrederik Herman, Sjaak Braster, María del Mar del Pozo Andrés
UitgeverijDe Gruyter
Pagina's157-176
Aantal pagina's20
ISBN van elektronische versie9783110719871
ISBN van geprinte versie9783110719581
DOI's
StatusPublished - 19-dec.-2022

Publicatie series

NaamPublic History in European Perspectives
UitgeverijDe Gruyter
Volume1
ISSN van geprinte versie2629-4702
ISSN van elektronische versie2629-4710

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