In Korea, children's museums began to be established in the 2000s, starting with the opening of Samsung Children's Museum in 1995. The number of children's museums has steadily been on the rise with the establishment of public and private children's m...
In Korea, children's museums began to be established in the 2000s, starting with the opening of Samsung Children's Museum in 1995. The number of children's museums has steadily been on the rise with the establishment of public and private children's museums, centering on the national museums built in regions across the country.
The children's museum is a place of learning where play and learning take place at the same time through hands-on exhibitions made up of active experiences, with touching and manipulation tailored to the developmental characteristics of children. However, despite its steady growth, studies on the systematic analysis of the children’s museum lack in number. As such, this study aims to examine and summarize the trends of children's museums, and present them as basic data to understand the characteristics of children's museums based on examples of exhibitions and educational programs of local children's museums. The scope of the study was restricted to the national and public museums in seven regions, namely, the Gyeonggi Children's Museum, a stand-alone museum, and the children's museums of the National Museum of Korea, National Folk Museum of Korea, Cheongju National Museum, Daegu National Museum, Gimhae National Museum, Ulsan Museum, and Daejeon Municipal Museum, each of which is operated as an annex of the museum. Daejeon Municipal Museum was selected as the subject of this study, and the procedure of its settlement since the establishment of the children's exhibition room in December 2015 was examined in terms of its educational function through its exhibitions and educational programs to look for ways to develop the museum into a local children’s museum that measures up to the regionality, historicity, and identity.
First, the historical background of the children's museum was examined, and the types of children's exhibition themes were categorized and organized into “local culture” and “diversity” according to the establishment background and operational purpose of the children's museum. Furthermore, the study also summarized characteristics of exhibition-related educational programs that expand the meaning of the exhibition.
In order to draw out characteristics of children's museums in Korea using the theoretical background, the exhibitions and educational programs of eight national and public children's museums were examined and analyzed and their current operational statuses were identified. The National Museum of Korea and National Folk Museum of Korea located in Seoul and Gyeonggi area operate exhibitions composed of various themes and areas, rather than regionality, under the theme of “Cultural Heritage of Korea and the World,” and educational programs with expanded contents under the theme of diversity. Gyeonggi Children's Museum operates exhibitions and educational programs with contents for children's development to draw children's interests and foster holistic development through various experiential exhibitions. It shows that the National Museum of Korea, National Folk Museum of Korea, and Gyeonggi Children's Museum in Seoul and Gyeonggi area operate programs that are rich in cultural aspects focusing on diversity.
Cheongju National Museum, Daegu Museum, Gimhae Museum, and Ulsan Museum operate permanent exhibitions based on regionality. Children's museums have one exhibition room and operate permanent exhibitions, thereby strengthening the function of the local museum with contents under the same theme as that of the permanent exhibition in the main museum building. In addition, with the development and operation of educational programs linking permanent exhibitions and children's exhibitions, the children’s museum functions as a cultural facility closely related to the local community.
On the other hand, Daejeon Municipal Museum expands the exhibition for children under the theme of “diversity” that children can experience and introduces new themes every year. Moreover, the permanent exhibition showing the history of the region from prehistory to modern days under the theme of “The History of Daejeon” complements regionality, which contributes to the reputation of Daejeon Municipal Museum that its exhibition harmonizes regionality and diversity. However, the exhibitions of Daejeon Municipal Museum is limited in that there is no regional program unique to the museum that differentiates it from other museums, as its educational programs for infants, children, and families center on educational programs linked to children's exhibitions. Accordingly, the study presents the following directions for developing it as a comprehensive children's cultural space containing regionality and diversity of Daejeon.
First, children are to be encouraged to properly recognize the regional culture and local identity by developing and operating a program linking the permanent exhibition of Daejeon Municipal Museum, which was newly organized under the theme of “The History of Daejeon” in July 2021, and the relics in its collection. Second, children will be able to understand the course of history in textbooks and overcome difficulties in studying history by developing and operating a curriculum-related educational program based on local history and culture. Third, the study proposes the development and operation of “online real-time education” of Daejeon Municipal Museum as a way to promote “untact participation and communication” in the present era of untact communications that started in February 2020. It is expected that the children's exhibition room of Daejeon Municipal Museum will play a vital role in establishing its identity as a cultural space for children in Daejeon through development and operation of region-specific programs that communicate with local residents.