Lauren Laverne on kids screaming in art galleries: ‘We’ve all been there’

As the Easter holidays approach, parents will be thinking about how to keep their kids entertained, preferably without spending much money.

Most of the nation’s art galleries and museums are free to enter, but new research from Clarendon Fine Art suggests more than a third (37%) of parents avoid such cultural venues because they feel they’re ‘too adult orientated’, while over a quarter (27%) fear their child won’t be welcome.

It’s a perception that radio and TV presenter, and mum-of-two Lauren Laverne is keen to overturn, after being taken to many art galleries and museums by her parents as a child, and taking both her sons to them when they were younger too.

The broadcaster, 47, understands why some parents might be anxious about taking their kids to what she says can be seen as “silent cathedrals of the art experience”, and recalls: “If you do feel a little bit nervous about the idea of your kids making a noise, I remember taking my son into the Tate [Modern] and him screaming the house down in [the Mark Rothko room] once.

“We’ve all been there – just remember, everybody in there was a baby once. “

However Laverne, who hosts the Radio 6 Music mid-morning show, as well as Radio 4’s Desert Island Discs and BBC TV’s The One Show, stresses that galleries are full of creativity and therefore should be a perfect place for kids to visit.

She explains: “A lot of galleries want footfall, they want families to come and get involved, and they want people to bring their children.

“And also, far from being these silent, hallowed temples where you’re not allowed to make a noise, art galleries are also about creativity, curiosity, confrontation – things that kids are very good at.  So in a way they should be natural places for children to be.”

Laverne, whose son Fergus is now 18, and his brother Mack 15, believes both she and the boys have gained so much from visiting galleries and museums. As a result, she’s encouraging other parents to take their children to cultural venues like galleries by supporting the Clarendon Fine Art Subtle Art of Family campaign, which aims to make art accessible for all ages.

Recalling her childhood in Sunderland, she says: “I was really lucky, I had a very loving home life – my mum and dad were both from big families, growing up on council estates, but they were those Sixties grammar school kids who were encouraged to be curious and engaged, and so that was how they brought us up.

“Going to art galleries was a normal part of my life growing up. It was just what we did – not just galleries, but museums and anything cultural – my parents were always very interested in them and always felt like it was for us and accessible to us.

“I think they made me feel that way too, so by the time I had kids, it just felt very natural.”

The research found over half (56%) of parents think art helps families feel more connected, and 38% say cultural experiences actively support family emotional wellbeing.

“The weird thing is the research showed everybody knows those experiences are good for us,” Laverne points out. “The vast majority of parents can see the benefit those kind of experiences bring to their family life and to kids.

“Yet that sense that art galleries are silent cathedrals of the art experience is part of the problem – people might sometimes feel nervous to take their kids there if they’re going to make a noise or behave in a way they maybe think isn’t how they should behave, thinking they’re going to be judged on their kids’ behaviour.”

The presenter is urging families to check out their local galleries and cultural spaces and see what’s on offer, explaining that many of them organise family activities, and will sometimes even welcome dogs.

“It’s about families seeing what’s on near them, seeing what’s possible and what they feel comfortable with,” she says.

“We need to encourage the next generation of artists and art lovers to engage with the subject, with culture. It’s such a big, important part of what we do as a country.”

But enticing families into galleries is a two-way street, Laverne stresses, and she implores cultural spaces that don’t offer family activities to “think about this sector of society that they’re closing their door to for no good reason.”

She says so much of Britain’s appeal is centred around its culture, and stresses: “We want the next generation to engage with it, to understand it, and to feel like it’s accessible to them, a normal part of their life and their vocabulary.”

Laverne says although she took her own kids to galleries and other cultural venues a lot as younger children, they went through phases of being “less cooperative” about going as they got older, but now things have changed for the better again.

Her eldest son started dating a girl who was into photography, and Laverne says: “Suddenly he was coming to me going  ‘Are we members of such and such a gallery?’. So he got back into it again.

“I think when your kids get into their teens, there’s a point where maybe they have to find out what they’re into on their own terms. It’s part of their identity and the discovery of that.

“Certainly that’s a transition we’ve gone through with both of them.”

She says her youngest son loves fashion, so they visit the V&A Museum a lot, the Design Museum, and the “fantastic” Fashion and Textile Museum in London.

“Anything like that, he loves, and we love,” she says. “It’s just about opening your mind and seeing what’s available. And in terms of teenagers, find out what they’re interested in, and pursue that.”

She stresses that many cultural venues have free admission, and encourages parents who weren’t taken to galleries themselves as children to give it a go with their own kids, whatever their background.

She says: “It wasn’t until I came to London and started working in the sector that I work in now that I  realised there were still people who were snobby about someone with my accent having an opinion about an artwork or a concert or whatever it was.

“That came as a shock to me, because it wasn’t how I was brought up.”

An even bigger shock for Laverne came in summer 2024 when she was diagnosed with cancer. Fortunately it was caught early, and she said she’d got the all-clear in November of the same year, pointing out that the experience taught her “so much about what really matters” in life.

And now she says: “I’m doing really well – I’m feeling really good and just enjoying life. I’m so happy to be able to be here, seeing the summer coming in, and enjoying that.

“It’s just enjoying the simple things as well – you enjoy everything so much more after you’ve been through a tough time, and that’s absolutely the case for me. I’m really relishing everything I’m doing right now.”

Lauren Laverne is a  spokesperson for Clarendon Fine Art’s Subtle Art of Family campaign.