Confessions of a Gallery Guard: It’s Never the Kids. At Least, Not in the Way You Think.
I’m not being sarcastic, either.
I know, shocker, right?
Okay, yeah, sometimes kids touch things. They don’t know any better, it happens. Most people, though, assume that it’s always the kids, and before I became a guard, so did I! being someone who didn’t grow up around young kids, I generally don’t know what to do with them, so that was one of the first questions I asked in terms of how to handle a situation. Even our director and much of the administration staff assumed that kids were the most common offender. Logically, it makes sense. Theoretically, adults should be able to restrain themselves the way kids can’t.
Theoretically.
Unless we had a school group of over, say, fifteen kids, we weren’t usually all that worried about the kids. We’d keep an eye on them, and we’d relax a little if they seemed mellow or if they were in a stroller or belly pack, but that was about it. A lot of the time, the kids would just trot around the museum, curious and wide-eyed as they took in the art and explored this strange new environment. Kids are kids though, and they explore the world with touch, so we were never surprised or particularly bothered by it if a kid tried to touch something. They…
