Minnesota museums and theaters target youngest audiences, giving new meaning to 'art crawl'

Infants are roaming the galleries at the Minneapolis Institute of Art. Toddlers are taking the stage at Orchestra Hall. Kids are twirling across the dance floor at First Avenue.

Across the Twin Cities and the country, arts organizations are inviting in the youngest of audiences, creating programs and booking concerts that appeal to kids, toddlers and even infants. To their caregivers, too. Performances for these kids are shorter. Seats are optional. Parachutes often appear — accompanied by squeals.

At a time when some audiences are still lagging post-pandemic, such programs have proven popular: All performances of the Minnesota Opera's recent staging of "Nooma," an opera for babies, sold out.

Some organizations, like Stages Theatre Company, have always focused on children but are expanding their offerings for the youngest end of that spectrum. Venues with cool-kid cachet are pitching new events that are fun for parents, as well. And more traditional organizations are engaging their littlest visitors in fresh ways.

This spring, Minneapolis Institute of Art launched Mini Mia, a free monthly program designed for caregivers and children from infants to those 5 years old. It was inspired, in part, by another program with a cute name: Art Crawl, for newborns to 14-month-olds, at the Clyfford Still Museum in Denver.

Museums' focus on little ones is part of their broader shift from "repositories for objects" to places where people engage with their collections, said Tara Young, a museum consultant and lecturer at the Tufts Museum Studies Program.

To do that, art and history museums without "children" in their names have to break down reputations as intimidating spaces that demand quiet. "The main goal, in a sense, is to have those audiences feel comfortable in a museum ...," Young said, "to be a place where they feel at home."

The hope is to hook kids at the early childhood stage, then introduce families to a broader range of activities, creating long-term relationships.

"For the really young kids, it really is as much about engaging those caregivers. That's a change, too," Young said. "It used to be that ... if the program was for a child, the parent was sitting on the sidelines. But now they're more likely to be built so that they engage parents and kids together."

Mia has hosted Family Day, a free monthly event, since the 1970s. On a recent Sunday, teaching artists helped kids paint still lifes and draw postcards with pastels.

During Mini Mia, parents are encouraged to bring their babies close to the artworks, to make noise, to feel comfortable, said Abigail Penders, youth and family programs specialist at Mia.

Because their field of vision is short, infants are drawn to high-contrast, brightly colored paintings. "So we test that out," she said. "We have parents who are wearing their infants [in a carrier] go to a landscape painting that has lots of muted greens, and the babies are very uninterested. Then we'll go to a painting that has black, whites, reds and pops of color, and the babies will show signs of being stimulated — they'll make noise, they'll move their limbs. …

"We're trying to show parents that your babies do actually get something out of seeing the art, they can actually grow and develop."

There's a long-term payoff, too. One study shows that those who visited a cultural organization as a kid were almost two times more likely to also have visited a similar organization within the past two years.

But who you went with matters. Children who visited with families felt more welcome at cultural organizations as adults than those who visited with groups, according to an analysis by IMPACTS Research and Development. "Going on field trips (for instance) may not be enough in and of itself to make a child a lifelong museumgoer," that report finds.

'The real experience'

On a rainy, chilly Sunday in April, First Avenue was packed with parents, kids, toddlers and a few newborns sporting colorful protective earmuffs. Some spun on the dance floor as a Grateful Dead tribute band played "Fire on the Mountain." Some chased each other, weaving through the crowd. Others stared, wide-eyed, at ever-changing bubbles of pink ink, projected on a side wall.

This is Rock and Roll Playhouse, a concert series for kids that pops up in historic clubs across the country. The same venues, just at an earlier hour. The same music, just at a quieter volume.

"You're introducing your kids to a place that you love or an experience you've had yourself — and you're doing it in a really authentic way," said Ashley Ryan, First Avenue's vice president of marketing. "It's not a setup of a fake event. It is, of course, a kid-friendlier version, but it's not watered down.

"It's the real experience of going to a concert."

Concert promoter and Brooklyn Bowl owner Peter Shapiro launched Rock and Roll Playhouse in 2013, according to an article in Fatherly, after having a eureka moment that he summed up thusly: "I had kids." First Ave started booking the series in 2018. The club's capacity for a typical shoulder-to-shoulder concert is 1,550, but for these shows they allow 750, Ryan said. That gives kids room to dance, run or, if they're in a quieter mood, color at a table to the side.

There are shakers and limbo sticks and — at the concert's height — a massive parachute.

The concerts often sell out. First Avenue books cover bands that parents dig, too, including groups paying homage to Prince, Tom Petty and Taylor Swift. "The themes shift, but they're something that resonates with the adults and the kids," Ryan said. "Taylor is a perfect example of that." On Oct. 6, Running in the Shadows, a band billed as "Minnesota's best tribute to Fleetwood Mac," will perform.

Doors open at 11 a.m.

At Orchestra Hall, a very different venue, the Minnesota Orchestra also hosts concerts for kids. Kinder Konzerts bring little ones onstage. Young People's Concerts, held since 1911, invite school and homeschooled groups on weekdays. Sensory-friendly concerts are held in the smaller Target Atrium.

But the concerts most likely to appeal to both young and old classical aficionados alike are the Relaxed Family Concerts. Those feature the entire orchestra and are held inside the storied hall. There are extras, too: Before the one-hour concerts, kids can try out instruments and meet musicians. This season features three such concerts, and music director Thomas Søndergård directs one of them, on March 2. (This fall's Relaxed Family Concert, which explores the galaxy, is Oct. 27.)

'Then it resonates'

Inspired by a baby rave he attended in Denmark, the new artistic director of Children's Theatre Company, Rick Dildine, is thinking young.

Dildine recently told the Minnesota Star Tribune that he would like to broaden the company's core demographic reach, now ages 5-12, by increasing programming for the under-5 set and finding ways to keep teens in the fold.

It's a move Stages Theatre Company made a decade ago. That's when the company first staged "The Dandelion Seed," based on a picture book, launching its Theatre for the Very Young series.

With a show for infants to 5-year-olds, "you are letting young people have a theatrical experience from where they are," said Sandy Boren-Barrett, longtime artistic director and CEO of the 40-year-old theater company, which performs at Hopkins Center for the Arts. "You are not asking them to sit in a seat, facing forward. They are fully immersed in the production and are participating in the work."

In August, the theater brought back "The Dandelion Seed," and this fall, thanks to a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts, it will bring it to schools in Minneapolis and St. Paul.

Shows for the theater's youngest audiences are so popular that Stages leaders dream of having a space specifically for that series, Boren-Barrett said. Ticket sales for Stages Theatre's 2023-24 season broke records, surpassing its previous record, in 2015-16, by 13%.

Stages often commissions new work, and this fall, it's premiering a new work for all ages: "Señorita Mariposa," a bilingual play based on a book by Ben Gundersheimer. In creating a new show, the theater makes sure that children are at the center — and in the room. The playwrights workshop the pieces with kids who make sure that dialogue doesn't sound like "something an adult thinks a kid would say," as Boren-Barrett put it.

"If it's authentic to them, and they're a part of it, then it resonates."

On a recent Friday morning, toddlers and young children entered a quiet, softly lit room where young people were sitting beside games, crayons and puzzles. They were cast members, wearing discrete headset microphones, but for now, they were just kids.

"Want to play?" one girl asked, holding up a small wooden carrot.

Attendees included two mothers, friends since middle school, and their children. Kara Stadem, who has a 15-month-old daughter, had seen an ad for "The Dandelion Seed" on Facebook and bought tickets. "It's nice because there's not a ton of things for really little ones," said Stadem, of White Bear Lake. "I feel like a lot of it starts at like, 2 years old."

After 10 minutes, the cast members began encouraging the little ones to come to the next room. In the center, a stage, but a circular one, without barriers or chairs. Most of the audience members settled onto their caregivers' laps or the floor beside them. But a few tottered about, looking this way and that.

The young actors performed, often beautifully, but they also acted as little hosts, offering the infants, toddlers and kids objects and encouragement. At one point, an actor noted the rain and went in search of an umbrella.

A little boy handed him an invisible one. They both beamed.