(Re)arrangers, makers and movers: Encounters with loose parts in an art museum

This paper reports on the exploratory potential of encounters with loose parts in an art museum. It illustrates a process of engaging young children (aged five and under) with open-ended resources, objects and museum space to become co-producers of knowledge and art. Vignettes highlight children’s agency in exploring the possibilities of open-ended provocations and exhibits in an art museum in England, UK. Exploring the entanglement of children, materials, play and museum space offered a way of interpreting children’s embodied literacy engagements and co-production of knowledge and art. Emphasised is the importance of children’s participation in informing museum practices and offerings to them as agents rather than passive audiences of content and learning. The paper considers how to foster belonging in art museums for the youngest children by offering makerspaces and mobile sensory meaning-making opportunities.