Children’s Activities in Museums

Visiting museums as a family is not always an easy task. The leading cultural institutions in Madrid are well aware of this, whereby they organise different activities throughout the year, to awaken the interest of the little ones so that family visits become a fun and entertaining game.  

Art Walk Route 

We kick off our route on the Art Walk (an area that includes the Paseo del Prado and Buen Retiro, a landscape of arts and sciences, also known as the Landscape of Light,  declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site).and, more specifically, at the Prado Museum which has a children’s itinerary, having adapted a children’s audio-guide, which is available on its official website.  This museum proposes going on a tour with Margarita and her friends. The itinerary can be followed either by listening to the audios and surfing around each of its sheets or by watching the videos of the works being discussed.  

Still on the Art Walk, the Thyssen-Bornemisza National Museum has launched EducaThyssen, which offers different routes through the collection for adults and children to discover the world of art. The routes available are divided in accordance with the theme and the age of the participants (from 3 to 6 years old and from 7 to 12 years old). The museum also offers Visits for families designed for two age groups: families with children between the ages of 3 and 6 and families whose members are over the age of 7. 

The third emblematic institution on this Walk, the Reina Sofía Museum, organises diverse actions throughout the year, aimed at families and children and young people, related to the permanent exhibition or temporary exhibitions.   Some of them foresee interaction with artists.  

Workshop visits, treasure hunts and interactive activities

The National Archaeological Museum offers families and children different options to share the visit to the exhibition as an active and participative experience. Among them, we can highlight Storytelling with history, in which the tale is the starting point of the visit, or the Workshop Visit, which consists of two parts, a commented visit to the exhibition halls, to analyse a selection of objects related to each other, and a practical and experimental session in which adults and children work together. Registration for the Workshop Visit opens on the 1^st of each month at 9am.  

To make children aware of the cultures of the world in a fun way, the National Anthropology Museum offers treasure hunts and interactive activities in which children can choose their favourite piece and  write a letter or draw it on posters which will later decorate the hall of the museum. There will also be a permanent treasure hunt: a thousand and one trips (for families with children between the ages of 6 and 10), where the little ones will become expert detectives or The Cultures of the World, at Play activity.

The Cerralbo Museum has special programmes for school visits and with a didactic section devoted to families. This latter proposal combines games, creativity and culture in tours and workshops so that children can learn whilst having fun.  See the website to be up to date with the registration dates and methods. 

The Romanticism Museum has diverse activities throughout the year, for families, children and young people, in order to visit the permanent exhibition and discover the temporary exhibitions from a fun point of view. The registration dates and methods can be consulted on the website.

The Naval Museum regularly organises activities aimed at family audiences with educational workshops for children and storytelling for all ages. Having completed a series of structural reforms, improving its rooms and spaces, its objective is to make the museum an accessible space for children as they learn and have fun.

School proposals, days without school and educational projects for teenagers

Every Sunday, the Lázaro Galdiano Museum offers workshops to have fun as a family or with friends. The Sorolla Museum has visits-workshops for kids, in which they can learn about the history of art and painting. It has a programme of free visits for school children guided by educators. Finally, it also offers educational projects for teenagers and gives the institutes the possibility to make a dual visit, which consists of a first visit with a small group to visit the halls, understand the history of the Museum and where to participate in a painting workshop. On the second day, it will be the students who will act as a guide for their classmates, which will make it a fun visit.   

The offer of the Natural Sciences National Museum aimed at kids is extremely varied, as it offers an extensive programme of educational and cultural activities (workshops, storytelling, guided visits, urban camps) during leisure periods and free time,  such as weekends, summer holidays, Easter or Christmas, as well as specific celebrations, such as the International Day of the Woman and Child in Science (11^th February).

The Mapfre Foundation –Recoletos Hall proposes visits-workshops for families – aimed at children between the ages of 3 and 6). It is a way of initiating children in the learning of the arts whilst having fun. The museum also offers visits-workshops and dynamic visits – aimed at children between the ages of 7 and 12- so that all the family can interact with the most representative works of art in each exhibition.  There is even more, there are also activities for all ages. 

We will end these entertaining family cultural visits at the National Museum of Decorative Arts, which programmes diverse workshops and story-telling sessions for children throughout the year. The activity has a visit-workshop format and visitors will get closer to certain pieces of the collection, their values of use and the history of daily life, to later work on similar concepts, letting their imagination and skill run wild through a manual activity.

National Heritage is organising activities and workshops for children throughout the year, such as workshop visits for schools and musical events.