I've produced a number of audio tours for families and kids over the decades I've done this work, and I feel that the approach often feels pandering or didactic. Museum educators' methods work great in person, but not so much in audio. Really fun thematic tours can be successful (the Percy Jackson tour I co-developed with Laura Hubber for the Getty Villa is a good example), but approaching a single object or artwork in a way that engages kids rarely hits the mark. The Whitney and others have brought in kids to talk to kids, interviewing them in front of the object, which felt like an interesting approach.
Has anyone written about best practices for family audio tours? Is anyone in the process of revolutionizing kid tours for a new generation? Anything your museum has tried that you think works well?
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Tim Halbur
Media Producer
J. Paul Getty Museum
Los Angeles CA
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