Things of the Least: reimagining museum experiences for the under-threes
A new exhibition is taking a fresh look at the relationship between museum artefacts and very young children, exploring the ways exhibition-making and visiting can be transformed by babies’ and toddlers’ interactions with space and materials.
Funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council, led by Manchester Metropolitan University and co-produced with Manchester Art Gallery, Birmingham City University and partners Sure Start (a UK government programme providing support for families with children under five in disadvantaged areas), the Things of the Least exhibition is the result of a three-year project combining early years and artistic research to create an innovative gallery experience which places children aged under three and their families at its heart.
Now running at Manchester Art Gallery until November 2026, the exhibition follows a recent report by the Arts Council showing that only 13% of 0–2-year-olds nationally have visited an art gallery or museum in the past year – the lowest percentage of any age group in the survey.
The report describes practical barriers such as cost, time, the collection’s relevance and the need for visibly child-friendly, inclusive environments. The Things of the Least project team worked with families who do not typically connect with galleries and museums, examining the ways that children under three engage with the material world, with the intention of creating a free exhibition, based on their observations.
The project initially explored Manchester City Galleries’ Mary Greg Collection, a vast treasure trove of toys and ordinary household objects collected at the turn of the 20th century, which focuses on the intimate, meaningful practices of everyday life that might seem insignificant and humble yet create a sense of belonging.
Over the past two years, six artists created a Mary Greg ‘play kit’ of objects based on those explorations to take to families accessing Sure Start Play and Stay sessions at Manchester Art Gallery’s Platt Hall in Fallowfield and at a site offering temporary accommodation to families. This included local residents from South Asian, African Caribbean and white British communities alongside families displaced from their countries who are seeking sanctuary in Manchester.
The early years researchers and artists gathered insights from their observations of the sessions. After months of watching, listening and documenting the babies and toddlers as they played with objects and materials, the team noted how they were repeatedly engaged in ‘scattering’, ‘hiding’ and ‘gathering’.
The artists incorporated the children’s movements, gestures, narration and forms of engagement into their reworked artefacts and installation ideas – culminating in the newly opened Things of the Least at Manchester Art Gallery.
The exhibition includes three purpose-built structures based on observations of how babies engage with the material world – one which allows the children to hide and squeeze into small spaces, a second that encourages a scattering of things in the process of play and a third that acknowledges how the youngest babies and toddlers like to gather and be together with materials.
Rachel Holmes, Manchester Met’s Professor of Cultural Studies of Childhood, said: “This project enabled us to re-examine conventional assumptions about very young children. Our observations of the way the youngest children interact with the material and sensuous world around them – crouching, crawling, squeezing through, gathering and scattering – has informed the art that has been created.
“They have shaped the gallery space to enable new forms of engagement with the collection, offering alternatives to the traditional, western-culture bias that prioritises sight above all other senses in the appreciation and understanding of art.”
Becky Shaw, Professor in Fine Art Practice at Birmingham City University, lead artist and co-investigator, added: “The process of making Things of the Least is research in every single pore, at every stage. The research doesn’t lie only in books read or papers written, or even babies watched, it lies in every practical stage.
“We are making an exhibition about historic artefacts, but at the same time we are exploring how children and adults might interact with the artefacts, while also working out how to enable new visitors to experience the artefacts, while also exploring what it is like to be a visitor who sees the exhibition in motion as adults and children interact with it. There’s a lot going on!”
Katy McCall, Senior Learning Manager Early Years and Families at Manchester Art Gallery, added: “Things of the Least has provided a brilliant opportunity for us to spend time as an organisation thinking about how we make exhibitions that include and engage all our visitors. The families we work with are at the heart of everything, and we’re proud to be working in partnership with both our academic partners and the amazing staff at our Sure Start children’s centres to develop long term programmes that deliver real impact and also support work towards making Manchester a city of equity.”
Things of the Least is now running at Manchester Art Gallery until November 2026.
