Art Museums as Educators: Publishing for Young People.

Meeting the abilities and needs of young people poses challenges for museums. This article focuses on the importance of thinking about children's strengths and limitations as learners, about how information is rarely their quest, and how looking and thinking about well-chosen art play to their natural acuity. I share what I've learned from my experience writing about art for children, critique of my publications as well as others, and ideas for how to maximize the opportunity we have as museums to jump start a process that can bring lifelong pleasure. I also summarize key ideas from the work of cognitive psychologist, Abigail Housen. Her groundbreaking work in determining how people of all experience levels think when looking at art is the basis for my current opinion about what makes a valuable publication for young people. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]