Don't be quiet here!

All who have small children know the feeling. Parents who decide to visit a museum, a gallery or a café with their child are often reminded by the personnel that they not quite welcome. One can live with it, but sometimes it is too much even for tough parents.

Last Saturday, an otherwise excellent exhibition of paintings and illustrations by Josef Lada in Prague's Obecní dům, promoted quite logically as „an event for children“ on the web, offered the sight of white knuckles too. „Do be quiet here!“ a caretaker shouted at children who behaved spontaneously and adequately to their ages – they simply made tolerable noise and moved randomly around more coordinated groups of adults. My colleagues who went to the exhibition with their children witnessed similar scenes on other days. When the parents protested, the caretakers explained to them they were acting in the interest of the other visitors (although they said no one had complained), and that it was not the best idea to take the kids to an exhibition.

Alžběta Perglová, in charge of PR at the Josef Lada exhibition, says the caretakers were not instructed by anyone to „moderate“ the visitors and that it is an extempore the organiser will have to „tackle“. She adds that Obecní dům is children-friendly, because it prepares special guided tours for them.

It is a praiseworthy approach, but it is based on an old model &–…