The Museum of Childhood Ireland is the only museum dedicated to a cultural, artistic, storytelling and artefact spaces for children and adults of all backgrounds, identities and experiences. Support from via Spacehive and DCC would help to bring our work to new audiences, platform the experiences of our target communities who are all too often marginalised from the Arts. Our work aims to celebrate and document the myriad and diverse histories which shape childhood, providing representation through the visual arts, storytelling, research, intergenerational and intercultural dialogue.
In doing this we aim to foster empathy and understanding and cohesion between generations and cultures. We will do this by providing alternative learning artefacts for all to help spark creativity, curiosity, critical thinking and play. We hope to create a lasting and visible legacy of childhood experiences through our work, one which will continue to resonate through generations to come.
MCI acts as a hybrid space that offers learning and play, combined with exploration into the history, culture, and unique experiences of childhood valuing all experiences whatever your background and identity. One of the most profound needs fulfilled by the Museum of Childhood is how it positions childhood as an independent entity, allowing an interpretation that is free from adult-centric perceptions of human experiences. Historically, childhood has been underrepresented in cultural documentation. It is never documented in its entirety as it is typically observed in terms of its impact on adult life, often reducing it solely to a precursor phase to adulthood.
