Parents Take Their Kids to Museum's 'Family Day', Every Exhibit is Weird Performance Art

Emmy Pratt • Senior Editor

Mar 23, 2023 11:00 AM EDT

I went to the museum a lot with my family when I was a kid. While we strolled the halls of the Art Institute of Chicago, we sometimes stumbled into the contemporary art exhibit to see what the artists of today were up to. One time, my kid sister found a video of a clown sitting on the toilet screaming, "NO"
over and over again. It's easy to forget impressionist paintings, but my family will never forget the screaming clown on a toilet.

I think it's important to expose kids to weird art. They're probably going to enjoy it much more than a stuffy boomer who can't have fun with bad art. However, when museums advertise a "family day," you wouldn't expect all of the exhibits to consist of strange performance art that could easily scare younger children. For the family who went to the Watermill Art Center's family day in 2018, this expectation was wholly subverted.