ABSTRACT
This part introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters. The part introduces meshwork thinking as a way to understand children’s relationships with objects in museums. It presents something of the museum as meshwork of multiple past-present-future entanglements and encounters. Objects in young children’s lives have always been powerful as well as contested: mostly identifiable, named and unfamiliar artefacts all carry a sense of other worlds; soft toys and blankets that attach themselves to children and children attach themselves to; wooden bricks, puzzles and rulers that help learning; eclectic home collections of things for decorative purposes. Each has a story to tell that shapes the ways we relate to children and objects. Museums often invite young children to engage with art materials or everyday artefacts in the process of responding to art or museum collections.
