Forbidden fruits?

Should museums tailor general exhibits for children? It's a tantalizing question that has become even more relevant as schools rely increasingly on museums for arts education and museums rely increasingly on arts education for their viability.

Local museums have taken a variety of approaches to the issue. At a summer show on Roy Lichtenstein that included a bevy of nude beach beauties, the Katonah Museum of Art put up white screens in front of the works for a school-group visit. The current "British Subjects" exhibit at Purchase College's Neuberger Museum of Art has an entrance sign warning that some of the works may be unsuitable for youngsters and that parents should preview the show first. The Hudson Valley Center for Contemporary Art in Peekskill does not admit children under age 8 to Tomas Hirschhorn's "The Laundrette" (2004), a permanent recreation of a laundromat that has political and sexual overtones.

And yet, says HVCCA co-founder Livia Straus, if you put up a "No Admittance" sign like the one in front of "The Laundrette," children are sure to run to that work, like so many pint-sized Adams and Eves chomping on the verboten apple. (Me, I live in the hope that one day I'll be able to get a load of laundry done at "The Laundrette" while visiting other HVCCA works.)

Straus, who has a background in teaching, says the key is to be judicious.

"When school groups come in, I don't do the whole show," she says. "I focus on works that are useful for them."

So for the provocative "Double Dutch," Straus will steer them toward Lara Schnitger's "Negligee Duet" (pictured here) but certainly not toward her installation "Everybody Happy," which contains an erotic fabric canvas.

What do you think: Are these measures a form of censorship or examples of necessary pragmatism as the arts struggle to ensure a future audience?

Photo by Dale Leifeste, courtesy of the Hudson Valley Center for Contemporary Art.