Poster for an art gallery opening featuring a gold ornate picture frame with a person's head and a drawing of a girl with curly hair inside. The background is bright blue with white text providing event details, including the date, time, location, and website.

Hey!

This page is an overview of how the first Gallerie All Together came to be, and was. Scroll down to see more from the RISD Museum, 2024.

There is a NEW instance of the program going down at OPEN during March 2026, lead by Kara Stokowski. For all the info on that, head over here.

Thanks much!

Child with yellow hair and purple shirt, smiling and making a peace sign with hand, standing next to another child with dark skin, short hair, and striped shirt.

Anyone can be a curator!
Originally designed by Ben & Lee Sisto with Kara Stokowski.
Public Domain.

GAT MAP

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What is Gallerie All Together?

Children participating in an indoor activity, with one child drawing or working on the wall while others observe or wait their turn.

Gallerie All Together is an experimental educational platform offering children and pre-teens a safe, fun introduction to the practice of curating in a gallery context. With emphasis on play, GAT promotes critical thinking, independent and collaborative decision making, and self confidence.

A young girl and an adult man are examining artwork displayed on the floor and on a shelf at an art exhibit. The girl is dressed in a colorful costume with a pink hand-shaped decoration and is pointing at a framed painting, while the man is squatting beside her, holding a brochure or flyer in his hand. Shelves behind them display various framed paintings and artwork.

GAT understands curating as a suite of skills (reading, editing, imagining, collaborating) that increases one’s ability to understand complex problems, navigate uncertainty, and exist in the world with empathy. GAT is a framework that allows us to consider the physical and structural architecture of museums, who is prioritized and why, and to imagine ways to increase access and participation broadly.

Download a free guide!

GAT #1 in Pictures

Children and adults sitting on a carpeted floor in a circle, some with masks or paper masks, in a room with white walls and a door, participating in an indoor activity.

Step 1: Cohorts of 10-12 kids at a time would enter a gallery with their families, kids finding space on a conversation rug (grown ups often seated to the side). The kids were given a top-level pitch about why curating is fun and cool.

A man and a young girl are looking at framed artwork at an art sale or gallery. The girl is wearing a colorful dress and a fun pink chair shaped like a hand. The man is kneeling and wearing a hoodie. Shelves of additional artwork and magazines are in the background.

Step 2: Our curators were then asked to visit “Art Storage,” a curtained-off area containing 100 or so objects and pictures. They selected one work each with assistance from volunteers or their grown ups.

A man with a hammer and a woman are hanging a yellow piece of paper on a white wall, with a young girl watching. The girl is wearing a mask with a smiling face painted on it, and a dark blue shirt.

Step 3: Curators instructed grown-up “Art Handlers” on where and how to display their selections as part of a salon-style group show. Kids oversaw the process, making tweaks and adjustments as we went.

Children sitting in a circle on a carpet in an art gallery, with some wearing masks on their faces, watching a person with a blue paper mache head and a purple shirt standing in front of paintings on the wall.

Step 4: Next, we held an empowering, friendly, and optional conversation about their choices—what they liked, where they wanted things to go, and why. On their own, kids selected to stand up and present.

Children sitting on the floor inside a classroom, some with paper faces covering their faces, engaging in an activity, with one child raising their hand.

Step 5: After a brief 30 second moment of silence and reflection, we asked the group for ideas on a show title, or about themes they noticed when looking at the show as a whole.

People of various ages attending an art gallery, observing paintings on the wall, and engaging with each other.

Step 6: Curators invited their friends and families to explore the show, telling them all they’d learned. Some light party music was played for about 3 minutes so kids had an opportunity to get some energy out.

Poster Art

Four versions of an event poster were designed. Original art by Lee Sisto.
Typography and layout by Lee Sisto with Ben Sisto.

Gallerie All Together is truly public domain! Let us know what you get up to!

A second GAT is in the works for spring 2026, lead by Kara Stokowski. More info as it comes together will be found here.

Download a free guide!

This page and the GAT MAP Guide have been funded in part by a Community Engaged Projects grant from The Rhode Island State Council on the Arts (RISCA). More at https://risca.online. Gallerie All Together was initially made possible through the generous support of the RISD Museum.

Gallerie All Together takes inspiration from the exhibition Anything Goes, held at the National Museum in Warsaw in 2016, and from the work of Director Agnieszka Morawińska. We also take inspiration from A New Critical Children’s Museology by Dr. Monica Eileen Patterson.