The importance of being family friendly

Kids in Museums works with museums, galleries, and heritage sites across the UK to make them more welcoming of all children, young people, and families. Since we were founded in 2003, we have driven significant change across the sector to help more families feel welcome in heritage spaces and ensure they can benefit from the opportunities and experiences museums offer.

This year is our 20th anniversary and in May we got an early birthday present when we were awarded the Sector Support Award in the Museums + Heritage Awards – we were all thrilled to receive such recognition and we’re excited for what comes next.

Making museums welcoming, inclusive and accessible for families has never been more important.

Welcoming museums

Making museums welcoming, inclusive and accessible for families has never been more important. Research shows that children who visit museums with their families are more likely to visit as adults than those who visited on school trips. This is even more important as school trips are in decline for several reasons, including the cost-of-living crisis.

Throughout all of our work we directly represent the views of young people and families. The cornerstone of our work is our Kids in Museums Manifesto – a set of simple guidelines co-created with young people and families on what makes a great museum visit for all ages. Over 1,100 heritage organisations have signed up.

We also organise the Digital Takeover Day (7 July) and Takeover Day (17 November), where we empower children and young people to ‘take over’ adults’ jobs in museums for the day.

We know engaging with museums brings benefits to learning, wellbeing, and community engagement. They are places that spark and support creativity. Young people don’t always perceive them as creative places, but once they have taken part in a programme like Takeover Day, they are more likely to feel confident and comfortable in museum spaces and want to get more involved in other museum activities.

And our annual Family Friendly Museum Award celebrates the venues that are most welcoming, fun, and accessible for families. And, most importantly, it is up to families to decide the winner! We’re delighted to be sharing the shortlist today – and you can see who they are by heading to our website.

 

We wanted to become an IPSO because, although museums have made huge strides over the past decade in becoming more welcoming to young people and families, there is still work to do.

What being an IPSO means

We were delighted to be named as an Investment Principles Support Organisation (IPSO) in November 2022. The vision of Let’s Create (everyone having access to a range of high-quality cultural experiences and having their own creativity valued) really resonated with us and strongly reflects our work over the last 20 years.

For those of you unfamiliar with IPSOs, they are organisations funded by the Arts Council to help the creative and cultural sector become more inclusive and relevant, environmentally responsible, dynamic, ambitious and produce high quality work.

We wanted to become an IPSO because, although museums have made huge strides over the past decade in becoming more welcoming to young people and families, there is still work to do. There are still groups that are underrepresented in museum audiences, such as those with disabilities, and we know from talking to families that not everyone feels confident about visiting.

We offer a wide range of training, consultancy, and resources to support museum staff in their work, particularly engaging groups that may be underrepresented in their audiences.

A lot of our work focuses on Inclusivity & Relevance. Museums can use our Manifesto to assess and make changes to their provision. The final Manifesto point encourages them to work with their communities to strengthen relationships and make longer-lasting change.

We’re opening up the world of museum and heritage careers through Takeover Day, our Youth Panel and a planned Young Trustee programme. This helps us understand how museums can be more relevant to younger audiences and enables them to take on decision making roles.

The Family Friendly Museum Award is the centre of our work on ambition and quality. Our shortlist and winners highlight best practice and what excellence in the sector looks like. We hope to build on this in the next two years with more tools to support museums to evaluate and enhance the experience they offer for children, young people, and families.

Stay tuned!

Celebrate 20 years of Kids in Museums on social media by sharing a tweet with #KidsInMuseums on 12 July 2023. Find out more: https://bit.ly/20YearsOfKiM.