Tell us about your museum visit. What went right? Was there anything the museum could have done better?
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On holiday in the Lake District I visited the Dock Museum in Barrow http://www.dockmuseum.org.uk/ with my two children (5 & 2) and my parents. It was great! Loads of ship models that are of inexplicable fascination to my son, an amazing setting in a disused dock, so you keep going down and down through the displays, and a top-notch playground outside. It was only afterwards I realised that there was hardly an interactive in the place, yet it had held our interest really well.
We went to the National Portrait Gallery and were just in time for their children’s activity (which basically just involves handing out paper and crayons and talking to the children about paintings, then getting them to create their own version - in this case a self-portrait with a patterned background). The staff were brilliant - ie they directed us towards the person who was running the activity, which we wouldn’t have known about otherwise. Being sprawled out colouring on the gallery floor did help the children feel at home and welcome in the gallery.
I think the ‘kids in Musuems’ Award is FANTASTIC! I work for EXPLORE At Bristol, which is a science centre in Bristol designed as a hands-on, educational -but most importantly FUN- museum for Kids and BIG kids! This Award and the ‘kids in musuem’ manifesto are SO INSPIRING! It really makes you look more closely are how we treat, keep and look after our family visitors. I have to say that, I feel we opitomise the ethos of the awards and it makes me feel really proud to be working for a charity that really makes a difference to families. For example we have a new exhibtion at the moment called ‘fossils and funnybones’ which has a mixture of hands on activities (a giant dinosaur dig pit, costumes to try on, microscopes etc) as well as using things like story telling to bring ideas alive- we have toddler time events on friday afternoons which give families a chance to play together as well meeting new friends. Over the course of the next 2 months we have more exhibitions coming in, but these ones are aimed at older children, like ‘LoveSport’ and ‘Inside DNA’. Sorry this isn’t supposed to be an advert; I just feel very passionately that we are an attraction for everyone! I’d be really keen to hear from visitors and other attractions to find out what we could do better and how to enthuse and be inspired to do more! H
I come from Bristol so was interested to read Hannah Broadway’s comments above. [Yes, it was an advert Hannah!]. I was wondering if EXPLORE is linking their fossil exhibition with the other excellent collections and work going on in Bristol? Bristol’s Museum & Art Gallery have fantastic collections (kids love it and it’s FREE) and the University’s Earth Sciences Dept are doing great work with schools on the Bristol dinosaur and their DINOBASE website. I’d love to see more co-operation going on for marketing and special events etc in Bristol. If your child develops a passion for something like fossils you want it to be easy to find out what’s there locally. Sorry, this is a bit off topic!
I’d be really interested in any feedback from visitors to museums as to what interpretation they feel works best for children/family visits Do museum text panels spoon-feed and remove the opportunity for you and your children to think creatively, question and discuss themes, opinions etc? What good examples of brilliantly engaging text/interpretation have you encountered?
All thoughts welcome!
Many thanks.
In Barcelona where I live, I find that many of the museums and galleries are geared towards children. They have regular workshops and activities - sometimes for even very young children. As well as organised activities that run alongside the permanent exhibits, they often have fun and interactive activities coinciding with many of the temporary exhibits. When I go along with friends, who like myself have toddlers, we are typically made to feel very welcome by museum staff. The MNAC (Museum of National Art of Catalunya), as part of their Surrealism season, currently has a Surrealist workshop for children 3 yrs and over with props and materials to allow kids to experiment creatively. The CaixaForum has permanent rooms attached to the exhibition rooms which run artistic workshops (ages 6yrs and over) related to the works being exhibited. The Museum of Natural Science and Zoology gives visitors a free pack for under 12’s when you enter with a drawing pad, plastic animals, photographs and guessing games to make the visit more stimulating for younger children. I am not very aware of the situation in the UK, however, since having a young child here, I have been amazed by how so much of what is available for children takes place in the museums or other cultural settings. I have recently created a website http://www.kidsinbarcelona.com that highlights some of the child-appropriate museums in Barcelona and cultural activities for resident kids as well as visitors with children to the city.
Today, 25th March 2008, is the 20th anniversary of an amazing day at Bristol’s City Museum & Art Gallery. On Friday 25th March 1988 members of WHAM! (Women, Heritage & Museums) and staff at this local authority museum organised “Open House” - an activity day for the under fives. This was long before toddlers were really made welcome in museums and Dea Birkett kick-started Kids in Museums, but I like to think a small seed was sown in Bristol that day. It was an unforgettable experience, exhausting but lots of fun. The organisers expected about 400 people - over 3,000 turned up.
Some women wept as volunteers carried their buggies up the stairs into the museum! No lifts in those days, so this wasn’t what they were used to. The toddlers took it all in their stride of course and behaved brilliantly because so much was geared to their needs.
The organisers were mostly young women professionals, and the odd volunteer like myself. Some had young families. They really impressed me with the energy, intelligence and commitment they put into this day - nothing was impossible for this team. I think most of them are still working in museums today, some in very senior jobs. I like to think that day influenced their attitude to kids and families in museums and I sometimes wonder if the toddlers who came along, who are now in their twenties, have any memory of that extraordinary day. Most of the papers and photos from the day ended up with me and I intend to deposit them soon in Bristol’s City Record Office, if they will accept them.
We (Me, Partner and 6 kids) visited Natural History Museum and Royal Albert Hall during the Easter Hols (2 hour journey each way). The Museum is always great except for queues and lack of benches. The Royal Albert Hall was a pre-booked show by the RPO and offered a reportoire that appealed to children, with a ticket price to match. A day out for 2 adults and 6 kids is always dictated by budget. The kids loved it, as did we. These special events are hard to find but well worth the effort.
If anyone is visiting the US, a worthy (but not flawless) museum is the Peabody Essex Museum in Salem, Massachusetts (about 30 minutes from Boston). They have great kids programming every weekend (yesterday a sculptor coached our five year old on how to make a polar bear). They have a whole section of the museum devoted to kids, with drawers to open & activity boxes to play with. You can spend hours just in that room alone.
But the guards always manage to give us a hard time. It’s as if someone hasn’t told them that children are truly welcome there.
Any advice on working to make a museum friendlier would be welcome.
We went to the National Rail Museum in York yesterday which was great for my 2 year old son who is train mad. There are lifts and ramps for buggies and lots of parking nearby. Baby changing in both the ladies and gents as well as a picnic area. Unfortunately it didn’t have a cloakroom to leave buggies, as we were planning on walking round York we’d take ours but wanted to let our son walk around the museum himself.
The Scottish Museum is also good in Edinburgh though is limited for toddlers with only one interactive room, they often have live music though and the fish pond is always popular.
The Science and Industry Museum in Manchester has lots for children and is the location of the first passenger train service, there are picnic areas and toilets and cafes.
August 31st, 2007 at 10:47 am
On holiday in the Lake District I visited the Dock Museum in Barrow http://www.dockmuseum.org.uk/ with my two children (5 & 2) and my parents. It was great! Loads of ship models that are of inexplicable fascination to my son, an amazing setting in a disused dock, so you keep going down and down through the displays, and a top-notch playground outside. It was only afterwards I realised that there was hardly an interactive in the place, yet it had held our interest really well.
September 3rd, 2007 at 8:19 am
We went to the National Portrait Gallery and were just in time for their children’s activity (which basically just involves handing out paper and crayons and talking to the children about paintings, then getting them to create their own version - in this case a self-portrait with a patterned background). The staff were brilliant - ie they directed us towards the person who was running the activity, which we wouldn’t have known about otherwise. Being sprawled out colouring on the gallery floor did help the children feel at home and welcome in the gallery.
September 24th, 2007 at 12:36 pm
I think the ‘kids in Musuems’ Award is FANTASTIC! I work for EXPLORE At Bristol, which is a science centre in Bristol designed as a hands-on, educational -but most importantly FUN- museum for Kids and BIG kids! This Award and the ‘kids in musuem’ manifesto are SO INSPIRING! It really makes you look more closely are how we treat, keep and look after our family visitors. I have to say that, I feel we opitomise the ethos of the awards and it makes me feel really proud to be working for a charity that really makes a difference to families. For example we have a new exhibtion at the moment called ‘fossils and funnybones’ which has a mixture of hands on activities (a giant dinosaur dig pit, costumes to try on, microscopes etc) as well as using things like story telling to bring ideas alive- we have toddler time events on friday afternoons which give families a chance to play together as well meeting new friends. Over the course of the next 2 months we have more exhibitions coming in, but these ones are aimed at older children, like ‘LoveSport’ and ‘Inside DNA’. Sorry this isn’t supposed to be an advert; I just feel very passionately that we are an attraction for everyone! I’d be really keen to hear from visitors and other attractions to find out what we could do better and how to enthuse and be inspired to do more! H
September 28th, 2007 at 6:25 am
I come from Bristol so was interested to read Hannah Broadway’s comments above. [Yes, it was an advert Hannah!]. I was wondering if EXPLORE is linking their fossil exhibition with the other excellent collections and work going on in Bristol? Bristol’s Museum & Art Gallery have fantastic collections (kids love it and it’s FREE) and the University’s Earth Sciences Dept are doing great work with schools on the Bristol dinosaur and their DINOBASE website. I’d love to see more co-operation going on for marketing and special events etc in Bristol. If your child develops a passion for something like fossils you want it to be easy to find out what’s there locally. Sorry, this is a bit off topic!
November 7th, 2007 at 4:41 pm
I’d be really interested in any feedback from visitors to museums as to what interpretation they feel works best for children/family visits Do museum text panels spoon-feed and remove the opportunity for you and your children to think creatively, question and discuss themes, opinions etc? What good examples of brilliantly engaging text/interpretation have you encountered?
All thoughts welcome!
Many thanks.
November 28th, 2007 at 8:41 pm
In Barcelona where I live, I find that many of the museums and galleries are geared towards children. They have regular workshops and activities - sometimes for even very young children. As well as organised activities that run alongside the permanent exhibits, they often have fun and interactive activities coinciding with many of the temporary exhibits. When I go along with friends, who like myself have toddlers, we are typically made to feel very welcome by museum staff. The MNAC (Museum of National Art of Catalunya), as part of their Surrealism season, currently has a Surrealist workshop for children 3 yrs and over with props and materials to allow kids to experiment creatively. The CaixaForum has permanent rooms attached to the exhibition rooms which run artistic workshops (ages 6yrs and over) related to the works being exhibited. The Museum of Natural Science and Zoology gives visitors a free pack for under 12’s when you enter with a drawing pad, plastic animals, photographs and guessing games to make the visit more stimulating for younger children. I am not very aware of the situation in the UK, however, since having a young child here, I have been amazed by how so much of what is available for children takes place in the museums or other cultural settings. I have recently created a website http://www.kidsinbarcelona.com that highlights some of the child-appropriate museums in Barcelona and cultural activities for resident kids as well as visitors with children to the city.
March 25th, 2008 at 10:09 am
Today, 25th March 2008, is the 20th anniversary of an amazing day at Bristol’s City Museum & Art Gallery. On Friday 25th March 1988 members of WHAM! (Women, Heritage & Museums) and staff at this local authority museum organised “Open House” - an activity day for the under fives. This was long before toddlers were really made welcome in museums and Dea Birkett kick-started Kids in Museums, but I like to think a small seed was sown in Bristol that day. It was an unforgettable experience, exhausting but lots of fun. The organisers expected about 400 people - over 3,000 turned up.
Some women wept as volunteers carried their buggies up the stairs into the museum! No lifts in those days, so this wasn’t what they were used to. The toddlers took it all in their stride of course and behaved brilliantly because so much was geared to their needs.
The organisers were mostly young women professionals, and the odd volunteer like myself. Some had young families. They really impressed me with the energy, intelligence and commitment they put into this day - nothing was impossible for this team. I think most of them are still working in museums today, some in very senior jobs. I like to think that day influenced their attitude to kids and families in museums and I sometimes wonder if the toddlers who came along, who are now in their twenties, have any memory of that extraordinary day. Most of the papers and photos from the day ended up with me and I intend to deposit them soon in Bristol’s City Record Office, if they will accept them.
March 26th, 2008 at 1:56 pm
We (Me, Partner and 6 kids) visited Natural History Museum and Royal Albert Hall during the Easter Hols (2 hour journey each way). The Museum is always great except for queues and lack of benches. The Royal Albert Hall was a pre-booked show by the RPO and offered a reportoire that appealed to children, with a ticket price to match. A day out for 2 adults and 6 kids is always dictated by budget. The kids loved it, as did we. These special events are hard to find but well worth the effort.
September 22nd, 2008 at 12:02 pm
If anyone is visiting the US, a worthy (but not flawless) museum is the Peabody Essex Museum in Salem, Massachusetts (about 30 minutes from Boston). They have great kids programming every weekend (yesterday a sculptor coached our five year old on how to make a polar bear). They have a whole section of the museum devoted to kids, with drawers to open & activity boxes to play with. You can spend hours just in that room alone.
But the guards always manage to give us a hard time. It’s as if someone hasn’t told them that children are truly welcome there.
Any advice on working to make a museum friendlier would be welcome.
More of our museum adventures (Boston, San Francisco, Vermont, New Hampshire, New York) can be found here -
http://leojames.wordpress.com/category/kids-in-museums/page/3/
Thanks for the great web site and taking on this campaign!
October 27th, 2008 at 3:22 pm
Hi
We went to the National Rail Museum in York yesterday which was great for my 2 year old son who is train mad. There are lifts and ramps for buggies and lots of parking nearby. Baby changing in both the ladies and gents as well as a picnic area. Unfortunately it didn’t have a cloakroom to leave buggies, as we were planning on walking round York we’d take ours but wanted to let our son walk around the museum himself.
The Scottish Museum is also good in Edinburgh though is limited for toddlers with only one interactive room, they often have live music though and the fish pond is always popular.
The Science and Industry Museum in Manchester has lots for children and is the location of the first passenger train service, there are picnic areas and toilets and cafes.
All of the above are free as well.