Kids in Museums

I have always been an enthusiastic museum and gallery visitor. My youngest child was first taken to a gallery when she was just a few weeks old. So there was nothing unusual in taking my three children - my ten year old and two-year-old twins - to the Aztec exhibition at the Royal Academy in the spring of 2003. I didn’t know it would be a visit that would have a profound effect on me personally, changing the course of my life. Nor could I have imagined it would lead to the launch of a brand new, pioneering charity encouraging, supporting and driving change in Britain’s museums and galleries. Look in All About Us, and you’ll discover how it did.

Now, as Director of Kids in Museums, I can see the wonderful, innovative and inclusive work underway in museums all over the country. Much is being done to welcome families, but there is still much more that can be done to welcome all families. Our projects, from I Can’t See It to the national Take Your Granny day, all strive towards making sure this happens. Look at What’s Happening to find out more.

My passion for museums and galleries, always seen from a visitor’s perspective, grows and grows. I am now a member of the Museums Association Ethics Committee. I am also co-director of TextWorkshop, a company offering writing workshops to museum professionals.

I still write. I have written seven books, most recently Off the Beaten Track: Three Centuries of Women Travellers, to accompany an exhibition of the same title at the National Portrait Gallery in London. I am a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature. I live in London with my family. We continue to visit museums and galleries.

I hope Kids in Museums may mean all of our families, including yours, may also have the opportunity to enjoy the wonders Britain’s museums and galleries offer.

Dea Birkett

Kids in Museums logo and banner illustrations all © Quentin Blake.