SW Museum Skills Online: Creating Family Friendly Museums

Join us for an informal virtual briefing and Q&A session to help you think about low and no cost changes you could make to enhance your museum’s family provision using the Kids in Museums Manifesto.

The Kids in Museums Manifesto is a set of simple guidelines for museums, heritage sites and cultural organisations, which we update every two years. Between October and December 2024, we consulted hundreds of children, young people and families about what makes a heritage site a great place to visit. In this session, we will introduce the new version of the Manifesto, along with low and no cost changes you could make to improve your museum for a family audience.

You can hear a case study from the New Forest Heritage Centre about the changes they have been making to their family offer. You can also find out about the Kids in Museums Manifesto Self-Assessment Tool, which can support you to do a light touch self-audit of how well your museum or heritage site meets the Kids in Museums Manifesto. The Kids in Museums Manifesto Self-Assessment Tool is particularly aimed those with limited budgets.

Who should attend?

This training is aimed at staff and volunteers who work in museums, art galleries and heritage sites who are interested in making their organisations more family friendly.

What will you learn?

In this session, we will:

• Provide a range of practical ideas to inspire your family friendly provision.

• Share how your organisation can use the Kids in Museums Manifesto Self-Assessment Tool to improve your family offer.
• Hear a case study from the New Forest Heritage Centre about the changes they made to their family offer following being part of the Kids in Museums and Museum Development South West Family Friendly Museum Cohort.

How does this meet the Accreditation standard?

9.1 To provide stimulating learning and discovery activities, including exhibitions and programmes based on your collections.

About the trainer

Laura Bedford has worked in or with museums for over 20 years, with previous learning-based roles at the National Maritime Museum, Geffrye Museum (now the Museum of the Home), Te Papa and the Museum of Wellington City and Sea. Laura previously managed the National Alliance for Museums, Health and Wellbeing and was the director for GEM’s health and wellbeing intermediate course.

She has worked at Kids in Museums as the Head of Programmes since September 2018. Her role includes leading on the development and delivery of training and consultancy, including the Kids in Museums and Museum Development South West Family Friendly Museum Cohort.

Contact details

Email: museum.development@bristol.gov.uk

Phone: Jenni Orme, Senior Museum Development Programme Officer - 07824 165063

How will this session be delivered and what equipment do I need?

This session will be delivered online using Zoom a cloud based video conferencing service. The service is free to use, all you need is either a laptop, tablet/ iPad or phone. Your device will need to be able to stream video and sound. If you are using a laptop you can simply connect via your web browser. If using a tablet/ iPad or phone you will need to download the app (free to download) to connect to the session. Full instructions on how to join the session will be issued direct to the email address provided at the point of booking before the session takes place.

How do we use the data you supply us?

* For full details on how the information supplied to us as part of the booking process is used please see our Privacy Policy here: https://southwestmuseums.org.uk/privacy-policy/ By booking on you agree to have your data stored and used by us in accordance with this policy.