On Friday 18 November dozens of museums, galleries, archives and heritage sites across the UK were taken over by young people as part of Kids in Museums Takeover Day 2022.

Run by charity Kids in Museums, Takeover Day is when children and young people aged from 0 to 25 take over adults’ jobs for the day. From Dalkeith to Devon, Belfast to Buxton, Cardiff to Cambridgeshire, children and young people became tour guides, curators, shop assistants, cleaners, press officers, conservators, consultants and more!

The annual action-packed event involved around 2,500 young people and 85 heritage sites across England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland – including the National Horseracing Museum, National Archives, National Mining Museum Scotland, Museum of Cardiff, the Bowes Museum, Bronte Parsonage Museum, Northern Ireland War Memorial, Mary Rose Museum and many, many more.

Young people shared what they were getting up to on social media using the hashtag #TakeoverDay with their posts appearing on over 6 million timelines.

Since Takeover Day began in 2010, over 40,000 children and young people have taken part. The event aims to empower young people by giving them meaningful roles in a heritage organisation, helping them to develop skills, discover new opportunities and build confidence. It also helps museums to understand a young person’s perspective and better engage young visitors.

This year the national theme for Takeover Day was wellbeing. Kids in Museums wanted to highlight the important role museums can play in supporting young people’s mental health and wellbeing, particularly after the negative impact of the pandemic. At many participating venues, young people designed and took part in exciting activities themed around wellbeing, from sharing their favourite museum spaces to creating wellbeing trails, mindful crafts to museum yoga, singing performances to training museum staff!

At the National Horseracing Museum in Newmarket, pupils from Fairstead House School gave a ‘Singing for Wellbeing’ performance to the public. The songs were chosen by young people inspired by visiting the museum and included ‘Horse to Trot’, a song which was popular during the reign of King Charles II, ‘Happy’ by Pharrell Williams and songs from musical ‘Matilda’. In the afternoon, ‘Wellbeing Warriors’ from Year 6 at All Saints Primary School took over the museum, greeting visitors, making announcements using the tannoy, working on the front desk, answering enquiries and showing their favourite museum objects.

Sarah Coleman, Creative Programme Manager at the National Horseracing Museum, said: “It’s really important to encourage young people into museums and to enable them to take ownership, to see behind the scenes and to experience the different roles in the sector. We all enjoyed the day so much – it was great to hear young people’s ideas and perspectives and there were definitely a few future Curators, event planners and tour guides within the groups.”

In total, 150 museums have held a Kids in Museums Takeover Day this year, including the annual Digital Takeover Day on Friday 1 July.

Find out more about Takeover Day on the Kids in Museums website: www.kidsinmuseums.org.uk

 

Notes to Editors

  • For more information on Takeover Day, contact Jocelyn Murdoch at Kids in Museums: [email protected]
  • For more information on the National Horseracing Museum, please contact Stefan Regula: [email protected]

About Kids in Museums

We are a charity dedicated to making museums open and welcoming to all children, young people and families. We support and champion family friendly organisations through wide-ranging initiatives, including the Family Friendly Museum Award and Takeover Day. We invite heritage organisations to sign up to our Manifesto, which sets out simple guidelines for making museums easy to reach for all ages. www.kidsinmuseums.org.uk

Find us on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram.

About the National Horseracing Museum

The National Horseracing Museum (NHRM) is a unique national resource which places the hugely popular sport of horseracing at the centre of the nation’s story. Housed in a five-acre site which encompasses the Grade I listed Palace House (built 1668-1671), the Grade II Trainer’s House, King’s Yard (1857), Rothschild Yard (1903), paddocks and arena.

Palace House is home to the British Sporting Art Trust collections. NHRM is also the showcase yard for the Retraining of Racehorses (RoR) charity where visitors can meet former racehorses being trained for life beyond the track.