Widely recognised as the ‘Oscars of the museum world’, the Museums + Heritage Awards celebrate the very best in the world of museums, galleries, and cultural and heritage visitor attractions. Now in its 21st year, 18 awards were presented at this year’s ceremony, including Innovator of the Year, Volunteer of the Year, Sustainable Project of the Year and Shop and Café of the Year.
The new Sector Support Award category was designed to shine a spotlight on organisations that help drive the sector forward, enhance its work and make a tangible difference. We were shortlisted alongside four other organisations, including National Trust Heritage Open Days, Arts & Heritage, Arts Marketing Association for its Digital Heritage Hub and Sam Bowen for her work as SEND in Museums.
Of our entry, the independent judges said: “The ongoing impact that Kids in Museums has had should not be underestimated. It is both challenging and supportive and it is hard to imagine this sector without them!”
Over the last financial year and with a team of four FTE staff, Kids in Museums:
- celebrated over 1,100 heritage organisations signing up to our Manifesto, meaning over 50% of accredited museums in England have now pledged to be family friendly
- saw five museums win and 100 museums nominated for the Family Friendly Museum Award with a 51% increase in applications
- encouraged around 150 heritage sites to be taken over by over 3,000 young people for our annual Digital Takeover Day and Takeover Day with 84% of survey respondents saying that the young people they worked with wanted to get more involved in museum activities as a result of taking part
- supported over 230 museum staff members through our national training programme with 88% of participants rating our training as very good or excellent
- enabled 165 UK museums to take part in three free family museums trails in partnership with publishers
- provided Family Friendly Museum Audits to eight museums
- published around 15 more free online resources with all of our resources receiving over 20,000 page views
- published six more Kids in Museums Guides for families. All 11guides have now been viewed 115,000 times.
Kids in Museums was represented at the live awards ceremony in London by our Chair Vanessa Eke, Deputy Chair Elizabeth McKay and Trustee Victoria Pinnington.
Other youth and family focused programmes celebrated at this year’s award ceremony included the Cartoon Museum Autism Programme, Learning without Borders from Brooklands Museum and the Children’s Country House at Sudbury, which won Permanent Exhibition of the Year.
The National Museum of the History of Ukraine in the Second World War was also presented with the Judges’ Special Recognition Award. See all the winners of the Museums + Heritage Award website.
Anna Preedy, Director of Museums + Heritage Awards, commented: “The Awards provide a rare opportunity to recognise and celebrate the determined, confident, and creative work of our extraordinary sector and are the ultimate stamp of approval!”
Thank you to everyone who has sent their support and congratulations. We are so delighted and we look forward to continuing to support the sector going forward as an Arts Council Investment Principles Support Organisation.
