Kids in Museums
Find out about our Kids in Museums Manifesto: what it is, how it’s useful to your organisation and how to sign up.
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Kids in Museums
Manifesto

Find out about our Kids in Museums Manifesto: what it is, how it’s useful to your organisation and how to sign up.

What is the Kids in Museums Manifesto?

Our Manifesto is a set of simple guidelines for museums, heritage sites and cultural organisations created with children, young people and families. It sets out what they feel makes a heritage site a great place to visit.

We created the first Manifesto in 2003 and have continued to develop it with feedback from children, young people and families on their experiences of heritage and cultural days out.

We launched the current version in March 2022. Thank you to all those who contributed to our survey and helped shape the Manifesto’s six points. Read the feedback from our latest consultation.

Today over 1,000 museums, heritage sites and cultural organisations have signed up in support of our Manifesto. You can sign up your organisation at the bottom of this page to show your commitment to following our guidelines and welcoming visitors of all ages.

Read the Kids in Museums Manifesto

1. Be welcoming.

Being made to feel safe and welcome can make or break a family visit. Create an environment where families can explore, have fun, play and learn together. Ensure staff and volunteers provide a warm welcome and make interactions with all family members accessible, friendly and informative. Include things that can be touched and make labels clear to explain when they can’t. Welcome enthusiastic comments, always keep instructions positive and provide easy to read text for all ages.

2. Be accessible to all.

Ensure all visitors are equally supported and welcomed. Families face many challenges when visiting museums, including economic, language and cultural barriers. Consider the cost and practicalities of the whole museum visit from the perspective of a family. D/deaf, disabled and neurodivergent people may experience barriers to accessing your space, activities, displays and digital resources. Families need clear online information, such as an access page, to confidently plan their visit. Consider a full spectrum of access needs, review your provision and consult with a range of families about making a visit more accessible.

3. Make it easy and comfortable.

Families are more likely to stay longer if your facilities and

spaces are family friendly. Provide seating for all generations to enjoy a rest, a quiet space and free wifi. Make pocket money items available in the shop. Can you make your café family friendly and reasonably priced, provide a picnic area or direct people to eateries nearby? Having baby changing facilities, a breastfeeding welcome attitude, and somewhere to keep buggies is important for those with younger visitors. Can you provide a Changing Places toilet or signpost visitors to the nearest facility?

4. Remember families come in all shapes and sizes.

Consider what different family members need from their visit and provide ways for them to enjoy themselves together. Family groups can be diverse, from large multigenerational families to single parents or carers. They can include under 5s, young people, children with additional needs, same-sex couples and grandparents. Reflect this

diversity in your language, activities, displays and ticketing.

5. Communicate well.

Make sure you let families know everything you have to offer them. You can do this through outreach visits, posters and leaflets, and your website and social media. Provide easy to find pre-visit information online, information on arrival and a way for families to get in touch and

give feedback. Make sure all your content is accessible. Represent a diverse range of families in your marketing images.

6. Be an active part of your community.

Young people and families want to see museums help tackle inequalities, support their wellbeing and take care of the local environment. Consult and collaborate with a diverse range of children, young people and families in your community as equal partners on events, displays and exhibitions. This will help you to make your site more relevant, reflect their stories and give this audience a stronger sense of ownership over their histories and heritage.

View the Kids in Museums Manifesto as a PDF.

How is it useful to my organisation?

The Manifesto can be used in the following ways:

As an audit tool It can be used to assess how welcoming and inclusive your organisation is to children, young people and families.

To help you with Arts Council museum accreditation

It links to both ‘Understand and develop your audiences’ and ‘Engage with your users, and improve their experience’.

To show your visitors your values

You can use our logo in your venue or on your website to show your commitment to being friendly and welcoming.

As a framework for improvement

You can select certain Manifesto points to focus your work.

To promote your museum to a family audience

You can use our logo on your communications to family visitors; it’s a great way of telling this audience that your venue is a place for them before they visit.

As an advocacy document

You can use the Manifesto to demonstrate the need to embed a family friendly approach across your organisation.

To help you start your work, look at our Manifesto resources. These include front of house training videos and no and low cost ways to meet the Kids in Museums Manifesto.

How do I sign up?

It’s easy! Simply fill in the form below.

What happens when I sign up?

We’ll send you an email to let you know your sign-up has been successful and add you to our online map.

We’ll also send you a logo to use in your external communications.

"*" indicates required fields

Organisation name*

Museum Description*

Please write a short description of no more than three sentences to describe your museum and what is great for families to do there.

Organisation address*

Street Address

Address Line 2

City

County

Postcode

Country

Organisation website*

Organisation Twitter handle

Arts Council England region

Region (other)

Image of your museum

Accepted file types: jpg, png, Max. file size: 1 MB.

Please upload an image of your museum building that we are able to use on our website. Please do not include any images including children. Your image should be a JPG or PNG file of no more than 1MB. Please ensure that it is at least 200 x 200 pixels.

Is your museum an accredited museum?

Contact name*

Contact email*

Job role

I would like to be added to the Museum and Training Mailing Lists to get the latest news from Kids in Museums.*

Yes

No

If you are already signed up, this won’t affect your current subscription.

How did you hear about the Manifesto?

How did you hear about the Manifesto: other

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Who’s already signed up?

The map shows all the museums that have signed the Kids in Museums Manifesto. If you think you’ve signed the Manifesto and your museum isn’t showing, please email us and we’ll get you added to the map: [email protected]

To zoom in on the map, use the ‘control’ key and scroll with your mouse.

Click on a pin to view the details of an individual museum.

You can also choose to view the organisations as a list.

Display organisations as list