Family Friendly Museum Award 2017
As many of you know we were very lucky to be shortlisted in the top 10 of the Kids In Museums Family Friendly Museum Award 2017.
On Monday 2nd October our Curator Suzie, Learning & Access Officer Mel and Cafe Supervisor Julie all travelled to London for the awards ceremony at the historic May Fair Hotel.
Kids In Museums received over 700 nominations for this years award from families and Museums, which was then whittled down to the final top 10!
The top 10 Family Friendly Museums in the country for 2017 :
- The Cardiff Story Museum
- Dylan Thomas Centre (Swansea)
- Great North Museum: Hancock (Newcastle upon Tyne)
- Herbert Art Gallery & Museum (Coventry)
- Jewish Museum (London)
- Rainham Hall (Greater London)
- River & Rowing Museum (Henley on Thames)
- Tudor House (Worcester)
- Peoples History Museum (Manchester)
- Vale & Downland Museum (Oxfordshire)
We were certainly up against some very stiff competition from 9 wonderful Museums that all provide a great Family Friendly experience.
Sadly we didn’t win the award this year but it was a huge honour to be included in the final 10 and we are very proud that all the work we have put into improving the Museum for families has not gone unnoticed. We have had a lot of wonderful comments from our visitors. We will continue to strive to bring the Wantage and Vale Community a fun and friendly Museum suitable for families and all ages.
We want to say a huge congratulations to the Peoples History Museum for winning this years award, it is a huge achievement so well done.
We are considerably smaller than some of those Museums on the shortlist and we are so very proud just to be included in the Top 10 with those larger Museums.
Thank you to all our visitors, staff & volunteers for all the support you show to the Museum and not just during the Family Friendly Museum Award but all year round, and who knows maybe we will be in the running for the award again in the future!
Regular visitors to the Vale & Downland Museum will know that we have always been a family friendly Museum but over the last couple of years we have been actively improving the Galleries and the exhibits to make it more accessible for families and children.
We signed up to the Kids in Museums Manifesto a couple of years ago to help us improve and provide the things families have said they want in a Museum. We have a lot of hands on exhibits in the main galleries including puzzles, dressing up clothes and lots of buttons to press. Recently we have acquired a brand new touchscreen information point which is popular with kids and teens.
Check out the Families page to see all the Family Family events coming up in the Museum.
