Dear Andrew,
1. Organised regular sessions:
At Royal Pavilion & Museums we have been offering regular ticketed Early Years art and craft sessions for the past 15 years or more. Linked to a theme, either a museum collection or exhibition these hour and a half sessions offer art and craft activities, an object handling session and a story.
The sessions are very popular but even charging £4.50 per child we never make money on them rather they are a way of introducing a new audience to the museum and getting young families into the habit of visiting museums.
Hastings Museum use a similar model but they have children centre staff organise the event which is a brilliant idea I think as you’d get a much more targeted audience.
At Hove Museum we have offered free drop in sessions for under 5’s which proved to be very popular, these sessions were very simple drawing activities and story telling but again cost is a factor; who do you get to run the sessions.
2. An area in the museum focussed on early years families
We did until a couple of years ago have a gallery that was aimed at young children which proved very popular, it was a space in the museum with seating and a tunnel and artefacts aimed at young children but as space is in demand was replaced by our new Ancient Egypt galleries.
I seem to remember the National Army Museum in London has a dedicated play room for young children that is very popular.
3. Something to carry round that’s available on entry
At the Booth Museum we did have explorer’s bags but when we lost our Families Officer they were withdrawn as we couldn’t maintain the service. They were popular but it does need someone to be keeping them looking fresh and restocked and they need to be administered effectively by front line staff.
I hope these rather random thoughts might be useful if you’d like to come and see some of the sessions in action or talk over the phone do email or call and I’ll be happy to help.
Kind regards,
Michael Olden
Early Years Learning Office
Royal Pavilion & Museums
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