And here's the responses from a much older enquiry. Once again, apologies for the delay in feeding back.
I asked about museums that had a warm front-of-house welcome or of any museums who had been doing any training of their front-of-house in family friendliness in particular. Give yourself a pat on the back if your museum was mentioned!
- I always find MOSI has an incredibly good welcome.
- As does the World Museum, Liverpool
- One Museum that I visit regularly with my children in Abbey house Museum in Leeds. The staff are lovely and go out of their way to help you.
- Oliver Cromwell Museum in Ely was good.
- Eureka! in Halifax and the National Media Museum in Bradford have unfailingly helpful and friendly staff, who are able to keep their cool and stay positive
even when overrun with families at half term.
- Beamish Museum in County Durham do a really great job.
- If you are interested in overseas examples the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa also offer a great welcome for families. While I was working there we had a really interesting training session with the host team discussing their role in welcoming families but also having to balance this with protecting the exhibits in cases of more unruly behaviour and also considerations for the experience of other visitors who were interested in a quieter day at the museum. As you can imagine this sparked quite a bit of debate as everyone within the team had differing ideas about how people should experience the
museum.
Laura Travis of Museums Sheffield: This is something that we are looking at at Museums Sheffield. As our structure has changed over the years many staff who initially began in Visitor Service roles at our art gallery now work regularly at our museum site which has a much larger family audience. Some families do of course visit the art gallery but because of access issues in the building we don’t get as many and I think their motivations for visiting are different. Many of the team are very good at working with families but I would like to be able to give all the team the same training so that
they all have the same base to work from.
Jenni Waugh was very helpful - thanks Jenni!
Last summer, on a visit to Compton Verney with a group of 3 adult friends and 6 children aged from 4 months to 13 years, we were delighted by the warm,
family friendly welcome from staff who volunteered ingenious ways for the kids to get closer to the art and get more out of even the 1500 year old Chinese bronzes than I thought possible (we were in that gallery alone for 20 minutes!). We had gone there for a play in the grounds and the Moore/Rodin sculpture trail, and instead spent the bulk of the 6 hour visit in the galleries.
Museum of London and the Museum of Liverpool FoH teams are brilliant - open, friendly and well informed. Lots of meeters and greeters in the foyer, and a discreet presence around the galleries. And they talk to the children properly (not coo at them).
In
other news - I have had wonderful welcomes over the last 12 months at NT Croft Castle, NT Dunham Massey, Lyme Regis Museum, and...
*shameless plug alert*...
... as a trustee, I am delighted to report that our front of house/tour guide volunteers at Newman Brothers at the Coffin Works, are receiving flattering reviews from family visitors on Trip Advisor since we opened in October 2014.
Some really good work happening out there!
Kim Biddulph
Workshop Development Manager, Kids in Museums
Book now! Kids in Museums Workshops
Children and Young People as Tour Guides, 25th June, The Wallace Collection,
London
Youth Panel Workshop, 29th June, White Cube, London
Teen Workshop, 17th September, ZSL London Zoo
www.kidsinmuseums.org.uk/workshopsCAN Mezzanine
49 - 51 East Road
London N1 6AH
020 7250 8338
www.kidsinmuseums.org.uk