Nominations open for the Kids in Museums Family Friendly Museum Award 2023

Is your museum or gallery brilliant for families? Kids in Museums is inviting museums, galleries, archives and heritage sites to apply for the Family Friendly Museum Award 2023.

Since 2004, the annual award has celebrated the heritage sites that are most welcoming, accessible and fun for all ages. The Family Friendly Museum Award is still the only museum award in the UK to be judged by families, meaning it’s a unique and meaningful endorsement directly from visitors.

Museums can apply for up to three award categories: one size category (either Best Small, Medium or Large Museum depending on museum visitor numbers), Best Accessible Museum and Best Youth Project – Climate. This new award category recognises innovative and thoughtful projects that are engaging young people with the climate emergency and sustainability through museums. It will be open to museum applications only and judged by an expert panel. The remaining categories are open to nominations from the public.

In 2022, families rated AIM member the National Emergency Services Museum in Sheffield as the best for families in the UK. Family judges loved the relaxed atmosphere and hands-on nature of the museum, including climb-on vehicles, driving simulators, climbing walls and dressing up. They also praised the great facilities, kids’ meal options in the café and year-long tickets. 

Matt Wakefield, CEO at the National Emergency Services Museum, said: “We were so delighted just to be nominated for the Family Friendly Museum Award, when we actually won it blew our socks off! As well as having a really positive impact on our team, winning the award has had other benefits. Our annual visitor numbers were higher in 2022 than they have ever been, and we have expanded our networks thanks to the positive publicity the award has brought us. We’re now being asked to share our best practice with people who had never even heard of us before. Our reputation has really grown.”

Shortlisted and winning museums are also featured in online Kids in Museums Guides, viewed by tens of thousands of families each year.

To apply, museums simply need to fill an online application form explaining how they meet the Kids in Museums Manifesto, a set of guidelines created with children, young people and families on what makes a great museum visit.

Museums can find full Award Guidelines on the Kids in Museums website, as well as free materials to help them promote nominations from family visitors: www.kidsinmuseums.org.uk/awards It is free to apply.

In June, an expert panel whittles down the nominations to a shortlist. Undercover family judges visit each shortlisted museum during the summer holidays and assess them on the visitor experience, from the shop and café to displays and events.

Their experiences will decide the winner for all four museum categories. An expert panel will then pick an overall winner of the Family Friendly Museum Award from the family judged categories to be announced in October 2023.

Follow the Family Friendly Museum Award on social media by following @kidsinmuseums and #FamilyFriendlyMuseum.

The Family Friendly Museum Award has been made possible by funding from Arts Council England.