One of 2023's winners, Craven Museum (Stephen Garnett for Kids in Museums)
This year’s award ceremony, taking place in October, will crown ‘Best Museum Youth Group’ for the first time in 2024.
A total of 18 museums across the country have been shortlisted to receive this year’s Family Friendly Museum Award from charity Kids in Museums.
Each year the charity names four museums, galleries, castles, historic homes and heritage houses in its shortlist, with one going on to be named overall winner.
This year, a new fifth award – Best Museum Youth Group – will recognise staff and young people working together in a long-term, meaningful and impactful way through panels, forums, schemes, and clubs. It was open to museum applications only and will be judged by an expert panel, including the Kids in Museums Youth Panel.
UK families began voting for their favourite venue on the Kids in Museums website this March. Voting has since closed and an expert panel, including children, young people and accessibility experts have selected from this the list the nominations.
The shortlist for the Family Friendly Museum Award 2024
Best Accessible Museum
Cooper Art Gallery Barnsley
Streetlife Museum, Hull
Wakefield Museum
Best Small Museum
Dylan Thomas Centre, Swansea
Museum of the Order of St John, London
National Civil War Centre, Newark
Nothe Fort, Weymouth
Story Museum, Oxford
Best Medium Museum
Discover Children’s Story Centre, London
Museum of the Home, London
Museum of Making, Derby
Turner Contemporary, Margate
Best Large Museum
National Galleries Scotland – Modern One, Edinburgh
Museum of Science and Industry, Manchester
Young V&A, London
Best Museum Youth Group
Gallery of Modern Art, Glasgow
Royal Albert Memorial Museum, Exeter
Tees Valley Museums
Wakefield Museum
Vanessa Eke, Chair of Kids in Museums, said: “Venues have developed innovative ways to centre the voices of children, families and young people in their work, including creating dedicated spaces for ‘community conversation’ and working with transport providers to subsidise young people’s travel to their programmes. I’m delighted that we can recognise this ambition and dedication on a national level.”
Over the summer holidays, undercover family judges will visit the shortlisted museums and rate them on how well they meet the Kids in Museums Manifesto, its set of guidelines for a visit which meets the demands of all ages.
Their experiences will decide a winner for each museum category and an overall winner of the Family Friendly Museum Award 2024 to be announced at an awards ceremony in Yorkshire in October.