More than 75 museums, galleries and heritage across the world took part in Friday’s Digital Takeover Day, with the Kids in Museums event engaging around three million people on social media.
More than 650 young people took charge of content being shared by British institutions including the National Portrait Gallery, the National Archives and the RAF Museum, with international participants also getting involved in Qatar and the USA.
The success of this year’s initiative can be equated to #TakeoverDay trending on Twitter, with posts featuring the hashtag reaching three million people on the platform.
https://museumsandheritage.com/news/kids-in-museums-reaches-landmark-1000-manifesto-signups-unveils-2021-programme/
Since 2014, Kids in Museums has been encouraging cultural institutions to creatively engage with young audiences as a way of making the sector as exciting as possible to the next generation. 2021, despite all the limitations imposed by the pandemic, saw this continue.
Highlights included London Transport Museum offering a group of young autistic transport enthusiasts the opportunity to share their passion for rail heritage on Twitter and Instagram.
Hi, I’m Benji @jayRobloxian11. My dream is to be a train driver. This is me practising being a dispatcher, and driving the 1972 stock on the Bakerloo line on @trainsimworld 2. One day I'll drive the real thing! #TakeoverDay pic.twitter.com/v0ruMIpl1X
— London Transport Museum (@ltmuseum) June 25, 2021
Whitehall Historic House in Sutton welcomed Year 6 pupils from a local school to learn about biodiversity and environmentalism, sharing their experiences on social media throughout the day.
Thank you so much to @CCJacademy students from Year 4 and 5 who visited for @KidsInMuseums #TakeoverDay! You’ve done an excellent job running the show and we can’t wait to see what wildlife will appear from your biodiversity projects! https://t.co/rpiZPN5ENq
— SuttonHeritage (@SuttonHeritage) June 25, 2021
Teignmouth & Shaldon Museum let secondary school students loose on TikTok, representing a first foray onto the burgeoning platform for the heritage attraction.
An amazing morning making TikToks with some fabulous Year 9 pupils from @TeignmouthCS! Their energy and creativity is admirable, and they've produced some brilliant content for our first ever TikToks! What a wonderful #TakeoverDay! @kidsinmuseums pic.twitter.com/OfNYHXl3wu
— Teignmouth & Shaldon Museum (@TeignHeritage) June 25, 2021
While some youngsters busied themselves on social media, students visiting the National Civil War Centre took on a far more analogue task.
And Merin and friends shared a video of them having a go at our leg amputation interactive!#TakeoverDay @kidsinmuseums pic.twitter.com/TIBSdsbn1T
— National Civil War Centre (@civilwarcentre) June 25, 2021
Another of Kids in Museums’ highly popular annual fixtures is the Family Friendly Museum Award, which closed for applications earlier this month. The shortlist for 2021 finalists will be released in the coming weeks.
