Image: Young V&A, Town Square (c) David Parry courtesy of Victoria and Albert Museum, London
The win marks the first time a museums has been crowned both Family Friendly Museum of the Year, and Art Fund Museum of the year
The recently reopened Young V&A museum has been crowned this year’s Family Friendly Museum of the Year.
The former V&A Museum of Childhood has now been named the best heritage site in the country for families at the Family Friendly Museum Award ceremony in Yorkshire, run by charity Kids in Museums.
The national award is presented to one museum, gallery or heritage site in the UK that provides a great visitor experience for families, with five categories and an overall winner.
The museum, co-designed with local children during its redevelopment, reopened last July.
The Young V&A was among three shortlisted museums for this year’s Best Large Museum category, beating Edinburgh’s National Galleries Scotland – Modern One in Manchester’s Museum of Science and Industry.
It was then crowned the overall Family Friendly Museum Award 2024. It is the first time that a museum has won both the Family Friendly Museum Award and Museum of the Year in the same year. It is also the first year since 2013 that a site in the Best Large Museum category has been the overall award winner.
Announced in Yorkshire on Tuesday 8 October, the winners in the Kids in Museums Family Friendly Museum Award 2024 are:
The winners of the Family Friendly Museum of the Year Awards 2024
Best Large Museum + Overall Winner Young V&A, London
Winner: Best Small Museum National Civil War Centre, Newark
Best Medium Museum Turner Contemporary, Margate
Best Accessible Museum The Cooper Gallery, Barnsley
Best Museum Youth Group Tees Valley Museums
More than 22,000 local schoolchildren, families and community members collaborated in the £13m transformation completed last year at the Bethnal Green site. The completed capital project already helped the museum to secure the title of Art Fund’s Museum of the Year award in July.
The award judges, who visit anonymously, said they were “blown away by the museum’s overall design, community atmosphere and numerous interactive elements. Judges appreciated how the hands-on experiences allowed kids to learn and have fun simultaneously, with children keen to return to the museum in the future. Families also noted the helpfulness of the staff, who encouraged children to ask questions and interact with the exhibits throughout the museum.”
Dr Helen Charman, Director, Young V&A, Learning and National Programmes, said: “Winning the Kids in Museums Family Friendly Award is the most wonderful accolade for Young V&A and we are thrilled to bits.
“We’re so honoured to have been shortlisted alongside such wonderful museums across the UK and my greatest thanks go to the judging panel, and to Kids in Museums, who do so much to advocate for children, young people and their families in our sector and beyond.”