Museum up for top family friendly prize

A Leeds museum celebrating a decade of bringing history to life for the city’s young people could be in line for a top national award for being a family friendly attraction.

Leeds City Museum, which marked its tenth birthday last week, will be one of six sites across the UK vying for the Kids in Museums Family Friendly Museum Award 2018 on October 1.

Organisers said the museums which made the shortlist demonstrated “a commitment to putting families’ voices at the heart of their organisations, using family feedback to plan everything from their toilets and cafés to their exhibition programmes.”

Last week marked a decade since Leeds City Museums opened the doors of its current Millennium Square home, with a massive 2,742,549 visitors exploring the site in that time.

The museum has also welcomed 85,341 children on a school trips and 917,207 visitors have attended the site’s 24 special exhibitions.

Among those exhibitions were displays like last year’s For All Seasons, which took families on an interactive journey through the four seasons, exploring the different ways they shape the world around us.

The museum is currently hosting Beavers to Weavers, which gives children and their families a closer look at the beautiful creations made by some of the natural world’s most accomplished animal architects.

The museum, which is free to enter also host a regular programme of Museum Minis activities for children and families including multi-sensory morning in a designated pop-up sensory room.

Natalie Haigh, Leeds City Museum’s learning and access officer, said: “We’re all absolutely delighted to have been nominated for this award and to see the work we do to make the museum an exciting and engaging place for children and young people being recognised.

“The team takes a huge amount of pride in putting children and families at the heart of the museum and it’s always our goal to make this a place which captures the imaginations of our younger visitors and gives them a chance to have fun as well as learn.”

Shortlisted museums have assessed by an undercover family of judges who have looked at the family friendliness of each site against the Kids in Museums Mini Manifesto.

The winners will be announced in London on October 1.

For more details about Leeds City Museum, visit: https://www.leeds.gov.uk/museumsandgalleries/leedscitymuseum

ENDS

For media enquiries, please contact:

Stuart Robinson

Communications Officer

Leeds City Council

Tel: 0113 378 9182 (please note my new number)

Email: stuart.robinson@leeds.gov.uk

www.leeds.gov.uk