To ask if you visit museums?

[Aloezebra]

Slightly shamelessly doing a bit of anecdotal “research” for my degree but also just generally interesting in people’s opinions because it’s a topic I love!

Do you go to museums/galleries? If yes, why and if no why not?

Also do are you more likely to go if there’s some sort of activity for your kids to do?

Bletchley Park - my teens were cross with Gordon Brown when they read his apology on behalf of British gov for treatment of Alan Turin.
they were over 5 obviously

No, I find them boring. I am more of a doer than a looker/thinker.

Also, stop trying to 'create an atmosphere' (ahem, Stonehenge exhibit at the British Museum) instead of a proper video that shows where things were when.

Oh I absolutely loved that one! And the underwater Egypt one, and the Viking one, and the Pompeii one. DS did too. So sad to miss the Arctic one, that must have been amazing.

People who don't go to museums are unlikely to even click on this thread title, I don't think your results are representative.

I go to museums infrequently, my kids too. Regardless of activities for them.

Yes, always loved museums.
Not influenced by kids’ activity sessions.

I go as a solo adult, or with other adults. Used to home educate so had the children at museum workshops all the time. We used to particularly enjoy the activities at the Museum of London and the schools workshops at the Science Museum, and the Explainers at the SciM. I'm sorry to hear they have lost most of what was good. The under 5s area in the basement of the SciM is excellent too. I believe that's still there.

It's been good to go back on my own and be able to go more slowly, to stop and read the information and absorb more. Rather than being pulled forward by excited children. We went to the Van Gogh exhibition at the National Gallery and the young ones were so moved by the different paintings. Museums, love them.

Are you doing the Leicester course? I nearly did it many many years ago after a history degree and loads of museum voluneering but DM put a huge amount of pressure on me to go into the CIty instead - big mistake.

I go to museums but not that often as they rarely have anything that I want to see/haven't seen. I get really irritated too if I go into a room and the guide decides to get chatty and start telling me things (as I usually read up before I go so already know it) as I find it quite patronising to assume I don't know that already.

I went to museums a lot more when DC were small as it was a free day out (tended to go when I knew there was an activity on). Sometimes if it was pissing down and I couldn't think of anything else we'd just go with paper and colouring pencils and I'd get them to sketch but often thought that it wouldn't be that hard for museums - especially the big ones in London - to have an activity trail pack that parents could borrow on days when they had no activities on especially if they could link it in to Key Stage topics.

Yes - most weekends, def more likely to go if a kids space or activity. Love the garden bit at science museum

Yes, I love museums and have done since I was a child.

Activities don't really sway my choice as I tend to decide where I'm going before booking the tickets and seeing what's on. Activities are more an added bonus to me.

My kids are all grown up now, eldest are 21 and then my youngest is 15 but we still love a good museum. Absolute favourite of all time remains York Castle Museum. I've been going there for 30 years now, and went just before Christmas and still not bored of it!

We love a museum in this house! Had a ball in London around 2017 Natural History one day- the awesome British Museum the next- was a great trip for 3 'Northerners' we went everywhere! To be fair other cities have museums and galleries- Manchester is amazing and Leeds/Sheffield/York all have great places to visit. The fact these attractions are free amazes but also inspires me- it is how it should be and being skint does not mean you are excluded.

I go to museums fairly infrequently because even though it’s only 40 mins into central London my DD10 feels crap on the train and gets very moany about going. I’ll go to specific exhibitions - I’ve done several fashion ones at the V&A and a Kimono exhibit at British Museum for example. Hope to encourage her to come with me a bit more now she’s older. I think the British Museum had some themed trails that we were doing from a leaflet - find the items. She loved a fossil museum in Lyme Regis and another one nearby on sea life. I go to art exhibits more frequently ( Tate tomorrow) but will only take her when we’re away on holiday. She’s seen Street Art in Berlin and Andy Warhol in San Francisco for example. I don’t expect a whole day at these places - 2 hours is enough I think.

There is a small museum in my town. I have visited it once, and not again since. It has never been updated, no new exhibits, nothing.

I love the London museums and when I lived in London I visited them all the time. But I rarely go to museums now. There are not many museums near me and there are only so many times I want to go and look at the same small collections. So I only go if there is a decent touring exhibition.
The City I live in closed down most of their museums years ago.

Yes I go during the school holidays with the children, especially if there are kids’ activities, we particularly like things where they can touch and handle real or reproduction items - e.g. fossils, bits of Roman pottery etc. we also went to a Roman Villa museum that had an activity making little mosaic coasters which we really enjoyed.

Actually the best museum from the point of view of my family was the Docklands Museum in London as it had a soft and interactive play gallery called mudlanrks that had lots of activity stations - it was all quite basic - sweep away the gravel to see what treasure was beuried underneath/load a swing scale "ship" until one side was too heavy and everything fell off/build the canary wharf tower out of printed cushions etc etc.

Definitely love museums, the V&A is my favourite. My visits to any museum are mid week in term time when I’m unlikely to encounter a child.

Interesting that everyone talking positively about museums is talking about London. Not some small provincial museum that is close to where the majority of the population live.

True. I've never actually been to most of the ones in my own town as they look and sound shit. Of the ones I have been to, I've never returned. All my museum visits now generally involve a train, long drive or flight.

A big draw for my DC, (so therefore me) is making something, or something interactive. It does not need to be complex, it could be paper and crayons to draw/colour something related to the theme. Or following a map with a treasure hunt (with a prize, you need a prize for maximum happiness, a sticker from a praising curator will do). A treasure hunt should be short with very easy targets if under 5.
My son is 6 and has been a wee history buff all his days. He just soaks up history. We went to the Imperial War Museum during a trip to London for October mid term and a child on a school visit had lost a wee quiz map thing you had to find answers to, with a name on the top but not a single other thing filled in bar the school name. No name or way of returning, so we completed it. It made his visit! Hope you also enjoyed it despite the lost quiz thing Marcus!

That’s true. Our local museums are rubbish.

Yes and yes!

I like art galleries particularly modern art but my kids aren't fans so while I do bring them with me, its for a limited time.

Their favourite museums are ones with trails or science museums (with the exception of the National History Museum which DC1 would move into if possible!). . I take them to pop up installations and anything interactive to try to ignite a spark/educate them/make them see and think outside the box. They also really enjoy seeing life size replicas but that is probably mainly due to their age.

My idea of a bad day is to visit a castle or battlefield and hear someone drone on and on and on.......whereas DH would be thrilled.

I don't think that is the case.

Lots of people haven't mentioned where they are at all, and I've read lots of posts about places outside London.

I’ve always gone. When my boys were young we took them, they love them and take their children.
so, so much to appreciate. So much to learn. So many opportunities to understand. All super interesting. To me.

I go to museums as much as I can, I've explored all my local ones and I always find at least one when I travel.
I'm a wheelchair user, so a big thing for me is exhibits not being low enough to see. e.g. the big flat glass cases just too high up for me to see into them easily. I imagine this is a frustration for people visiting with little kids as well. Sitting in my chair I'm about the height of a seven or eight year old, which is a bit big to be lifting up to see into things! A solution might be adjustable height display cabinets, if that were possible (not for delicates I suppose), putting them a bit lower (but then ambulatory adults are bending over), making the sides of the cases glass as well so we can see through, or using more of the shelves in the glass cabinets approach.
So just a comment on museum design really, not sure how helpful that is to you.

Yes (and yes to q 2 when dd was a kid, to some extent but not a must)
We're in the NW, there are lots of good museums within our reach - the museum of science and industry in Manchester (hopefully it'll be done with its renovations soon) , the world museum in Liverpool for instance.