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?

Yes, always visit museums when we're on a city break, been to some umpteen times pre kids and after kids. We're off to Edinburgh again in a few weeks and plan to go again to the national Museum of Scotland as they have a Dr Who exhibition on just now which will please the 10 year old.

We had a really disappointing visit to the space centre in Leicester - so many exhibits were v hands on tech but because it was busy this led to a lot of queueing and most of the touch screen/button things just couldn't cope with the over use.

Thank you so much for sharing this, I’m sorry you have to deal with inaccessibility like this, museums are and should be for everyone.

One of the big focuses on my course is how we, as emerging museum professionals, can make museums more accessible for everyone so I like to think it’s something that will improve as it’s increasingly being centred in conversation around exhibition development. It doesn’t help you so much now but attitudes are definitely changing in the industry!

We absolutely love museums and have done a lot of smaller, more random ones and actually avoided the big London ones as we can only go in school holidays and the thought fills me with dread!

Wherever we go for a holiday, to meet friends or visit family, city breaks etc, we find the nearest museum/gallery etc. I prefer low key, free, non timed stuff but so mix in some of the more exciting flashy ones.

Some of our successes-

Techniquest - great hands on stuff, nice open spaces, good physically active bits and plenty to do even if busy

National Museum in Cardiff had a great Dino exhibit when we went, lots and lots of interesting bits and a friend up art exhibition that dc surprisingly got quite into

Leeds Armouries - amazing children's room with arts, crafts and dress up

Leeds Museum was great, lots of dressing up and play space

The museum at Jimmy's in Leeds has a while floor of hands in children's stuff, dressing up etc but unfortunately it's got a v gory welcome exhibit which spoilt it for the DC as we arrived. I want to go back now they're older and braver.

Worcester had a little local museum that had good colouring and some kids bits

Eureka in Halifax is amazing. Incredible hands on exhibits, workshops, outdoor play. My DC haven't been for years but still talk about it

Winchester Science Centre is a really good hands on place, wasn't too busy when we went too.

We've done a lot in Devon on holidays -

Tiverton Museum was surprisingly good - good hands in and dress up, great train to visit, only adults pay

RAMM in Exeter, great spaces from roaming around, good kids' provisions and loads of workshops and extra stuff in the holidays

Topsham Museum was sweet and had a craft workshop in the hols for kids

I Love a museum
You never know what you will see !

Baan Dam Thailand

Tinguley Basel

Tate modern & V&A London

Museums in Egpyt

War museums & War outside areas in Vietnam

Small museums Outer Hebrides, black houses

Natural history museums

Many small rural museums worldwide

Secret underground bunkers

Castles, historic buildings

Working museums like Blist Hill

The new Egyptian museum in Cairo & the island of St Kilda are on my to do lists

Yes and yes

Yes. Always have and always will. No matter where I am. If there’s a museum or art gallery I’m very happy. In fact they play a huge part in any holiday or trip I’m on.

www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00nrtd2

This was good

Love museums/galleries! No children here though.

I do if they are free. Went to the Peoples History Museum in Manchester last week it was fab! Steer clear of kids museums (no children) and anything pertaining to art.

Is this actually meant to be proper research which you're going to use in your work? Because if so this is a real shoddy way to go about it, with no value as 'research'.

*really shoddy

On the accessibility front, so many have a decent kids trail, DD used to love them but they were completely inaccessible to DS with SN growing up. They normally required you to draw stuff or write stuff and oh so much reading! DS sometimes would let me write for him but often just handed them back to me.

But one place literally had a simple tick sheet of pictures of items. They offered it as an alternative to their regular kids trail. It was perfect. It was in the order of the museum so it kept DS in pace with DD who was doing the regular kids trail. I could talk to DS about items that sparked an interest but items that didn't were still noticed. Some items were so obvious you can't miss them, this meant DS had the pride of doing much independently . Other objects were quite obscure and needed a little guidance but i quite liked that as i noticed a few things i wouldn't have anyway. Really wasn't anything more posh than a few pages of pictures on a4 printer paper but really stuck out as being brilliant despite being aboutc10 years ago now!

We also love a good audio guide, especially one you can pause take a break and come back to. Best if we can add our own headphones to the audioguide machine

Yes - love them… it’s great to get a different perspective on life, the world.

Yes and yes.

I took my kids to the Watts Gallery, which is a little art gallery near Guildford. I was anxious about whether they would be snotty about taking my 8 and 4 year olds but they could not have been more welcoming. They had lots of baskets of kids books aroubd the place, a fun trail for children with a bag of mystery objects and the staff were happy to chat to and engage the children. They also have a big 'natural playground' with rope swings etc. Which was great fun.

The thing that made the biggest difference was the engagement from the staff.

It's qualitative data really. People are giving lots of anecdotal evidence about why they do / don't go which is really useful. I would be wary about using the poll results but I'm sure OP is aware of that. No need for a snotty attitude.

Oh, and the Garden Museum in London was a nice surprise. They had a crafting table out for the kids to make collages in the style of the Secret Garden which kept them absorbed for about half an hour. They also had a tray of blocks to desigj your own garden. That was another half an hour. Very lovely and peaceful (but tiny) place in central London.

Yes, we go regardless of activities just something we have always done

Yes I go.

am currently on hols in New Zealand and we’ve been to the Auckland museum and also a Māori living village with the kids.

the Auckland museum had dinosaurs and all sorts of things for the kids to look at.

the Māori village was fascinating.

at home I’ve started taking the kids to local museums and castles etc.

i generally go to more galleries when on holiday because they’re usually air conditioned….

Yes, mainly since having kids for something to do with them!

Yes. It's probably my DD favourite thing to do in our nearest city and if we travel we'll always find one if we can.

Yes and yes. History graduate too so have always been to lots. Now have a toddler so unless I'm alone (rare) it's limited to ones that have something on offer for little people, but actually we've taken him to some tiny local ones which have been great because they were empty and the staff were lovely. Bugbear is museum staff who hate children (teacher, have received many dirty looks over the years for daring to bring them in, even when they have been behaving impeccably and interested!)

Yes and yes.

Although the way you aaked that question you will get more people on this thread that will answer yes. People who don't go to museums will be less interested to open the thread.

Yes I do, I live near london so often will pop to a museum when in town for the day. Fact most are free apart from
certain exhibitions is the reason I go probably, as I can just spend an hour or so. Keep meaning to go back to the V&A museum as we went to go during the queens lying in state day when we were in town for hours (we had a disabled access pass so had to wait 11hrs for our slot) but it was closing early due to that