Building confidence in a gallery’s family friendly offer
Building confidence in a gallery’s family friendly offer
By
Melanie Corner
SUMMARY
Alongside a capital programme and the accompanying new creative approaches to programming, the Herbert Art Gallery and Museum retains a commitment to its family friendly offer. Communicating the right information through clear channels prior to visits was seen as a priority, especially online, and resulted in new interactive content. The welcome on site was also developed alongside amenities and tactile and hands-on experiences throughout the galleries. The gallery recognised that by building trust in its family offer, families will visit without every detail pre-planned for their visit.
Although due to the new fit out, our exhibitions offer tactile and hands on experiences, we are expecting to implement additional hands on experiences that may take a more temporary and changeable form such as explorer bags, art trolleys, puzzles and quizzes and we are keen to steer away from the use of paper and clipboards and allow them to enter into a trail where they can physically participate and experience, rather than write down answers.
We also believe that one of the key points in our family friendly offer is that a small token of the visit can be taken away with them; from a small colouring or sticker sheet, to a puppet made during a craft activity workshop.
Resource type: Case studies | Published: 2013
