Ipswich Museums has been shortlisted in the Kids in Museums Family Friendly Museum Award From Home for their Museums From Home activity packs.
Kids in Museums has run a prestigious annual award for the past 15 years, recognising the most family friendly heritage sites in the UK. This year, the charity asked families and museums to vote for what they thought was the best online activity for families during lockdown. A panel of museum experts whittled down over 400 nominations to a shortlist of 26 museums. Ipswich Museums is one of five shortlisted in the Going the Extra Mile category.
The activity packs were developed by Ipswich Museums and other cultural and community organisations for local families in need, including those unable to access digital resources, children with SEN, under 5s and young adults.
Over 2000 packs were distributed via local groups including Volunteering Matters, BSC Multicultural Support, 4YP and Suffolk Family Carers. The packs were made using resources contributed by DanceEast, Suffolk Libraries, New Wolsey Theatre, and freelance artists.
Over the summer holidays, family judges will try out all the activities and their feedback will decide a winner and highly commended award for each category. Winners will be announced at an awards ceremony in October.
Ipswich Museums are continuing to create even more activity packs for families and have contributed 600 packs to The Association for Suffolk Museums (AFSM) Summer in a Box project.
AFSM is working with Suffolk County Council and museum partners across the county to deliver at least 1600 ‘Suffolk in a Box’ activity packs to vulnerable children across Suffolk. This work has been funded via a Department for Education Holiday Fund Grant to Suffolk County Council.
