The Museum and Me

This collaborative action research project with young children and families explores how museums can support playful and creative interactions between parents and children. We were one of three UK museums invited to take part in this pilot project, focusing on the potential for scaling high quality early years museum practice with a view to tackling inequalities. 

Building on established partnerships with Cambridge City Child & Family Centres, our project involved families with children aged 0-4. Together we explored the Museum through stories, photography, creative play, movement, art making, and careful looking. We built on our experiences to co-design a resource for other families to use to support parents and children to enjoy the Museum together. 

The work builds on methodologies developed through previous early years residencies and the Museum’s participatory research activity. In addition, we explored the potential of design thinking as a mechanism for understanding the needs of young visitors and their families. The participatory design process enabled us to highlight the capacity of young children and those who care for them to engage actively with the Museum as cultural citizens. 

Developed and funded with Art Fund and Nesta support 

Wallis, N. and Noble, K. (2022) Leave only footprints: how children communicate a sense of ownership and belonging in an art gallery, European Early Childhood Education Research Journal https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/1350293X.2022.2055100 

Noble, K. and Wallis, N. (2021), "It's our museum too: co-producing research in a university museum through a nursery residency programme", Qualitative Research Journal, Vol. ahead-of-print No. ahead-of-print. https://doi-org.ezp.lib.cam.ac.uk/10.1108/QRJ-01-2021-0009 

Sally McGivern and staff, children and families from North Cambridge Child and Family Centre

Kate Noble, Nicola Wallis, Molly Blacknell, Nathan Huxtable, Carey Robinson and Claire Alfrey from the Fitzwilliam Museum

Adira Andlay- Design Researcher and Practitioner

With ongoing advice and support from the project team at Art Fund and Nesta