Exeter’s RAMM shortlisted for national Family Friendly Museum award

Exeter’s Royal Albert Memorial Museum & Art Gallery (RAMM) has been shortlisted for the Kids in Museums Family Friendly Museum Award for Best Museum Youth Group.

Charity Kids in Museums has run a prestigious annual award since 2004, recognising the most family friendly heritage sites in the UK. From late March to early June, families and museums across the UK could vote for their favourite heritage attraction on the Kids in Museums website. A panel of museum experts then whittled down hundreds of nominations to a shortlist of 19 heritage attractions.

This year, a new category, Best Museum Youth Group, was introduced. This new award category celebrates museum staff and young people working together in a long-term, meaningful and impactful way, such as through youth panels or forums, young volunteer schemes, and history or art clubs. It was open to museum applications only and will be judged by an expert panel.

RAMM is vying against four other museums in the Best Museum Youth Group category. 

RAMM’s Skills Development Officer Nikita Brown is responsible for overseeing the panel. Nikita said:
‘We are delighted to have been shortlisted for the Kids in Museums award for our 2023-24 Youth Panel. RAMM’s Youth Panel are instrumental in developing many areas of our work at RAMM, from exhibitions to events. The Youth Panel have worked really hard on their projects this year and it's great to see that this has been recognised.’

Youth Panel member Rebecca Wood prepared the museum’s application. She said:
‘I was very happy to hear the news that we were shortlisted because it’s both an achievement in itself, but also serves to highlight one of the museum’s amazing opportunities for young people. This wouldn’t have been possible without the incredible team supporting the Youth Panel that never failed to be accommodating and encourage our growth as individuals interested in the heritage and cultural sector. I hope other young people seeing this news will be encouraged to apply for next year’s cohort. In the meantime, I’ll be keeping my fingers crossed in hope that we win.’ 

RAMM’s Youth Panel is a group of 12 young people aged 18-25 with a passion for museums and culture. They are involved across the spectrum of RAMM’s work, especially when it comes to helping the museum appeal to younger audiences. Youth Panel workshops focus on a specific topic, such as giving input into the museum’s skills development programme, exhibitions, events and what RAMM should consider collecting in the future. Youth Panel participants are paid for their time. 

Over the summer, the team at RAMM will present their work to an expert judging panel. The panel will decide the winners to be announced at an awards ceremony in October. Meanwhile the museums shortlisted in the other award categories will be visited by undercover family judges. Their experiences will decide a winner for each award category and an overall winner of the Family Friendly Museum Award 2024.  

Follow the Family Friendly Museum Award on social media by following @kidsinmuseums and #FamilyFriendlyMuseum. 

The Family Friendly Museum Award has been made possible by funding from Arts Council England.