Art Fund: Early Years Innovation in Museums

Overview

A two-year research and development programme to develop, test and scale a new early years’ intervention in museums and encourage a wider range of families to use and visit museums more often. The intervention will support early child development and enhance parent-child interactions among priority families.

They are looking for 8 lead museums to help them develop and deliver this two-year programme, with each receiving a grant of up to £65,000 from Art Fund and Nesta to participate.

Participation will involve:

• In the first phase of the programme (design and prototype):
  • Collaborate on the development of an evidence-informed facilitated intervention, alongside other museums and early years development professionals.
  • Test and refine the intervention in the museum with cohorts of around 12 families (the exact number will be determined as part of the design process).
  • Identify local partners and begin to engage families to take part in the research and attend 6-8 weekly sessions in the museum.
  • Identify and agree an additional partner museum to work with as part of the second phase.
• In the second phase of the programme:
  • Onboard and work with at least one additional museum partner to further test, roll out and evaluate the intervention.
• Throughout the project and in its legacy:
  • Participate in project meetings, design sessions, evaluation and workshops.
  • Share learning and insights with museum peers, and support knowledge sharing with the wider sector.

Aims and objectives

Throughout the research and development programme, in partnership with Nesta, they aim to:

• Design an engaging, high-quality and effective early years intervention in museums using museum spaces and collections/programming to support families.
• Explore how to unlock the social value of cultural spaces and places for more families.
• Enhance caregiver-child interactions and moments of connection that help to support child development.

Their objectives for the two-year research and development programme are to:

• Work with eight lead museums, who will each recruit, mobilise and work alongside at least one other partner museum, to reach an agreed number of families through an early years intervention.
• Design and undertake an evaluation that looks at the feasibility, outcomes and impact of the programme and provides a path to scale the intervention across more museums.
• Develop a toolkit of learnings to support the UK museum sector as a whole.
• Build a foundation of evidence and experience to support future development, funding and scaling into a national initiative.

Ultimately, they hope this work will enable museums to reimagine their role in supporting and inspiring families, building a broader demographic of museum visitors and helping the sector to leverage greater support at a local and national level.

Key information about the intervention

The lead museums will collaborate with Nesta and Art Fund on the development of a 6-8 week programme of facilitator-led playful museum sessions (the intervention) for parents/main-caregivers and their children aged between 2-4 years old to enjoy together.

The sessions will be designed to:

1. support warm, inviting and confident interactions and relationships between parents/main-caregivers and their children aged 2-4 years old, helping them to communicate and engage in shared activities in ways that promote children’s social and emotional development and enrich family life;

2. empower parents/main-caregivers to build understanding, confidence and skills that can be embedded at home;

3. foster participatory and exploratory learning by doing, with sessions facilitated and led by museum learning teams/creative learning freelance professionals (depending on the setup of individual museums)

4. engage and support priority families in cohorts of around 12 families per group. Each museum will be required to support multiple cohorts of families over the course of the research and development programme.

5. deliver a 6-8 week evidence-informed curriculum for each cohort of families (one weekly 2.5-hour session x 6-8 weeks). Families must commit to the duration of the 6-8 week period.

Who they are looking for

Essential criteria

• Strong experience of and best practice in working with early years families.
• An interest in and commitment to this ambitious innovation process; open and excited to try new approaches; able to work at pace; and comfortable collaborating with other museums, early years experts and community partners.
• Experience of working with community partners, childcare centres and/or other providers that support low-income families; or a demonstrable ability to form these relationships quickly to recruit families to participate in the programme.
• A track record of, or strong desire to, unlock the social value of cultural spaces and places for more families.
• The ability to be available for, and take part in, all aspects of the research and development programme (more details provided in the programme timeline).
• The ability to identify, onboard and work with at least one new additional museum partner during the second phase of the project. (This partner museum might be a sister organisation, a local collaborator or an organisation you would like to work with but haven’t had the chance to yet. You must be able to demonstrate that you have had initial discussions with prospective partners and will be asked to provide details of this as part of your application.)

Desirable criteria

• Some experience in people-centred design, with families and/or other communities, would be advantageous but is not essential.

Each lead museum will be given up to £65,000 to cover the costs of participating fully in the programme.

This includes any costs incurred by working with their museum partner(s). (The lead museum will be responsible for dispersing any funds to the partner museums in line with Art Fund’s terms and conditions.)

Notes

They are aware that there are good examples of early years practice already happening in museums, but it is important to note that this is not a funding programme to develop or run an existing or self-determined early years programme; the grant can only be used to cover the costs required to participate in this research and development programme.

They are hopeful that this will result in future opportunities to embed innovative and impactful early years interventions in your organisation and across the UK museum and gallery sector, and they are keen to hear from museums who wish to be part of this exciting journey at an early stage.

Successful lead museums will be required to send up to two project leads to attend a two-day residential workshop alongside Nesta, Art Fund, child development and intervention design experts and other lead museums who are participating in the programme. The focus of this workshop will be on shaping a 6-8 week intervention (supported by an evidence-informed syllabus) aimed at enhancing caregiver-child interactions and supporting early years learning and development.

Dates:

• Tuesday 18 June: potential travel/overnight stay at the venue (depending on your location).
• Wednesday 19 – Thursday 20 June: Full-day workshops, including an overnight stay at the venue on Wednesday night. They expect to finish by 4pm on Thursday 20 June.

Location:

• Leamington Spa, Warwickshire

See Guidance for further details.

Eligibility

In addition to the criteria outlined above, they would also expect lead museums to meet the following organisational eligibility requirements:

• You must be a UK-based museum, gallery, visual arts organisation or historic place, with or without a collection.
• You must be open to the public for at least half of the week for at least six months of the year.
• You must agree to our full terms and conditions.

Benefits to you

You’ll be instrumental in the design and testing of a new intervention within early years programming for the UK museum sector, and in addition to receiving the grant, which will cover all costs of participating in the process, you will build and develop new skills and partnerships and reach a wider audience of families in your community.

Together, Art Fund and Nesta will support you throughout the process: hosting design workshops, providing marketing materials and working with an external evaluator to capture learnings. The evaluation will, they hope, provide a robust evidence base which could help you to demonstrate the social value and impact of your work.

This is also an opportunity for lead museums to develop a relationship and work in partnership with another museum. Additionally, Art Fund will help you make the most of this opportunity by providing press and marketing support to build on any advocacy work undertaken within this area