Feeling welcomed and included are really important elements of a happy and successful museum visit. The new Family Trolley at the Fitzwilliam Museum has been designed to support even the youngest visitors to engage with the collection. Families with children are a crucial audience for museums. Ensuring that they feel seen, valued and welcome is really important in creating an…
Earlier this year, the University of Cambridge Museums (UCM) piloted a new programme of work experience for young people with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND). Our current programme for young people with SEND offers a broad range of creative opportunities, but it has lacked progression for older participants, especially those transitioning into adulthood and employment. Looking to address these…
For the last year, the Museum of Zoology has invited the public to chat to museum animals in an innovative AI experiment. What has the Museum learnt? Since October 2024, visitors have been able to ‘chat’ with 13 specimens in the Museum of Zoology, from the dodo and the fin whale to a cockroach or a butterfly. You simply scan…
This Black History Month blog shares our recent work to explore and celebrate the Cambridge connections of Olaudah Equiano, Britain’s most important Black Abolitionist. Within his 52-year lifespan, the time that Olaudah Equiano spent in Cambridgeshire might appear insignificant. His documented associations lasted less than seven years from summer 1789 until spring 1796. And yet the people whom Equiano met…
Feeling welcomed and included are really important elements of a happy and successful museum visit. The new Family Trolley at the Fitzwilliam Museum has been designed to support even the youngest visitors to engage with the collection. Families with children are a crucial audience for museums. Ensuring that they feel seen, valued and welcome is really important in creating an…
Earlier this year, the University of Cambridge Museums (UCM) piloted a new programme of work experience for young people with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND). Our current programme for young people with SEND offers a broad range of creative opportunities, but it has lacked progression for older participants, especially those transitioning into adulthood and employment. Looking to address these…
In Autumn 2025, the Arthur Rank Hospice invited the Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology (MAA) to deliver a six-week programme of object-handling sessions for outpatients. Sarah Talks and Rosie Croysdale from the MAA Education Team worked alongside Sophie Wakefield, Art Therapist and Life Celebration Coordinator at Arthur Rank Hospice Charity (ARHC). The sessions took place at Arthur’s Shed, a multipurpose…
Earlier this year, the University of Cambridge Museums (UCM) piloted a new programme of work experience for young people with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND). Our current programme for young people with SEND offers a broad range of creative opportunities, but it has lacked progression for older participants, especially those transitioning into adulthood and employment. Looking to address these…
For the last year, the Museum of Zoology has invited the public to chat to museum animals in an innovative AI experiment. What has the Museum learnt? Since October 2024, visitors have been able to ‘chat’ with 13 specimens in the Museum of Zoology, from the dodo and the fin whale to a cockroach or a butterfly. You simply scan…
Covering the period 1 July – 30 September 2024, this report provides an insight into some of the stories behind our NPO-funded activity delivered under our Collections In Action programme themes: Social Justice, Our Planet, Creating Opportunities, and Health and Wellbeing, as well as our underpinning Programme Enablement activity. Our main themes of Social Justice, Our Planet, Creating Opportunities, Health…
Earlier this year, the University of Cambridge Museums (UCM) piloted a new programme of work experience for young people with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND). Our current programme for young people with SEND offers a broad range of creative opportunities, but it has lacked progression for older participants, especially those transitioning into adulthood and employment. Looking to address these…
For the last year, the Museum of Zoology has invited the public to chat to museum animals in an innovative AI experiment. What has the Museum learnt? Since October 2024, visitors have been able to ‘chat’ with 13 specimens in the Museum of Zoology, from the dodo and the fin whale to a cockroach or a butterfly. You simply scan…
At the end of last year, we introduced a new student placement in collaboration with Cambridge University Hospitals, exploring how museum objects and artworks can support therapy for stroke rehabilitation patients. The placement was an exciting step forward in our ongoing collaboration with the Occupational Therapists at Addenbrooke’s Hospital in Cambridge, which has developed over the last three years. In…
To understand how to provide a great family welcome at the Fitzwilliam Museum, we went straight to the experts: babies, young children and their parents. Using a range of creative research tools, both inside the museum and during outreach sessions in the local community, we worked together to explore what it means to feel welcome. The Family Welcome Project The…
