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 inclusive and inviting museum.
While, of course, it is people who make the biggest difference when it comes to a warm welcome, the building, design, and resources all have a role to play as well. Carefully designed and thoughtfully presented resources let families with children know that they are valued visitors, and supports their curiosity in a range of ways.
We have commissioned and installed a new Family Trolley as part of a refresh of the Courtyard Entrance area at the Fitzwilliam Museum, with the aim of making the Family Welcome more visible and accessible.
Designing the trolley
Building on Family Welcome project findings and observations of families accessing the previous Courtyard offer, we knew change was needed. Our family trails, guides and activities were not well used, especially by first-time visitors. Staff were not always sure exactly what was available or how to promote it.
We spent time visiting and talking to other museums to investigate different options for improving the display of our family offer. We decided on a commissioned piece from furniture designers Plaey to enable us to design a bespoke solution.
The trolley is made from eco-friendly Valchromat in neutral colours from organic dyes. We wanted a hard-wearing and sustainable material that can be easily cleaned and maintained. The trolley has a specially designed storage solution for clipboards, drawers for drawing materials and toys, and a bookshelf. It also has integrated hooks for our Baby Bags, which include handmade baby mats by Play Build Play.
What is on the trolley?
Families can help themselves to:
Baby Bags – Suitable for use in any gallery, these include a soft mat for babies to lay/sit on, along with a range of interesting sensory items to explore shape, form, colour and material inspired by the collection. We recommend these for 0-2 year old visitors.
Story Starter Bags – These tote bags include a picture book, storytelling props, and some suggested activities to do together. Each story relates to objects in a specific gallery, eg. Good Knight, Sleep Tight is based in the Armoury, The Very Hungry Caterpillar introduces the Flowers Gallery. We recommend these for 2-6 year old visitors.
Trails and drawing materials – These materials are for visitors to use independently in the galleries. We recommend these for 5+ year old visitors.
We hope that these materials are flexible enough for families to use in ways that suit them. For example:
- A group of parents with young babies catching up while their little ones sit on a baby mat exploring colourful scarves and stacking blocks.
- Some older children taking inspiration to draw in the Museum. Viewfinders, clipboards, pencils and papers in a choice of colours help them get creative.
- A family calling in after school to relax in the galleries by snuggling up on a bench with a book.
Where can we find it?
The current home of the Family Trolley is the Courtyard Atrium, opposite the benches at the end of the cafe. This location is less busy than the Entrance Hall, so it’s possible for families to browse the materials and take time to decide what they’d like to do. There are also portable stools nearby which are available for everybody and can be taken into any gallery.
What have we learned?
We have learned through our research and spending time with families in the galleries that while families are diverse and have a wide range of different needs and preferences, what’s really important is that we are listening and responding. Families don’t expect provision to be perfect. They just want to feel that they have been thought of and included in decision making at the Museum.
And early data is showing that the new trolley is working for more families. Previously, observations revealed that only 20% of family visitors were approaching the resources that we had available. Now this has more than doubled to 56%!
Another noticeable change has been that children are now much more likely to initiate engagement with the Family Trolley themselves whereas before adults tended to take the lead.
We want your ideas
The great thing about the current Family Trolley design is that it is very adaptable. We can change things, add things, and develop the offer in line with the changing needs and interests of our audience.
With that in mind, please come along and see what you think! Let us know your ideas for how the trolley might develop in the future. Please email Florencia Nannetti, Learning Associate: Families.
With thanks to Matt Kelly at Plaey for the beautiful design, Abigail Skinner for her support during the Museum Entrances Refresh, Grant O’Brien, Jo Barrett and all the Visitor Experience team at The Fitzwilliam Museum for looking after the trolley on a daily basis and their commitment to always offering a warm welcome to families.
