{"id":8073,"date":"2017-09-01T09:39:04","date_gmt":"2017-09-01T08:39:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.museums.cam.ac.uk\/blog\/?p=8073"},"modified":"2020-09-04T15:46:28","modified_gmt":"2020-09-04T14:46:28","slug":"5-things-youve-always-wanted-to-know-about-summer-at-the-museums-but-were-too-busy-to-ask","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.museums.cam.ac.uk\/blog\/2017\/09\/01\/5-things-youve-always-wanted-to-know-about-summer-at-the-museums-but-were-too-busy-to-ask\/","title":{"rendered":"5 things you&#8217;ve always wanted to know about Summer at the Museums (but were too busy to ask)"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2>Susan Miller provides a snapshot summary of developing <a href=\"http:\/\/www.museums.cam.ac.uk\/summer\">Summer at the Museums<\/a>, the University of Cambridge Museums&#8217; summer holiday family programme.<\/h2>\n<h3>1. We&#8217;ve come a long way: the background<\/h3>\n<p>Summer at the Museums has been around in one format or another since 2007. Initially, it was born from a simple aim get more families into our museums. Since then, the programme has grown hugely and is now a broad line-up of holiday events and activities involving many partners across the region.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_8082\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-8082\" style=\"width: 600px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-8082\" src=\"http:\/\/www.museums.cam.ac.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/08\/Susans-blog-1.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"600\" height=\"400\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-8082\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Artist David Allsop adds a child&#8217;s work to a large-scale collaborative installation. Big Weekend 2017. Photo by Josh Murfitt<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<h3>2. It&#8217;s not all fun in the sun: our aims<\/h3>\n<p>While still true to the original vision of promoting our organisations to families, the programme has a number of targeted aims which are directed by our Audience Development Strategy, visitor research and previous evaluation. These include:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Making everyone feel welcome in our venues<\/li>\n<li>Inspiring curiosity for our collections, giving audiences access to new, or deeper ways of thinking about themselves, their communities, societal changes and our world<\/li>\n<li>Continuing to be a vital resource to our local community<\/li>\n<li>Attracting new and existing audiences to the University of Cambridge Museums and partner venues across the city and region<\/li>\n<li>Encouraging cross-site visits from audiences to all partner venues throughout the summer<\/li>\n<li>Raising general awareness of museums being available for families all year round.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<figure id=\"attachment_8085\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-8085\" style=\"width: 600px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-8085 size-full\" src=\"http:\/\/www.museums.cam.ac.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/08\/Susans-Blog-4.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"600\" height=\"401\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-8085\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Be a Bee at the Botanic Garden, 2017. Photo by Alice the Camera.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<h3>3. The more the merrier: partnership working<\/h3>\n<p>Summer at the Museums now involves a wide number of partners within the city and local county. This year we have been joined by 22 organisations with additional outreach activities being delivered by the Zoology Museum and Kettle\u2019s Yard. Why so many? Well, by working as a partnership we are able to:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Offer a wider choice of activities for families<\/li>\n<li>Offer a wider choice of activities for families<\/li>\n<li>Encourage families to visit a range of venues, especially for the first time<\/li>\n<li>Share in the promotion and marketing of events<\/li>\n<li>Develop new audiences from across the region.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>By joining the programme, partners are agreeing to support in its aims with the emphasis on providing a family friendly offer.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_8087\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-8087\" style=\"width: 600px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-8087\" src=\"http:\/\/www.museums.cam.ac.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/08\/susan-blog-6.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"600\" height=\"401\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-8087\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Toying with Science at the Whipple Museum, 2017. Photo by Alice the Camera.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<h3>4. &#8216;Leave it better than you found it&#8217;: developing the programme<\/h3>\n<p>Ah good old Robert Baden-Powell, but his words apply to more than the Boy Scouts. Each year the programme has developed and evolved: from initial simple challenges, a handy calendar of events, to this year\u2019s <a href=\"http:\/\/www.museums.cam.ac.uk\/system\/files\/ucm_summer_at_the_museums_2017_for_web.pdf\">bumper 34 page booklet<\/a>. But this isn\u2019t change for the sake of it. Feedback from families has been significant in the programme\u2019s development. 2017 has seen a number of changes \u2013 all based on what families have told us. Among these has been:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>An eye-catching front cover featuring a full page photograph of a child involved in an activity \u2013 a quick way to communicate what to expect inside<\/li>\n<li>The inclusion of \u2018all ages\u2019 on the front (families told us they weren\u2019t sure what age group the programme was for)<\/li>\n<li>A bright, colourful and easy to follow layout<\/li>\n<li>Clear day-by-day listing of events with additional visual icons for \u2018at a glance\u2019 information<\/li>\n<li>Additional information to support families in planning their visit including: advice on travel, where to eat and baby-changing facilities<\/li>\n<li>A more targeted approach to the distribution of booklets focussing on schools in key areas and those receiving higher levels of Pupil Premium funding; Sure Start centres and Local Community Liaison Officers.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<figure id=\"attachment_8084\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-8084\" style=\"width: 600px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-8084\" src=\"http:\/\/www.museums.cam.ac.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/08\/Susans-Blog-3.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"600\" height=\"401\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-8084\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">This photo was not staged, promise! Chilling out with a Summer at the Museums programme at Ammonite Suncatchers at the Sedgwick Museum, 2017.<br \/>Photo by Alice the Camera.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<h3>5. The fun never stops: evaluation and thinking ahead<\/h3>\n<p>So, Summer at the Museums 2017 is almost over. Time to put our feet up and pat ourselves on the back for a job well done? Hold on sonny Jim! Just because we think it\u2019s great, doesn\u2019t mean that our families and partners do. Another crucial aspect of the programme is its evaluation. It\u2019s from this that we learn how successful we\u2019ve been in meeting our aims and how we might improve our offer in the future. This is done through the following:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>An <a href=\"https:\/\/cambridge.eu.qualtrics.com\/jfe\/form\/SV_6M9dDvKnrZzJ0Sp\">online survey<\/a>. In addition to being emailed to families who have agreed to participate, this is also available on our webpage and widely promoted by partners via social media. As an incentive, all respondents to the survey are entered into a prize draw for a chance to win a \u00a350 Amazon voucher. The survey covers all aspects of the programme and is closely linked to the programme aims.<\/li>\n<li>The use of volunteers to collect additional data and responses from families during events<\/li>\n<li>Partner feedback. This not only provides quantitative data such as visitor numbers and postcodes, but also asks partners to comment on the impact that the programme has had on their organisation, and suggestions for improvement.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<figure id=\"attachment_8086\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-8086\" style=\"width: 600px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-8086\" src=\"http:\/\/www.museums.cam.ac.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/08\/Susans-blog-5.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"600\" height=\"401\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-8086\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Aesop&#8217;s Forest: Don&#8217;t Do That storytelling at the Museum of Classical Archaeology, 2017.<br \/>Photo by Alice the Camera.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Next year we plan to make more use of volunteers to assist with the collection of information during events. Additionally, we will be developing a short, standardised survey that can be used by partners to collect feedback within their venues.<\/p>\n<p>All the information we collect is then used to inform our overall reporting and the future development of the programme. So, Summer at the Museums, it\u2019s as easy as 1, 2, 3\u2026 (4, 5).<strong><br \/>\n<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Susan Miller provides a snapshot summary of developing Summer at the Museums, the University of Cambridge Museums&#8217; summer holiday family programme. 1. We&#8217;ve come a long way: the background Summer at the Museums has been around in one format or another since 2007. Initially, it was born from a simple aim get more families into our museums. Since then, the&#8230; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.museums.cam.ac.uk\/blog\/2017\/09\/01\/5-things-youve-always-wanted-to-know-about-summer-at-the-museums-but-were-too-busy-to-ask\/\" class=\"excerpt-more hide-for-medium\">Read full article<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":8080,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[165],"tags":[226,215,220],"coauthors":[185],"class_list":["post-8073","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-engagement","tag-building-ucm","tag-education","tag-public-programming"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"post_mailing_queue_ids":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.museums.cam.ac.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8073","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.museums.cam.ac.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.museums.cam.ac.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.museums.cam.ac.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.museums.cam.ac.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8073"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.museums.cam.ac.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8073\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8095,"href":"https:\/\/www.museums.cam.ac.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8073\/revisions\/8095"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.museums.cam.ac.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8080"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.museums.cam.ac.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8073"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.museums.cam.ac.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8073"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.museums.cam.ac.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8073"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.museums.cam.ac.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=8073"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}