You are invited to attend a seminar discussing young children in museums from the perspectives of both museum professionals and researchers.

Children in their early years are a growing audience for museums, galleries and heritage sites. Young children (from birth to 5 years old) bring with them the need for new practices amongst the staff who work with them. Professional toolkits have been launched to support staff who want to develop this area of work.

Recent years have also seen an increase in the number of research studies in the UK focusing on young children in museums. This is part of a wider trend of increasingly diverse research in early childhood. Recent special editions of the journals Museum & Society and Children’s Geographies have focused on young children in museums, demonstrating the interest in this topic.

Young children in museums is also a topic where museum staff and researchers can work productively together in a 2-way relationship where research can inform practice and vice versa. The seminar will explore this.

The seminar is open to museum, gallery or heritage staff as well as researchers who are interested or working on this topic. Speakers will include both researchers and practitioners who will talk about their work and the different ways in which practice and research can inform each other.

The seminar is organised by staff from Newcastle University, Great North Museum: Hancock and Northumbria University who are developing an interdisciplinary project around this topic. As part of the seminar, we would also like to find out more about what you would like to learn from research in this area.

If you would like to attend, please get in touch with Bruce Davenport ([email protected]) to register.