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Help Local Museums Win National Award
Posted on 20/08/2009
Community Services
Local museums are encouraging residents of, and visitors to, Leicester and Leicestershire to support them in their quest to be recognised as the country’s most ‘family friendly’. Five museums in the city and county have joined forces with Leicester Shire Promotions in a campaign to win the prestigious national Guardian Family Friendly Museum Award.
Set up by The Guardian newspaper in conjunction with charity ‘Kids in Museums’, the Guardian Family Friendly Award aims to recognise museums in the UK that have shown a particularly welcoming attitude towards all members of the family market – from parents and teenagers to grandparents and toddlers.
A visitor-focused campaign, supported by Leicester Shire Promotions, Leicestershire County Council and the National Space Centre, has now started to bring the award to Leicester and Leicestershire - a destination that has some of the most family friendly museums, science centres and galleries in the country.
Visitors to Bosworth Battlefield near Market Bosworth, Snibston in Coalville, Charnwood Museum in Loughborough, Donington le Heath in Coalville and the National Space Centre in Leicester will have the opportunity to nominate a museum for the accolade via specially-designed scrapbooks, available at the reception areas of each of these popular museums, until the closing date of Wednesday 26 August 2009. Children, teenagers, parents and grandparents will be asked what they feel are the participating museums’ most outstanding family friendly features. The scrapbooks will then be submitted as nominations to the organisers on the visitors’ behalf.
Visitors to Leicester and Leicestershire museums can also nominate directly to the organisers. They accept nominations in many forms including email, letter, model, painting or even DVD. Please send direct nominations through to Kids in Museums, Downstream Building, One London Bridge, London SE1 9BG, or email award@kidsinmuseums.org.uk. The closing date for direct entries is Friday 28 August 2009.
Martin Peters, Chief Executive of Leicester Shire Promotions, commented: “We believe that Leicester and Leicestershire’s museums offer a real ‘family friendly’ approach but this award nomination process will show us what the visitors really think. We’re confident that the feedback received from the scrapbooks will give us some strong evidence that the museums in Leicester and Leicestershire can be worthy recipients of the award.”
Malika Andress, Head of Marketing at the National Space Centre, said: “Leicestershire has some world class attractions including the National Space Centre. We want our visitors to shout about why they are proud to have such amazing museums on their doorstep. To win the award would obviously be great, but to hear from visitors of all ages about why they had an out of this world day at the National Space Centre is prize enough!”
Ernie White, Leicestershire County Council's Cabinet Member for Better Places added: "This year we've seen thousands of families visiting our attractions, many are coming for their second or third visit which tells us something. Visitors to Bosworth Battlefield, Snibston, Donington le Heath Manor House, Charnwood Museum and the National Space Centre regularly give some amazing feedback and it would be fantastic to see Leicestershire recognised nationally for all the work it does with families and children."
The awards scheme was founded after one of The Guardian’s journalists, Dea Birkett, was asked to leave a very famous London-based gallery because her then two-year-old son excitedly shouted ‘monster’ at a piece of Aztec art – behaviour which the museum deemed as unacceptable. After Dea wrote about her and her family’s untimely removal from the museum, the newspaper was inundated with letters from hundreds of readers who had similar experiences. For more details on the awards, please visit www.kidsinmuseums.org.uk/the-guardian-award
Images available on request.
About Leicester Shire Promotions:
Leicester Shire Promotions is a private, not-for-profit company formed in July 2003 as a partnership between Leicester City Council, Leicestershire County Council and the Leicester Shire Economic Partnership. The company is the Destination Management Organisation (DMO) responsible for promoting Leicester and Leicestershire to visitors, based on a coordinated place marketing strategy that focuses on destination leadership and coordination, attracting and visitors, services for and visitors, and services for the tourism industry. For more information, please visit www.goleicestershire.com
For further media information, please contact:
Nimisha Mehta
Leicester Shire Promotions
T: 0116 225 4063
nimisha.mehta@l-p-l.com