Evidence points to the importance of parents’ and caregivers’ interactions with young children and the value of warm, holistic, social and learning experiences in enhancing childhood development. Access to cultural and artistic spaces can expose families to playful and creative activities that enrich these experiences for children and support parents and caregivers to build skills and capabilities.

That’s why Nesta’s arts practice and a fairer start mission teams are continuing our partnership with Art Fund to unlock the social value of museums, galleries and heritage sites to support lower income families. This second phase is a research and development process that builds upon findings and key lessons from the first phase proof-of-concept in Summer 2023.

Combining Nesta’s evidence-informed approach and Art Fund’s cultural sector expertise, this partnership aims to apply research and development methods to create a playful, facilitated programme rooted in evidence and co-designed with academic experts and museums that could be implemented across the sector. Mini Wonders – the Early Years Innovation in Museums programme aims to support early child development and enhance parent-child interactions ensuring more families can benefit from the unique, life-enriching experiences offered by our museums and galleries. This pioneering programme – the first of its kind in the museum sector – will initially run for two years, supporting as many families as possible to experience and contribute to the work.

Why we are doing this

The environment and experiences of early childhood shape our brains and bodies, creating the building blocks of our physical, emotional and cognitive skills – but not every child gets what they need to develop during their earliest years.

Research shows that child development benefits from high-quality, warm caregiver-child interactions and an enriched home learning environment. Access to arts, culture and creative and playful materials inside and outside of the home offers opportunities to support parents and caregivers to build skills and enrich this environment and help children to build skills and capabilities that get them ready to learn when they start school.

What we are doing

Museums offer families unique opportunities to spend time together. The buildings, spaces and collections, the expert learning teams and the access to artists and makers offered through museum early years programming help to fuel a young child’s imagination.

Following applications and selection process earlier this year, Art Fund and Nesta have selected eight museums and galleries, leaders in early-years engagement in the cultural sector, to help develop and deliver this programme. Each of the following lead museums will work with a partner museum or gallery to deliver the programme in their area:

• Amgueddfa Cymru - Museum Wales
• Great North Museum: Hancock
• Leeds Museums & Galleries
• Mansfield Museum
• National Galleries of Scotland
• Norfolk Museums Service
• Tate Britain
• Ulster Museum

Working with teams across Nesta and leading academics, the museums will create a pilot programme that uses their spaces and collections. By exploring how to unlock the social value of cultural spaces for families, the programme will enhance caregiver-child interactions that help support child development and potentially impact how parents and guardians support their children to learn and develop at home.

The ambition is that this research and development process will create a robust evidence base that will allow the innovation to be scaled up across the UK while remaining unique to each museum and embedded in their community.