Museums’ ad-hoc funding for learning activities ‘jeopardising’ youth engagement

Project-based funding for museum learning programmes poses a “clear challenge” when it comes to sustaining engagement with children and young people, a new report commissioned by Arts Council England (ACE) has found.

Children and Young People Engaging with Museums, authored by the Group for Education in Museums (GEM), examines the relationship between young people and museums, drawing insights from a survey of 126 museums and a roundtable discussion with 42 heads of learning from museums across England.

Sam Cairns, director of Cairns Crump, one of the writers of the report, noted in her foreword that, as museum fundraising teams tend to find it easier to fundraise for learning activities, these initiatives are more at risk of being cut or curtailed than those receiving core funding.

The report also cited museum staffing capacities being squeezed due to reductions in local authority funding and rising costs associated with visiting museums.

‘Empowered citizens’ rather than consumers

Cairns emphasised the essential role museums play as “vital civic spaces” where children and their families have “agency and value” to become “active, empowered citizens” rather than “consumers.”

Almost all (96%) of the museums that participated in the research stated that they actively include children and young people in their museum strategy, with 63% offering co-created exhibitions, collections, and youth advisory groups.

Half said they had seen an increase in engagement with under-18s since 2023.

The lifecycle of engagement

A second study, also published by ACE yesterday, carried out by Verian, sought to understand the lifecycle of children and young people’s engagement in museums through focus groups in Wolverhampton, Kirklees and North Devon, supplemented by a parallel, ongoing online survey.

Children and young people from London were most likely to have visited a museum (63%), while those from the West Midlands were least likely to have done so (39%). Visiting rates were highest among young people from mixed-ethnic and white backgrounds (55% and 53%, respectively) and lowest among those from black backgrounds (40%).

The report found that the proportion of young people visiting a museum increased with age in early childhood to a peak among 10-year-olds (67%), and then declined from this point.

Among the different age groups included in the research, younger teenagers, aged 12-15, showed the lowest enthusiasm for museums.

Younger teenagers also found activities like historical role-playing and dress-up to be childish or embarrassing, preferring to engage with technological features at museums, such as screens, devices, or apps.

Time needed for a ‘proper’ visit

Along with cost (38%), the time required for a museum visit (36%) was found to be among the most commonly cited barriers to museum visits for young people.

For some, the need to actively “make time” for what they considered a worthwhile visit due to the perceived scale of museums could feel “burdensome”.

Aysha Afridi, interim director of museums at ACE, said the pair of reports “make clear that barriers to access still exist” but also spotlight “the tireless, creative and dedicated work museums are doing” to break down barriers.

Caroline Marcus, chair of GEM, added: “Museums are places of wonder and inspiration that provide enrichment, enhance learning, creativity and wellbeing. These examples show the breadth and huge potential of informal engagement for children, of all abilities, in their early years through to young adulthood.”