Press Releases
The National Waterfront Museum, Swansea shortlisted for national Family Friendly Museum Award
Date:
2025-06-23The National Waterfront Museum has been shortlisted for the Kids in Museums Family Friendly Museum Award, it was announced today.
Charity Kids in Museums has run a prestigious annual award since 2004, recognising the most family friendly heritage sites in the UK. It is the only museum award to be judged by families.
From February to late April, families across the UK voted for their favourite heritage attraction on the Kids in Museums website. A panel of museum experts, children and young people then whittled down hundreds of nominations to a shortlist of 18 heritage attractions.
The National Waterfront Museum is vying three other museums in the Best Medium Museum Category.
Dr Nicole Deufel – Head of the National Waterfront Museum:
“We’re thrilled and honoured to be nominated, and to be in such excellent company within our category. The National Waterfront Museum has always been a place for families and children to learn, play, explore and discover the stories of the people who made Wales the country it is today.”
The National Waterfront Museum hosts a wide range of family friendly activities and events throughout the year. From crafty make and take workshops, to weekly gardening sessions for kids in our GRAFT garden, to big celebrations like National Play Day and Family Pride. We also offer weekly Quiet Hours at the museum, have sensory backpacks available for visitors to borrow during their visit and a chill out room for those who need somewhere for a calm moment during their visit.
Over the summer holidays, the museum will be visited by undercover family judges who will assess the shortlisted museums against the Kids in Museums Manifesto, a set of guidelines on what makes a great museum visit for all ages. Their experiences will decide a winner for each award category and an overall winner of the Family Friendly Museum Award 2025. The winners will be announced at an awards ceremony in October.
Follow the Family Friendly Museum Award on social media by following @kidsinmuseums and #FamilyFriendlyMuseum.
The Family Friendly Museum Award has been made possible by funding from Arts Council England.
Notes to Editors
About The National Waterfront Museum, Swansea
The National Waterfront Museum is one of seven museums across Wales which make up Amgueddfa Cymru.
Amgueddfa Cymru belongs to everyone and is here for everyone to use.
We’re a charity and a family of seven national museums and a collections centre, located across the country. Our aim is to inspire everyone through Wales’ story, at our museums, in communities and digitally.
Our welcome is free thanks to funding from the Welsh Government and extends to people from all communities.
Follow Amgueddfa Cymru’s seven museums on Instagram, or Facebook.
Play your part in Wales’ story: by visiting, volunteering, by joining, by donating.
About Kids in Museums
We are an award-winning charity dedicated to making museums open and welcoming to all children, young people and families. We support and champion family friendly organisations through wide-ranging initiatives, including the Family Friendly Museum Award and Takeover Day. We invite heritage organisations to sign up to our Manifesto, which sets out simple guidelines for making museums easy to reach for all ages. www.kidsinmuseums.org.uk
Find us on Instagram, LinkedIn, Facebook and BlueSky.
About the Family Friendly Museum Award
Kids in Museums began the Family Friendly Museum Award in 2004 to recognise heritage sites that are the most welcoming, fun and accessible for families.
Previous winners of the Family Friendly Museum Award include Young V&A (2024), Craven Museum (2023), the National Emergency Services Museum in Sheffield (2022), Bailiffgate Museum & Gallery in Alnwick (2021) and Andrew Carnegie Birthplace Museum in Dunfermline (2019).
The full list of museums shortlisted for the Family Friendly Museum Award 2025 is:
Best Accessible Museum
The Beaney, Canterbury
Eureka! The National Children's Museum, Halifax
Worsbrough Mill Museum and Country Park, Barnsley
Best Small Museum
Abbey House Museum, Leeds
Dylan Thomas Centre, Swansea
Experience Barnsley Museum and Discovery Centre, Barnsley
North Lincolnshire Museum, Scunthorpe
Showtown Blackpool
Best Medium Museum
The Amelia Scott, Tunbridge Wells
Great North Museum: Hancock, Newcastle upon Tyne
National Waterfront Museum, Swansea
V&A Dundee
Best Large Museum
The Burrell Collection, Glasgow
Horniman Museum and Gardens, London
London Transport Museum, London
Best Museum Youth Project: Social Justice
Black Cultural Archives, London
Glasgow Life Museums
Wiltshire Museum
About Arts Council England
Arts Council England is the national development agency for creativity and culture. We have set out our strategic vision in Let’s Create that by 2030 we want England to be a country in which the creativity of each of us is valued and given the chance to flourish and where everyone of us has access to a remarkable range of high-quality cultural experiences. From 2024 to 2026 we will invest over £440 million of public money from Government and an estimated £93 million from The National Lottery each year to help support the sector and to deliver this vision. www.artscouncil.org.uk.