Age Friendly Museums Network
Programme information
Duration
January 2016 – December 2018
Founded by the British Museum in 2016, the Age Friendly Museums Network worked for, and in the belief that, older people and museums enrich each other and that ageing is something everyone in the world shares from birth.
Running from 2016–2018, it delivered programmes that challenged ageist stereotypes, promoted access, created meaningful experiences, and explored how to work more effectively with and for an older audience.
About the Network
The Network was simply a network of individuals connected by their interest in museums and the part they can play in age friendly communities. As well as museum, gallery and arts professionals, the Network included those from health and social care, the voluntary sector, research professionals and older people themselves.
The Network was led by a working group with representatives from the British Museum, Glasgow Life, National Museums Liverpool, National Museums Northern Ireland, National Museums Wales and Manchester Museum and the Whitworth.
It developed innovative and collaborative opportunities by bringing people together. The Network ran free workshops and training, exploring and sharing good practice and encouraging creativity and new initiatives. Committed to working in partnership, the Network supported organisations and individuals to become leaders in their respective fields and to represent older voices and a positive experience of ageing.
The Network was founded by the British Museum with funding from the Esmeé Fairbairn Foundation. The Network is very grateful to the Baring Foundation for funding its activities.
Aims
- Encourage and support the museum sector to be more age friendly.
- Connect the museum sector to other sectors in an attempt to support age friendly communities.
- Advocate on behalf of museums as natural, local partners for the third sector, health and social care and charities which work with and for older people.
- Explore how an ageing demographic could affect the museum sector.
- Explore and critique how museums represent ageing.
- The network is simply a network of individuals connected by their interest in museums and the part they can play in age friendly communities.
Our manifesto
Our manifesto was developed collaboratively as a shared action plan and toolkit to help museums support age friendly communities. It also played an integral part beyond programming for older visitors.
Our manifesto
Welcome
Is your museum age friendly? Does it encourage engagement and participation from all ages?
Keep it simple
Simple often works best, costs less and is more sustainable.
Access
How easily can older people access your museum and its collections, on and offsite?
Be creative
How can your work encourage new experiences, learning and creative thought?
Be positive
How might your work celebrate ageing and/or challenge negative perceptions of ageing?
Value
How do you draw upon older people’s wide range of knowledge, skills and experience in your work? How does your museum find out about older people’s needs?
Collaborate
There is real value in working with partners outside the museum sector – who might your museum work with locally?
Develop
What skills does your museum need and how can these be developed?
