Newark’s National Civil War Centre has been shortlisted for the national Kids in Museums Family Friendly Museum Award.

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 late March to early June, families across the UK voted for their favourite heritage attraction on the Kids in Museums website. A panel of museum experts then whittled down hundreds of nominations to a shortlist of 18 heritage attractions across the categories.

The National Civil War Centre is vying against just 4 other museums in the Best Small Museum category.

Carys Coulton-Jones is Business Manager for Heritage and Culture at Newark and Sherwood District Council, which runs the Centre. She said: “I’m enormously proud of our team, whose endless creativity and love for learning has earned this prestigious nomination. With the cost of living crisis making it even harder to enjoy days out with the kids, our focus over the past few years has been to create more opportunities for local people to access great free family experiences and we hope that this amazing news will help to increase awareness of our offer to the community. I was personally really touched to read the wonderful comments amongst our nominations and to receive this recognition from real families means a lot.”

The National Civil War Centre has recently introduced free entry for Newark and Sherwood residents and over the past few years has launched a weekly Mini Museum morning for toddlers, taking place every Thursday in term time, and Family Saturdays which offer themed activities and family friendly tours on the first weekend of the month. There have also been graffiti art workshops for older children and have-a-go musket drills in half terms as well as increased interactives across the museum galleries.

Having just been made a National Portfolio Organisation by Arts Council England, they are also planning even more engagement throughout the district. Artist in Residence, Samantha Jayne recently joined the team and will be offering virtual reality workshops in the museum and community venues over the next few months.

Councillor Paul Peacock, Leader of Newark and Sherwood District Council, said: “The skills and passion of our teams across the Council never fail to amaze me and I’m very happy to see our hard-working staff at the National Civil War Centre receive this fantastic acknowledgement. I encourage all of our residents who are able, to pay a visit to the museum, especially during the summer holidays, and discover this valuable gem on our doorstep.”

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 2023. The winners will be announced at an awards ceremony in October.

Find out more about the Family Friendly Museum Award on social media by following @kidsinmuseums and #FamilyFriendlyMuseum and check out the latest events at the National Civil War Centre by following them on social media or visiting nationalcivilwarcentre.com.

The Family Friendly Museum Award has been made possible by funding from Arts Council England.