We are thrilled to announce that our Families of the World project has been shortlisted for the ‘Best Museums Change Lives Project Award’ at the Museums Change Lives Awards.
Families of the World welcomes refugee children and families to the gallery every week, creating a space for them to come together, to access the city’s art collection and share their culture and experiences with each other.
It has its roots in the spirit of welcome, improving access and inclusion to cultural and civic spaces, and the idea of a trauma-informed dimension to cultural activity.
Cross cultural learning and sharing – particularly through food – is also a big part of the project and families regularly bring in food or share the making of food with others in the group as a way of connecting with each other and learning about each other’s cultural heritage.
Connecting in this way through food has also seen some of the recipes brought in by families introduced to the wider public through the art gallery cafe and via on-line cookery demonstrations – where visitors are embracing the chance this brings for them to learn more about cultures other than their own.
“Manchester Art Gallery is thrilled to be nominated for this award. We are a Gallery of Sanctuary, and Families of the World exemplifies our commitment to making the gallery somewhere everyone is welcome, respected and represented. As an organisation, we gain so much from working with the families that engage with the project and this nomination is as much theirs as it is ours.” – Inbal Livne, Senior Creative Lead
Working in partnership with Sure Start, Read Manchester, Manchester Public Health, and the City of Sanctuary, the gallery’s Families of the World project welcomes displaced families who are living in the city to a weekly Stay and Play session. At this joyful playgroup families are connected to vital services and signposted to other cultural venues and to the city’s wider offer for its youngest residents.
The project also explores how the gallery can be used as a platform to extend a positive message to its visitors about Manchester being a place where refugees and asylum seekers can live safely – and where they can continue to make a valuable contribution within inclusive and resilient communities.
Councillor Garry Bridges, Deputy Leader Manchester City Council, said: “Families of the World is an amazing project that reflects everything that we want Manchester to be – a place of welcome, warmth, safety and opportunity for everyone. It’s making a real difference to our newest and most vulnerable families in the city who in turn have so much to teach and share with us.”
This year’s Museum Association awards take place in Leeds on Tuesday 12 November as part of the Museums Association annual conference.
There are four Museums Change Lives Award categories: The Championing Social Justice Award, Best Small Museum Project Award, Radical Changemaker Award, and the Best Museums Change Lives Project Award – which is the award Manchester Art Gallery’s Families of the World project has been nominated for.
