Carousel at RAMM 

Making museum fun with babies and toddlers from all backgrounds

Date of project: 2017-2018

About Carousel at RAMM

The project aimed to welcome parents across socioeconomic backgrounds and show how to make museums fun for preschool-age children and babies.

Artist-facilitators showed families how to explore the museum through play, using all a child’s senses. They gave families ideas to help them gain confidence and spend time together using imagination and creativity. Even toddlers and babies were included, showing that no one is too young to enjoy RAMM.  

Weekly public sessions at RAMM attracted 30-60 participants by the end of the project. RAMM’s year-and-a-half-long collaboration with artists from Carousel, working with children under five, reached 2,273 people with Carousel at 45 sessions.   

A key part of the project was reaching out to families from underrepresented neighbourhoods of Exeter, with sessions in children’s centres at Cranbrook, West Exe and Chestnut, each followed by a hosted visit to the museum. All activities were free to the public and led by two professional artists. 

The project’s first 12 sessions focused on a very family-friendly Sea Life exhibition – which included a live aquarium tank and was perfect for this audience – reached 944 people. The artists took sea-themed activities outdoors to Respect Festival of local diversity and Playday in the Park, as well as hosting a Takeover Day for little ones at RAMM. 

As the project moved on, with an additional £15,000 Arts Council grant for Carousel, sessions focused on various galleries, from a portrait exhibition to Making History. Artists opened parents’ eyes and children’s minds with magnifying glasses and dressing-up costumes. The project – called Look & See – deliberately used all kinds of textures to stimulate the senses with low-cost materials that parents and carers could replicate at home. 

a woman with two young children in the RAMM courtyard

Participants & partners

The project was a collaboration between RAMM and Carousel, with funding from the Arts Council.

Feedback so far

“This project reached an age group and audience that is very important to RAMM. It was also important to demonstrate to colleagues that no age is too young to enjoy a museum visit.” 
– Ruth Gidley, Engagement Office

What next?

The partnership fed into RAMM’s learning and design of projects, families areas and designing communication for wider audiences.  

Further information

Ruth Gidley
Engagement Officer

[email protected] 
01392 265305