Success As Our Own Young Producers Team Wins National Museums Award

A scheme ensuring the talent and ideas of our region’s young minds are used in our museums has won a top national award.

The Tees Valley Museums Young Producers Group won Best Museum Youth Group from organisation Kids in Museums at its Family Friendly Museum Awards 2024.

The Young Producers are a group of 16 to 25-year-olds who learn how to produce their own events and exhibitions supported by museum venue staff and budgets.

The group beat more than 500 other entrants and came out on top from a final shortlist of four at an awards ceremony in the Craven Museum, Skipton.

Kids in Museums works with museums across the country to make them more welcoming of children, young people and families.

The award judging panel was impressed with the diversity of Young Producers and the support the team received.

The panel added: “The range of activities the young people had delivered across multiple sites was excellent and we liked that there were visits to places that might have otherwise been inaccessible to the young people. We also felt the panel had a good impact on the wider organisation.”

The Young Producers project was funded by the Tees Valley Combined Authority and Arts Council England through the Tees Valley Creative Education Partnership.

Tees Valley Mayor Ben Houchen said: “I’m delighted, but not surprised, Young Producers has picked up this award given how much talent and creativity we have in our region.

“We need to ensure our young people get the chance to have their voices heard – and this project makes sure their ideas are put into action.

“We’ve some top-quality museums and venues in Teesside, Darlington and Hartlepool – and Young Producers is another example of how we’ve all worked together to create an award-winning project.”

The group meets at Hartlepool Art Gallery, Museum of Hartlepool and Preston Park Museum every month.

The Tees Valley Museums Consortium consists of the museum services of Stockton-on-Tees, Darlington, Hartlepool, Middlesbrough and Redcar & Cleveland Councils.

Councillor Steve Nelson, Stockton-on-Tees Borough Council’s Cabinet Member for Health, Leisure and Culture, said: “The Young Producers work so hard to make sure that everyone in our communities can enjoy all that our museums have to offer, so I’m very pleased their dedication has been nationally recognised.

“Their events are hugely popular because their passion and creativity shines through in their contributions. For them to win this award out of 500 brilliant entrants is a huge achievement and a testament to their and our partners’ work – congratulations on this fantastic win.”

Councillor Pamela Hargreaves, Chair of Hartlepool Borough Council’s Economic Growth and Regeneration Committee, said: “Our Young Producers have done some fantastic work in partnership with Hartlepool Art Gallery and the Museum of Hartlepool, bringing a refreshing new perspective to our exhibitions, and they thoroughly deserve this accolade.

“They played a key role in working with our Art Gallery Curator Angela Thomas to curate our first-ever British Museum exhibition ‘Drawing attention: emerging artists in dialogue’ earlier this year, which welcomed almost 11,000 visitors.

“Young people are the future of our museums and galleries and it’s great to see the Young Producers helping to make our attractions more accessible to the younger generation, while at the same time learning new skills which, I hope, will lead many of them into careers in our cultural sector.”