18 February 2025
We are thrilled that the Irish Museum’s Association [IMA] has selected The Museum of Childhood Ireland, Músaem Óige na hÉireann, as the first recipient of their new annual Membership Award, which supports museum organisations in the volunteer and community-led sector.
Commenting on the award, Gina O’Kelly, Director of the Irish Museums Association (IMA), said: “We are delighted to announce the Museum of Childhood Ireland as recipient of the Irish Museums Association’s inaugural Institutional Membership Award for 2025. This award recognises and supports museums across Ireland that operate primarily as community and volunteer-led organisations, celebrating their significant contributions to the museum sector while enhancing their access to our wider networks, resources and support. We commend the Museum of Childhood’s team for their dedication to preserving and sharing the rich heritage and diversity of childhood experiences and wish the museum continued success in its future development.”
IMA’s vision is to inspire and nurture a strong and vibrant museum community across the island of Ireland. Its mission meanwhile is to represent and champion the museum sector so that everyone, visitors and practitioners, can enjoy the maximum cultural, social and educational benefits. IMA is also focused on developing excellence in museum practice, gathering and exchange of knowledge, identifying issues of concern to the museum community and advocating their valuable contribution to society.
MoCI looks forward to collaborating with IMA and its members in the year ahead. Like IMA, we believe in the power of partnerships and alliances across the museum sector and the strength of speaking as a united voice to promote and develop the field as a whole. Membership of IMA is of vital importance to the Museum of Childhood Ireland in connecting our small, very hardworking, all-volunteer museum with the museum sector island wide. To date, IMA has been instrumental in providing support and guidance to us in our progress.
The Museum of Childhood Ireland, an historic to contemporary, Island-wide and diaspora museum of children and childhood, offers a nationally significant museum to add to Ireland’s cultural heritage and provides a safe, dynamic, inclusive environment for children and adults across all communities. Within the wider cultural landscape, our museum of children and childhood promotes intergenerational opportunities, and explores and celebrates childhood in all its diversity, throughout the ages. Many of the benefits of the museum resonate with the aims of social and educational policies within the Irish domain which seek to hear children’s voices, reduce social barriers, and promote health (Hayes, 2002).
The Museum of Childhood is a multi-award-winning museum, exploring the contemporary life, history, culture and rights of children and childhood island wide and amongst the diaspora. It has existed online and in pop-up format since 2018. Its objective is the collection, curation, exhibition research and exploration of artefacts and stories as they relate to children and childhood on the island of Ireland from the earliest times to the present day; and to do so in interesting, engaging, creative ways, through puppetry, art, craft, dance, music, storytelling, writing, play, handling collections and technology. This allows for exploration and discovery of the collections and themes at age-appropriate levels, or at the level desired by the individual.
The Museum’s immediate mission is to progress to a permanent, accessible home. Membership of IMA now provides our Museum with an incredible opportunity allowing us to enjoy all the benefits of institutional membership and we are very grateful to IMA for this award. We look forward to accessing and benefiting from IMA’s 2025 programme of membership benefits, full details of which can be found here: Institutional Membership Benefits – Ima.
To read more about IMA’s Membership Award, click here: New membership – Ima
Seen and Heard.
Museum of Childhood Ireland, Músaem Óige na hÉireann.
Cherishing all the children equally.
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The Museum of Childhood Ireland, Músaem Óige na hÉireann
Charity number: 20205452 Website: www.museumofchildhood.ie