The Roald Dahl Museum and Story Centre is only ten years old, but we knew from the start that our audience would largely be drawn from the fan-base of one of the world’s favourite storytellers. We also knew that most visitors would come to the museum in a family group.
Our museum site is in a small but charming set of buildings on the High Street of Great Missenden in Buckinghamshire. We have three galleries. Boy and Solo – two of the museum’s three galleries - tell the story of the writer’s early life and illustrate how his personal experiences influence his work.
Dahl’s world-renowned writing hut is exactly how he left it and was painstakingly moved to the museum in 2012. This is the centrepiece of the Solo gallery. The majority of our displays are inspired by the Dahl Archive, which is held at the museum and is one of the most complete literary archives in the UK, full of fascinating insight into the working craft of a great creator.
Although the collection is at the heart of what we do, and we do regularly refresh our displayed content, it would not be appropriate to market it as an exhibition programme.
Instead, the pulse of the place comes from hands-on activities designed to unlock everyone’s inner storyteller. Visitors can take part in activities in the galleries – especially the interactive Story Centre – but also during our rolling family programme at weekends and holidays.
Spikes in visitor numbers follow a seasonal pattern with the busiest weeks in February and October half-terms, followed by Easter, May half-term and the summer holidays.
In 2014 we stepped up our efforts to encourage visits outside these busy times by promoting term-time events, including Wondrous Weekends, during which visitors can enjoy renditions of Revolting Rhymes and Dirty Beasts, interactive displays, crafts and trails.
We started theming our family activities in 2014 as part of the 50th anniversary of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. Linking the two resulted in better planning and provided a good marketing hook. For Roald Dahl 100 , a year-long celebration of the centenary of the author’s birth – we are featuring several books as part of our themed activities.
We develop our themes according to obvious moments in the calendar. For example, Oxford University Press published a fantastic new Roald Dahl Dictionary in May, so we based our hal- term events and trails on wordplay and Dahl’s most literate heroine - Matilda Wormwood.
To coincide with the release of Stephen Spielberg’s film The BFG, July and August will be dubbed the Big Friendly Summer, when we will offer a series of activities linked to the book and the film. In the run up to Halloween, October half-term activities will be inspired by the book The Witches.
The family programme is essential to add value to the visitor experience. There are several free elements. The museum’s permanent craft room is popular with young children who might not yet be reading Roald Dahl. There are also performed readings from the best of Roald Dahl’s wicked rhymes every hour at weekends and holidays.
On our busiest days, we gather groups of visitors for talks about Roald Dahl’s life and work and every visitor gets the chance to follow a themed trail, which reveals more treasures from the archive.
The museum’s paid-for workshops are developed from the current theme, and include readings from the books to ensure a clear connection to Roald Dahl. Our forthcoming partnership with the village library will allow the museum to run a greater range of activities during the Big Friendly Summer.
We run a mixture of make-and-take and participatory performance workshops, often featuring guest authors, including the brilliant Michael de Souza, who created Rastamouse.
We also widen access to the collection with monthly archive tours led by our collections team – these are aimed more at adult visitors but are also a thrill for younger Dahl fans. This is because they get to see items such as the author’s own sandal, which inspired the footwear of the BFG.
Make-and-take craft activities are offered by many museums, but we, like others, have learned through trial and error what works and satisfies our audience. We focus on creating a clear link to our collection and make sure the activities are high quality and engaging, but also practical to prepare and deliver.
Our audiences have grown since 2012 but we are still learning. Popularity brings its own challenges and we have got smarter about running lots of performance workshops during our busiest weeks to meet demand. We can do more to make sure our activities are collaborative, and reduce the times when parents are just watching their kids.
We are currently reaffirming our statement of purpose and strategic aims for the whole organisation. Anecdotal evidence and booking numbers tell us which parts of the family programme are popular, but we need to improve our evaluation methods to check that we are fulfilling our purpose and meeting strategic aims.
Here at the Roald Dahl Museum our family programme is more than part of our public offer – it is what happens as soon as we open the front door.
Steve Gardam is the director of the Roald Dahl Museum and Story Centre
Our museum site is in a small but charming set of buildings on the High Street of Great Missenden in Buckinghamshire. We have three galleries. Boy and Solo – two of the museum’s three galleries - tell the story of the writer’s early life and illustrate how his personal experiences influence his work.
Dahl’s world-renowned writing hut is exactly how he left it and was painstakingly moved to the museum in 2012. This is the centrepiece of the Solo gallery. The majority of our displays are inspired by the Dahl Archive, which is held at the museum and is one of the most complete literary archives in the UK, full of fascinating insight into the working craft of a great creator.
Although the collection is at the heart of what we do, and we do regularly refresh our displayed content, it would not be appropriate to market it as an exhibition programme.
Instead, the pulse of the place comes from hands-on activities designed to unlock everyone’s inner storyteller. Visitors can take part in activities in the galleries – especially the interactive Story Centre – but also during our rolling family programme at weekends and holidays.
Spikes in visitor numbers follow a seasonal pattern with the busiest weeks in February and October half-terms, followed by Easter, May half-term and the summer holidays.
In 2014 we stepped up our efforts to encourage visits outside these busy times by promoting term-time events, including Wondrous Weekends, during which visitors can enjoy renditions of Revolting Rhymes and Dirty Beasts, interactive displays, crafts and trails.
We started theming our family activities in 2014 as part of the 50th anniversary of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. Linking the two resulted in better planning and provided a good marketing hook. For Roald Dahl 100 , a year-long celebration of the centenary of the author’s birth – we are featuring several books as part of our themed activities.
We develop our themes according to obvious moments in the calendar. For example, Oxford University Press published a fantastic new Roald Dahl Dictionary in May, so we based our hal- term events and trails on wordplay and Dahl’s most literate heroine - Matilda Wormwood.
To coincide with the release of Stephen Spielberg’s film The BFG, July and August will be dubbed the Big Friendly Summer, when we will offer a series of activities linked to the book and the film. In the run up to Halloween, October half-term activities will be inspired by the book The Witches.
The family programme is essential to add value to the visitor experience. There are several free elements. The museum’s permanent craft room is popular with young children who might not yet be reading Roald Dahl. There are also performed readings from the best of Roald Dahl’s wicked rhymes every hour at weekends and holidays.
On our busiest days, we gather groups of visitors for talks about Roald Dahl’s life and work and every visitor gets the chance to follow a themed trail, which reveals more treasures from the archive.
The museum’s paid-for workshops are developed from the current theme, and include readings from the books to ensure a clear connection to Roald Dahl. Our forthcoming partnership with the village library will allow the museum to run a greater range of activities during the Big Friendly Summer.
We run a mixture of make-and-take and participatory performance workshops, often featuring guest authors, including the brilliant Michael de Souza, who created Rastamouse.
We also widen access to the collection with monthly archive tours led by our collections team – these are aimed more at adult visitors but are also a thrill for younger Dahl fans. This is because they get to see items such as the author’s own sandal, which inspired the footwear of the BFG.
Make-and-take craft activities are offered by many museums, but we, like others, have learned through trial and error what works and satisfies our audience. We focus on creating a clear link to our collection and make sure the activities are high quality and engaging, but also practical to prepare and deliver.
Our audiences have grown since 2012 but we are still learning. Popularity brings its own challenges and we have got smarter about running lots of performance workshops during our busiest weeks to meet demand. We can do more to make sure our activities are collaborative, and reduce the times when parents are just watching their kids.
We are currently reaffirming our statement of purpose and strategic aims for the whole organisation. Anecdotal evidence and booking numbers tell us which parts of the family programme are popular, but we need to improve our evaluation methods to check that we are fulfilling our purpose and meeting strategic aims.
Here at the Roald Dahl Museum our family programme is more than part of our public offer – it is what happens as soon as we open the front door.
Steve Gardam is the director of the Roald Dahl Museum and Story Centre