Museums – Flow Associates

Royal Hospital Chelsea

Launched in January 2025 following the renovation of the historic Soane Stable Yard, the Royal Hospital Chelsea’s (RHC) Dementia Friendly Programme offers weekly activities for people living with dementia, their carers and the Pensioners who live within the Hospital. Funded by the City Bridge Foundation, this creative wellbeing initiative was designed to extend the Hospital’s core values of comradeship and active ageing to the wider community. Through activities such as art, singing, coffee mornings, and sensory walks, the programme engaged participants living with dementia and carers, creating a sanctuary of support and creativity.

Flow carried out an evaluation of the programme, working closely with the RHC team, their volunteers and the people who took part in the activities. We employed the Canterbury Christ Church University, Alzheimer’s Society and Tunbridge Well Museum and Art Gallery’s “Dementia Toolkit” to inform an accessible and inclusive approach to qualitative evaluation, using Visual Analogue Scales (VAS) and relaxed interviews to understand their experiences.

From the evaluation, we provided evidence of the programme’s wide-ranging impact, from internal capacities to better serve visitors, through to those affected by memory loss and their carers and their wellbeing. The evaluation set out recommendations for developing the programme and sustaining its work into the future.

V&A Adobe Creative Residency Programme

Flow Associates were asked to undertake audience research for the Adobe Creative Residency Programme to explore the reach and experience of underserved audiences across learning programmes at the V&A. Each year, three creatives work for 12 months, full-time, based in a studio space at the V&A South Kensington. Each Adobe Creative Resident is paired with a curatorial mentor who acts as a guide to the collection throughout their time. Residents also work with a designated audience (schools, families or young people) and collaborate with the learning team to expand access to creativity, design and making. The programme ends with a display of their work at V&A South Kensington.

Our overarching question for the first two years of this research project was, ‘What can we learn through the Adobe Creative Residency Programme about removing barriers to engagement and learning for diverse audiences at the V&A?’. Our Year One report set a baseline with KPIs and targets for ongoing evaluation by establishing who was attending these activities, their motivations, barriers, and levers for change. In Year Two, we explored how the conditions for deeper engagement are being created, and in Year 3 we are looking at the internal culture, sharing best of practice and processes will enable them to sustain the change they are bringing about.

Through analysis of the c.40,000 participants each year, observation and interviews, we have supported the V&A to understand how artist-led activity and collaboration with its internal teams can create the space for diverse audiences to engage with its programmes. We worked closely with the V&A’s Learning and Audience Research teams to refine their data collection from bookings and audiences, establish an evaluation framework, and carefully define stretch goals and KPIs for the programmes. Our evaluation work has enabled teams to create more efficient processes for understanding their audiences, demonstrate internally and externally their impact, and capture innovative working practices with artists and the wider public.

Ashmolean Museum: Branding review

The Ashmolean Museum, Britain’s first public museum with collections splanning from Egyptian mummies to modern art, sought to deepen its connection with a key growth audience of “Children-First Families.” This segment represents visitors whose primary motivation for a museum trip is to provide a rewarding and educational experience for their children, creating shared family memories. Our approach was framed by experience design – how can the Ashmolean better design the visit experience and its communications to shift preconceptions and the emotions of families so that they feel able to step through that imposing front door, and they leave smiling and wanting to return.

To effectively engage this audience, the museum partnered with us to conduct formative branding research. The goal was to understand how the museum’s existing brand identity and communications could be adapted to be more welcoming and appealing to these specific visitors, ultimately guiding future strategy for galleries, marketing, and family-focused offerings. Flow created a highly actionable guide to be used by their marketing, design, exhibitions and public programming teams to respond to the needs of this audience as they go on to build this offer.

Our research was designed to gain qualitative insights directly from families who fit their audience profile. The methodology involved a multi-pronged approach that included:

Consultation and Interviews: We conducted in-depth interviews with families, including both adults and children, to capture their perspectives on the museum. These interviews took place both online and in-person at the museum and out in the city centre.
Audience Profiling: We built upon the museum’s extensive existing audience research to create a comprehensive profile of Children-first Families, exploring their motivations, priorities, and potential barriers to visiting.
Visual & Messaging Testing: During the interviews, we presented participants with various visual and messaging concepts related to brand identity, including different fonts, colors, imagery, and key messages. This allowed us to observe their reactions and preferences in real time.

This blended approach allowed us to gather rich, actionable data that provided a holistic view of the audience’s needs and perceptions in order to deeply understand their experience.

The research yielded a number of key insights that will inform the museum’s future brand strategy. Through our strategic research, we provided the Ashmolean Museum with a clear, data-driven roadmap to tailor its brand for a new generation of visitors. We provided a working guide for the museum to leverage their aesthetic approach to better resonate with families and signal a dedicated, welcoming experience.

The result is a powerfully revitalized brand identity that not only preserves the museum’s gravitas but also confidently communicates its child-friendly approach. Our work has empowered the Ashmolean to develop communications and experiences that speak directly to the needs of Children-first Families, overcoming their hesitations and fostering a lasting connection that will pave the way for a lifetime of museum enjoyment.

University of Cambridge Museums Environmental and Sustainability Evaluation Framework

The University of Cambridge Museums (UCM) group commissioned Flow to develop a strategic initiative, the UCM Environment and Sustainability Evaluation Framework. This framework, launched in July 2025, represents a proactive commitment to systematically embedding and evaluating sustainable practices across all UCM activities, including collections management, facilties, exhibitions and public engagement. It signifies a fundamental shift in approach, moving beyond isolated “sustainability” projects to integrate environmental responsibility into the core operations and public engagement of the entire UCM collection group.

The framework is designed to empower UCM to effectively fulfill its environmental responsibilities, identify opportunities for positive impact, and make informed, evidence-based decisions towards achieving its sustainability goals within the broader context of the Earth Crisis. By providing a structured, cyclical approach to planning, evidence collection, reflection, and reporting, the framework ensures continuous improvement and accountability in UCM’s environmental stewardship. This comprehensive integration of sustainability across all functions, rather than limiting it to designated “green” projects, underscores a mature and deeply embedded organizational commitment, positioning UCM for more effective and enduring progress towards its environmental objectives.

Foundational Principles: The Dual Approach to Impact

At the core of the UCM framework is a dual approach to environmental responsibility, conceptualized as achieving a “Lighter Footprint” while cultivating a “Stronger Handprint”. The “Lighter Footprint” focuses on minimizing direct environmental harm from UCM’s operations. This involves tangible actions such as embedding sustainable materials and energy sources into new buildings, with progress often measured through numerical targets. Complementing this, the “Stronger Handprint” emphasizes the broader, positive influence UCM can exert by engaging, exciting, and inspiring people to take action. Cultural institutions like museums and gardens are uniquely positioned to foster learning and behavioral change, leveraging innovative thinking and outward communication to achieve wider societal good. Many initiatives will naturally encompass elements of both footprint reduction and handprint expansion. This strategic emphasis on the “Handprint” signifies a progression from merely mitigating negative impacts to actively generating positive societal and environmental change, recognizing the powerful role museums can play as agents of transformation in the face of global environmental challenges.

To guide its public-facing activities, the framework adopts five core UCM Environmental Outcomes for People. These outcomes are adapted from Flow Associates’ Generic Environmental Outcomes (Flow GEOs), which are themselves rooted in the widely utilized Generic Learning Outcomes (GLOs) framework prevalent in the museum sector. This adaptation ensures that the evaluation criteria are directly relevant to UCM’s unique public engagement activities, allowing for precise measurement of impact on attitudes, knowledge, and behaviors related to environmental responsibility. This localized tailoring enhances the framework’s practical utility and effectiveness in achieving UCM’s specific mission.

The five outcomes are:

Enjoyment, Connection and Curiosity: Fostering engagement and discovery through UCM spaces.
Environmental Attitudes and Values: Inspiring personal motivation and care for the Earth.
Knowledge in Environmental Topics: Increasing awareness and understanding of human, natural, political, and creative responses to environmental issues.
Green Skills for the Future: Developing practical life skills and foundational knowledge for environmental careers.
Activity and Progression for Environmental Change: Enabling active citizenship and community well-being through environmental action.

The framework also promotes an ongoing, cyclical approach to evaluation, integrating environmental responsibility into all aspects of UCM’s work. This iterative process involves continuous planning, evidence collection, reflection, and learning to strengthen future initiatives. This philosophical grounding in both measurable operational improvements and the broader, qualitative impact on human behavior and community engagement underscores the unique role of cultural institutions in fostering environmental stewardship.

Empowering Action: The Framework’s Core Tools

The UCM framework provides a comprehensive suite of five practical tools designed to support its cyclical evaluation process and embed environmental responsibility across all activities. A key strength in the design of these tools is their integration with existing UCM and University frameworks, such as the UCM Evaluation Framework, the University’s Planning for Impact tool, and the Local Environmental Sustainability Plan (LESP). This intentional avoidance of creating additional administrative burdens significantly enhances the likelihood of staff adoption and consistent application, addressing a common challenge in implementing new organizational policies. The UN’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) form a common language between faculties and iniatives within the university and and such, these were used to map the impacts of activity to enable staff to easily connect with wider institutional work. The inclusion of both quantitative and qualitative tools further indicates a robust mixed-methods approach to evaluation, capturing both measurable outcomes and deeper insights into behavioral changes and operational challenges.

Environmental Sustainability Checklists: Simple checklists for collections management, conservation, planning activities, exhibitions, events, or programs.
UCM’s Planning for Impact Tool: Building on the Univsersity of Cambridge’s PER tools with considersations of environmental responsibility.
Evaluating Environmental Outcomes for People: A menu of standardized questions categorized under the five UCM Environmental Outcomes for People.
Awareness and Action Audit: A quantitative survey assessing individuals’ awareness and activity in key environmental sustainability areas.
Reflection Prompts

Flow provided a rollout plan for embedding the framework, delivering workshops with staff to lead on piloting and advocacy. The framework is also designed for iterative refinement, recognising that environmental challenges are dynamic, building in mechanisms for continuous learning, refinement, and adaptation. This allows the framework to evolve with new insights, technologies, and changing environmental contexts, ensuring its long-term relevance and effectiveness.

Charging Schools: Why and How?

This research is a snapshot of the charging models at Museums and Galleries across the UK in 2024. As schools and the cultural sector face a challenging economic climate, the National Portrait Gallery asked Flow Associates to undertake research into current charging models for school visits across the museum and gallery sector to inform their own work. They have kindly agreed for us to share a summary of the research to support the sector as a whole in understanding the approaches taken by organisations to ensure both equitable access to cultural education, and the drivers for financial sustainability.

This will be a helpful document to enable my powers that be to understand why we need to be careful with price rises for educational bookings.” Museum educator in response to our Facebook post in ‘Learning in Museums and Galleries’

We wanted to understand the following:

What charging models exist in Museums and Galleries for Primary school, Secondary school, College and Special school visits?
How much do they charge? Are concessions made/bursaries given to e.g. for schools with high pupil premium?
How much do other, comparable Museums and Galleries charge and what are they charging for?
By charging schools can you cover ‘real’ costs?
Is charging likely to be a barrier for schools in general and/or for particular types of school?
How might charging for schools impact negatively on Museums and Galleries?

Download PDF “Charging Schools: Why and How?”

As this paper emerged from research for its commissioner, the National Portrait Gallery, our comparitive review looked at the learning programs offered by 22 Museums and Galleries and selected organisations that were either National Museums as designated by parliament, or based in London and therefore catering to a similar demographic. Our focus here was on museums and galleries which are free to the public, and the majority have charges for special events and exhibitions. We included two relevant london galleries who charge general public for entry, the Photographers gallery and the Dulwich Picture Gallery. Both offer free entry for schools. In addition we ran a quick review of a further 19 organisations to establish whether or not they charge schools for their programmes.

An open online survey to members of the Group for Education in Museums network, saw contributions from a further 61 organisations and we have included their anonymised responses in this paper.

Natural History Museum

A major research and consultation project working with curatorial and Learning teams to develop a new Children’s Gallery, a global international education initiative, onsite programming and online activities. We worked alongside the teams onsite on remotely to establish the guiding principles for the project, develop key interpretive themes and programming which engages young people with caring for and understanding their immediate natural environments and ecosystems as well as those globally.

The research explored how to:

Optimise the experience of the new Children’s Gallery, through activities on themes of Wild Voices, connecting with animals’ lives in different habitats.
Lift barriers of access to schools, families and groups with intersecting factors of disadvantage or SENDs, by consulting them, travelling to settings with activities, and easing their experience of the NHM as a whole.
Inspire and acknowledge young children as imaginative friends of the natural world, and provide templates for partners in the GEI, through online resources for digital and real-world play and nature connection.
Develop skills of adults (including NHM staff and volunteers) to reconnect with nature and support children through a ’School of Nature Play’.
To do action research as the activities are developed, to serve the global initiatve with insights.

Project Type: Museums