THE OTHER POINT OF VIEWWhat good are prizes in the arts and heritage? Dea Birkett, director of Kids in Museums, believes the best should make a difference
What difference does an award make? The arts have quite a few awards, some of which look in towards the industry, others look out towards audiences.

The museum sector is comparatively short on prizes with the Art Fund Prize (formerly the Gulbenkian) still regarded as the biggest fish in a very small pond. I think awards are great and, if worked properly, can be engines of social change. I must declare an interest. We’ve just launched the Family Friendly Museum Award, supported by the Guardian.

We had a long hard think before we set up the Award. There was one thing we had to get straight from the start – what the Award was for. Was it a simple celebration of good family-friendly practice? If so, who would be celebrating? The winner? The users? The general public? Was it to generate publicity? If so, for and to whom? For us? The winning museum? Our sponsors? Museums in general?

In particular, we wanted to work out how museums might be different, ie better, because of the award. And I don’t just mean the winning or shortlisted museums. All of them. Well, perhaps quite a lot of them may be a more realisable ambition. We wanted our award to make a difference.

I don’t think all award bodies ask these kind if questions and share this aim. Sometimes I wonder if they’ve asked any questions beyond “What will the process of finding a winner be?” and then, later, “Who’s won then?” But if an award is to have any significance for the arts, it must surely influence and drive change. It can’t just be about congratulating someone who is doing it very well already, thank You.

I believe the Family Friendly Museum Award has made a difference. Even the nomination process is an achievement for change. Anyone can nominate any museum – including museums nominating themselves. Taking the Kids in Museums Manifesto as a starting point, many museums use making a nomination as an opportunity for an audit against the Manifesto’s 20 points. So for the hundreds of these kinds of entries, whether they come anywhere near winning or not, a very useful process has already taken place.

Then there’s the judging process. The winner of the award is chosen by families, visiting museums anonymously. We make a huge effort to try and recruit families who have never visited a museum before. Last year, we had some success in this area. So again, before a winner is announced we already have made a difference to a few families, who hopefully will then act as ambassadors to other reluctant visitors.

Of course, I hope there are other benefits, most importantly encouraging museums to put the visitor at the heart of their work. Museums, galleries and historic homes want to win the award – it brings them huge publicity, apart from anything else. So it’s a carrot to encourage them along the road to family friendliness. We can’t be all stick.

And the award doesn’t finish when the winner is announced. That’s the start, not the end, of the process. Winning should, with any well thought out award, be the first step. Ian Forbes, Director of Killhope North of England Lead Mining Museum, the winner of the first Guardian Family Friendly Museum Award, says, “Immediately it felt like validation of our approach to our public. Later it felt like a challenge. Not just that we had something to live up to, but more that we should use the award as a spur to achieve more”.

How can we continue to improve? How can we continue to ensure that what we offer is fresh and relevant to the next generation of museum visitors?’

Kids in Museums was concerned that we weren’t taking full benefit of this follow-up effect. So now, in the fourth year of the award, we’ve established a Winner’s Forum, hoping to keep the momentum of change going, as well spreading the good news. I don’t think the Family Friendly Museum Award is perfect (well, perhaps almost perfect). We change the process every year, searching for the best way to make the biggest impact. But I do believe awards are a simple, effective way of driving change - but only if those giving them have thought through what change they want to achieve, and how an award is going to help them reach that goal.

To make a nomination for the Family Friendly Museum Award, just go to www.kidinsmuseums.org.uk