We are proud to share that our Toddle and SEND Sensory Tours are now award winning! MK Gallery’s Sensory Tour programme, led by Associate Artist Julia Collar, won the Best Family Arts Activity Award at the Fantastic for Families Awards, 2022. This is the second year running that the IPA programme has collected the award in this category, winning in 2021 for their Sensory Box programme.
Fantastic for Families Awards
Best Family Arts Activity Award 2021, Sensory Boxes
During the COVID-19 lockdown and unfortunate closure of in-person sessions, the IPA team began devising a programme of ‘Sensory Boxes’ to be sent to family homes. Boxes were created bespoke to each family by IPA artists, who carefully devised activities to suit a family’s creative interests and access requirements. The boxes contained open ended sensory-based materials which aimed to ignite play for each family, allowing us to continue creatively supporting them while our doors were closed.
Sensory Boxes continue to be a core outreach offer within the IPA programme and enable the team to facilitate connections with greater numbers of families across Milton Keynes.
You can learn more about the award and read our case study here.
Best Family Arts Activity Award 2022, Sensory Tours
MK Gallery’s Toddle and SEND exhibition tours offer unique opportunities for children and young people with additional and complex needs to engage with our exhibitions through sensory exploration. Led by Associate Artist Julia Collar, who also won independently at the awards for work in her local community, participants are enabled to investigate artworks as they are brought to life through music, storytelling, object handling, dress-up, and play.
Sensory Exhibition Tours were designed in response to a lack of families being able to engage fully with our exhibitions due support needs and inaccessible content. Parent, sibling, and personal assistant involvement has been strongly embedded throughout to create a magical, full family experience.
Click here to explore our profile on the Fantastic for Families website.
Check out our What’s On page to find out about our upcoming Sensory Tours!