In true festive spirit, Young V&A held its inaugural Winter Market on the last weekend of November. The Town Square was taken over for two days, featuring stalls from emerging and established UK-based independent artists, designers, makers and producers, specialising in design-led child focused products, locally produced, ethical and made using environmentally friendly materials.
The market was a pilot event to test the feasibility of future seasonal markets and proved effective in boosting footfall and secondary spend, and most importantly, adding another layer of fun, welcoming activity and welcome to the Town Square. A huge thank you to Lucy Webster and Amy Akino-Wittering for their work in making this happen.
Eureka! Hands on International Conference 2025
Also in late November, I was delighted to give the opening keynote to over 200 delegate from 32 countries worldwide, at the Eureka! Hands On International Conference in Liverpool. Hands On is one of the three major international membership organisations that focus on Children’s Museums. The theme of the conference was “Making a Difference: Raising Aspiration, Exceeding Expectations’. My keynote focused on how our work at YV&A encapsulates key themes in progressive museum practice, in particular, towards co-creation.
Collective Spark at Young V&A
And we’ve today officially opened our 2025 festive installation, Collective Spark by Designer Noa Haim. Noa teamed up with hundreds of children and young people to design and build Collective Spark – a shiny, festive scene that celebrates the joy of coming together during the Christmas holidays. Made from hundreds of identical cardboard tetrahedrons and octahedrons which slot together like puzzle pieces, there’s no glue or tape needed to hold them together – and they are surprisingly robust – always an essential quality given our ebullient demographic!
The collaboration with our young audience began earlier in the year, when children and families joined us to design the pattern for the structure in playful mark making workshops. Then, on the first weekend in December, visitors to Young V&A were invited to a two day, free, joyful, mass building session in the Town Square. It was fantastic to see – some stayed for hours, learning from Noa how to make larger and more ambitious structures. Others joined for a short while, contributing a block to the pile before proudly taking home the cardboard stars they had transformed into Christmas decorations.
Collective Spark will beat Young V&A until the first week of January 2026.
2026 Council of Europe Museum Prize
And to round off 2025 on an incredible high, Young V&A has been awarded the 2026 Council of Europe Museum Prize! The Prize is part of the EMYA scheme (European Museum of the Year Award) and is given by PACE, the Committee on Culture, Science, Education, and Media of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, to a museum that has made significant contributions to the understanding of European cultural heritage, promotes human rights and democracy, and encourages visitors to learn and explore ideas around today’s societal issues and democratic citizenship.
Luz Martínez Seijo, Committee Representative for the Museum Prize, said:
“Young V&A is a clearly outstanding museum in terms of its mission to engage visitors with the themes of human rights, equality, participation and cultural democracy. It conveys a strong message of empowerment of young generations, particularly those from deprived areas who may have limited contact with mainstream and institutional cultural offerings, with experiences that can help them embrace the future with confidence and participate fully in democratic societies.”
The Prize will be awarded at a special ceremony in Strasbourg in April 2026.
We are hugely honoured and delighted to receive this prestigious award, in recognition of Young V&A’s commitment to the creative lives and agency of children and young people today, in which advocacy for young voice is more important than ever. This award signifies and strengthens the vital role of Young V&A as a place where all young visitors and their families are warmly welcomed, inspired and empowered to become active citizens who are creatively confident. Huge and hearty thanks to all colleagues, both at YV&A and more widely across the museum, whose work is instrumental in this wonderful achievement and acknowledgement.
