Welcome to Museum Mum, a London based culture and family travel blog written by Vyki Sparkes. Founded in 2014 to encourage families to visit museum and heritage attractions, Museum Mum has become a leading cultural blog. In 2019 it was chosen as the Arts & Culture Winner in the UK Blog Awards. Museum Mum combines Vyki’s expertise in parenting and museum curation to create intelligent content which remains relatable and useful to everyday families.
Media coverage
Featured in inews.co.uk and The E-List
My story
Born and raised in Cardiff, Wales, on my first visit to London I feel I fell deeply in love – with the city. Unlike most teen romances, this love affair continues over 20 years later. My passion for history drove me to quit a career in marketing, and during my time at University College London I gained a degree in History and a daughter (now Museum Teen). Since then I’ve had two more children, referred to here as Museum Boy and Museum Girl, and earned a Masters in Museum Studies. I feel very fortunate to bring children up in London, and aim to make the most of all the world-class culture this city offers.
I’ve worked in museums for almost as long as I’ve been a parent, with stints at TATE, Science Museum, Natural History Museum and The Postal Museum, where I was lead curator on the new galleries. I’m now in my dream job as curator at the Museum of London, where I get to tell fantastic stories about the city with our amazing collections.
In my spare time I love to explore, with and without the kids, in London and further afield. This blog is a way of me sharing these experiences – expect insightful reviews and trip reports, all road-tested by an experienced mum and museum professional.
Collaborations
If you are interested in working together, head on over to my contact page and get in touch! Previous work includes reviewing hosted visits, creating destination travel guides for families, mystery judging attractions, and speaking on family friendly welcomes to museums. I promise high calibre writing and imagery, thoughtful analysis and access to an engaged and growing audience.
Vyki is an absolute delight to work with. Right from our first contact with her when discussing a visit for Museum Mum Vyki has been professional, friendly and responsive. During her family visit to 1066 Country she worked tirelessly to document their weekend activities on Museum Mum’s social media platforms. She produced engaging content which inspired an enthusiastic response from her followers and immediate bookings. These, together with the two blogs she wrote [here and here], will undoubtedly help drive visitors to our area. We can recommend Vyki without hesitation and look forward to working with her again on future projects. 1066 Country Marketing Team
THANK YOU so much for all your support, we all loved your blog post and it has been heralded as our favourite blogger review that we’ve ever had! It was fantastic to work with a blogger that absolutely ‘gets’ what we are all about and we are so pleased that you took the time to visit us twice and even came on the art and heritage tour to help give you background knowledge for your blog posts and social media content. We feel that you absolutely went the extra mile and the results are fantastic – well written, visually appealing content that will inspire your readers to come along and visit us and make the most of their visit while they are here – just what we needed! Jodie, Marketing Manager, Carters Steam Fair
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Good luck with the quest. Sounds great.
Author
Thanks! I was kind of hoping nobody would remember the challenge! I’m very far behind… Luckily the baby provides a ready made excuse 😉
Hi! I’m Mary and I think your site is very useful.. I was looking for information about kids friendly meauseums and I came to your blog. I would love to introduce you mine.. It’s about traveling with kids with a focus on playground! have a look and please write me, I have a few questions I would love to ask you about london.
Dear Museum Mum,
I’m a Brazilian architect professor and I research about museums. Now I have a project about museums and babies and I’m researching accessibility and infrastructure for families with babies in museums. As the matter of fact, I have a similar blog about Belo Horizonte museums, my city in Brazil. I would like to find a good international example of great baby changing room and museum infrastructure for babies. Maybe you can help me… If it’s possible, please, write me an e-mail. Congratulations for you blog, I just love it!
Best regards,
Ana CecÃlia
About me: http://acrochaveiga.com.br/curriculum/
My similar blog: (Cultural Life after Children) https://vidaculturalapososfilhos.com.br/
Hi Vyki,
So pleased I’ve found your fantastic blog! I’ll email to introduce myself, but wanted to say hi here.
Kind regards,
Daisy
Author
Thanks so much Daisy for taking the time to leave such a lovely message! Look forward to hearing from you by email.