Our Director, Marilyn Scott, explains all about the I Love Museums campaign and why it is so important to support by spreading the word about why you love museums!

The Lightbox is currently supporting the I Love Museums campaign, which aims to raise awareness nationally about how important museums are to our lives. Museums and galleries are more popular than ever and over half of adults and two thirds of children in the UK visited a museum last year. We know from our work here in Woking how much positive impact interaction with a museum can have on people’s lives.

Museums play a vital role in the lives of individuals, families and communities across the UK, and make a key contribution to our society and economy. They support tourism and act as the hub for many local communities. More people in the UK visit a museum than attend a football match and increasingly museums are becoming a catalyst for community life and do so much more than show ‘old stuff’. But museums everywhere are facing challenging times, with local and national governments making tough decisions about funding. The I Love Museums campaign will show how much museums matter by celebrating the UK public’s support for our wonderful cultural institutions. We will continue to support this great awareness raising campaign so why not join us by talking about how much you value your local museum, come and visit us whenever you can and even if you just buy a card or a cup of coffee its helping us to stay here as your ‘local museum’.

Tell us what you love about museums on Twitter @TheLightbox with the hashtag #ILoveMuseums and show your support by signing up on ilovemuseums.com