Visitor Charter - Sheffield Museums Trust

Our Visitor Charter outlines what you can expect from us, and how you can help us create museums that are welcoming, inspiring and enriching for everyone.

Sheffield Museums is the independent charity that operates Millennium Gallery, Weston Park Museum, Graves Gallery, Kelham Island Museum, Abbeydale Industrial Hamlet and Shepherd Wheel.

We care for the collections belonging to the city of Sheffield and tell the remarkable stories of the city and its people. We are free and here for everyone.

Our vision is creating welcoming and inspiring experiences for everyone.
Our purpose is enriching life in Sheffield.
Our mission is to work collaboratively in Sheffield to create enriching museum experiences through stories of art, human history and natural science.

Our Visitor Charter outlines what you can expect from us, and how you can help us create museums that are welcoming, inspiring and enriching for all.

We strive to provide the best possible experience for visitors. Whether you’re a museum regular or it’s your very first visit, we want you to get the most from your time with us.

We can only provide the best possible experience for all our visitors with your help.

What you can expect:

Welcoming, safe museums with exhibitions, events and activities that are available to everyone.
An environment that supports enjoyment and learning, recognising that people have different needs and connect and engage with their museums in different ways.
Services and facilities that are inclusive and accessible.
That everyone is valued and treated as individuals.
The value of people’s own lived experience is recognised
Visitors are listened to, so together we can continuously improve the museums and everyone’s experience in them.
That discrimination or harassment towards visitors or staff will not be tolerated – in the event of any unlawful activity on the premises, the Police will be called.

We thank you for:

Respecting our staff, other visitors, buildings and collections.
Working with us to provide a safe, clean environment.
Not undertaking any actions that put you, other visitors or our staff at risk.
Working with us to protect the city’s collections by:
- Not smoking, vaping or consuming alcohol on the premises.
- Following restrictions on the consumption of food and drink in gallery spaces – please talk to us if this could be a barrier to your visit.
- Only bringing registered assistance dogs to the museums. Due to the delicate nature of some of the displays, we’re only able to welcome trained assistance dogs – you can find more information about the definition of assistance dogs at: Please talk to us if this could be a barrier to your visit.
- Adhering to our photography policy – we welcome handheld, non-flash photography for non-commercial use whenever we can and ask visitors to respect artists’ copyright. Sometimes photography is restricted at the request of our lenders, but we’ll make that clear when that’s the case.
- Not bringing bicycles inside our buildings – to help keep the collections and other visitors safe, bikes are not permitted in the museums

Working together to improve

We continue to work to create museums that are inclusive and welcoming to all and truly representative of our city and communities. We know that we cannot achieve this alone. We welcome and value contributions from all whose lived experience can help us improve our offer and break down barriers to accessing our sites and collections, enjoyment and learning.

To help us do this, we may approach you to ask if there was anything we could have done to make your experience better.

If you wish to let us know how we can improve, or if there is anything you want to tell us we did well or brought extra value to your visit, please get in touch

Sheffield Museums Visitor Charter