At Museum of the Home we reveal stories of home life, past, present and future to spark empathy, debate and understanding. Our work is driven by an understanding that home is universally relevant but deeply personal, and that everyone should be able to relate to content in the Museum. Our vision is to inspire everyone to explore the meaning of home through our exhibitions, displays, programming and online content. No other museum in the country specialises in this particular aspect of our national heritage.
Co-curation and partnership lie at the heart of our work in the Museum. Working in this way has ensured the content in our galleries and programming gives a voice to those who are typically under-represented or marginalised in museum settings and is allowing the Museum to represent more diverse experiences of home across time and place. The Museum’s local community sits at the heart of our new Real Rooms project. This project will overhaul one of our galleries with new room sets and interpretation co-curated with our local community.
Through our pioneering Campaign for Change, we are aiming to become a leader in the sector as a campaigning museum for social justice causes that align with our core values. We are building belonging and tackle social isolation through regular free events for our local community
and working collaboratively with our partners Hackney Foodbank to deliver their service from the Museum.
Before our 2021 redevelopment, our visitor numbers were 120,000, in 2023/24 we exceeded our target of 160,000 visitors, with an upward trajectory that puts us on track to achieve 230,000 visitors by 2028. Key areas of visitor growth include East and Southeast Asian audiences, families and young people aged 21 to 30. This broadly reflects areas of content delivery over the last 5 years.

John Shakeshaft Chair (Interim)

Sonia Solicari Director

Why the Museum of the Home is supporting Boardroom Apprentice

We want to ensure that the Museum is a great place to work for all staff and are concerned that we do not yet have the support networks in place throughout the Museum to ensure good retention and CPD. There is considerable work still to do in challenging systemic issues within the Museum and the bias within historic collecting and display practices.
We are a small-medium sized Museum that is part of the DCMS portfolio and the National Museum Directors Council. As such we are in a unique position of being small enough to be agile in our undertaking of systemic change but with national reach.

Location of Board and Committee Meetings

Museum of the Home 136 Kingsland Road London E8 3EA, in person preferred, hybrid is an option

Frequency and timing of board/committee meetings

Board meetings – 4 – 5 meetings per annum, start 4pm – 6pm finish
Sub committee meetings – 2 – 4 meetings per annum per committee, start 3pm -4.30pm finish in person, online or hybrid

Date of Board Meetings (January – December 2025)

5 March 2025 confirmed, 18 June, 17 September & 12 November 2025 tbc

Committee of the Boards and meeting dates (January - December 2025)

Audit, Risk & Compliance Committee – 18 February confirmed, 21 May, 15 July & 28 October 2025 tbc
Governance & Remuneration Committee – 26 March confirmed, 14 October 2025 tbc
Commercial Development Committee – 11 February confirmed, 13 May, 23 September tbc
Heritage & Communities Committee – 23 January confirmed, 8 May, 4 November tbc

Security checks

No

Payment of travel expenses

Yes