La Nube STEAM Discovery Center, El Paso, Texas, USA, winner of the 2025 Children in Museums Award

Hand On! International Association of Children in Museums meeting 2025

On Wednesday 26 November 2025, in a ceremony during the Hands On! International Association of Children in Museums meeting in Liverpool, UK the results of the 2025 Children in Museums Award were announced. 17 museums took part in the competition from 16 countries, with five museums listed as finalists. This is the fourteenth year the Award has been presented.

The winner receives a cash prize of 7,500 Euros and will hold for one year a bronze statue of Miffy, the world-famous children’s character created by Dick 
 Bruna. The sculptor is Marc Bruna, Dick Bruna’s younger son.

Background of the Award


The Children’s Museum Award was established in 2011 by the European Museum Academy and Hands On! International Association of Children in Museums to enhance the recognition of excellence in the specific sector of international children’s museums. In 2014 the name of the Award was changed to the Children in Museums Award, to reflect the wider range of provision for children in today’s museums. Applications are welcomed from children’s museums and from education, children departments in museums and science centres, both long-established and recently opened.

Summary from the Judges‘ Report

The Winner

La Nube STEAM Discovery Center, El Paso, United States. For its innovative design, inclusive ethos, and powerful impact, La Nube represents not only a transformative force for El Paso but also a model of excellence for children’s museums worldwide. It stands out as a ground-breaking institution at the intersection of science learning, community engagement, and cross-border dialogue. From its striking Snǿhetta-designed building – shaped like a cloud symbolising imagination without limits – to its deeply inclusive programmes. It redefines what a children’s museum can be in a border region. Through initiatives such as Connected Sky, which links visitors in real time with peers at La Rodadora in Ciudad Juárez, the museum fosters cross-border collaboration and cultural understanding.

Special Commendation

Museum of Ethnography, Budapest, Hungary. The MoE has a strong strategic focus on children, young people and families, and a commensurate multilayered pedagogic approach. It is created to engage young minds both affectively and cognitively. The staff have a brilliant commitment to children and young people and strong local partnerships.The project: Let’s spend the night at the museum! is commended for its strong collection focus, active learning environment, and unique approach to introducing the world of museums and the subject specialism of ethnography in such a beguiling and considered way.

Finalists 


Children’s Museum, Singapore. This is a remarkable transformation from a philatelic museum into a children’s museum with a significant impact, which is a role model for the wider area. The educational and outreach programme is outstanding, as is the way the public is engaged through co-creation. The museum demonstrates an excellent awareness of museums as spaces to give children a voice, to be accessible to all and to help create a multicultural identify within a relatively new nation.

OliOli Children’s Museum, Dubai, United Arab Emirates. This is an outstanding example of how an independent, home-grown museum without government funding can shape global standards for play-based learning and experiential design, through vision, grit and entrepreneurial spirit. With its bold vision, originality and uncompromising commitment to quality OliOli serves as an inspiration for emerging institutions across the Middle East and beyond.

Showtown, Blackpool, United Kingdom. The innovative core concept of celebrating Blackpool’s identity as a city of entertainment and amusement, moving beyond a traditional historical narrative, offers an engaging visitor experience. The display strategy incorporates video projections, touchscreens, hands-on activities, dress-up stations and interactive scenarios. Provision of regular silent hours to accommodate visitors with sensory sensitivities or specific disabilities was commended.

You can download the full Judges’ Report (pdf) here

Previous Winners of the Award

2012 – Tropenmuseum Junior, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
2013 – Please Touch Museum, Philadelphia, USA
2014 – National Gallery of Denmark (SMK), Copenhagen, Denmark
2015 – Lifetime Achievement Awards:
– Boston Children’s Museum, USA 

– OOM Children’s Museum, Vienna, Austria

2016 – GeoFort, Herwijnen, The Netherlands

2017 – National Museum of Science and Technology, Stockholm, Sweden
2018 – The Keppel Centre for Art Education, National Gallery Singapore

2019 – Ker ImagiNation, Dakar, Senegal

2020/ 
2021 – The Dutch Open Air Museum, Arnhem, The Netherlands

2022 – Creaviva Children’s Museum, Bern, Switzerland

– Leeds Museums and Galleries, United Kingdom

2023 – Tokyo Toy Museum, Japan

2024 – The Museum of Solutions (MuSo), Mumbai, India