We The Curious reopens as a more inclusive and accessible venue

• Adaptions made to the foyer, lunch space, retail shop and exit points enable a greater capacity and flexibility for all of our visitors

• New Quiet and Multi-faith rooms provide visitors a dedicated space to support their diverse needs

• New inclusive ticket offers has been introduced to better support schools, community groups, refugees and asylum seekers

• General membership prices and concession tickets now offer a variety of options to suit diverse families and household income

After a fire on our venue roof in April 2022, our teams moved out into our communities delivering over 300 free activities to 40,786 children, adults and young people in schools and communities. This enabled us to better understand the growing inequalities faced by many Bristol communities and how we could better respond to what they need, overcoming barriers to accessing our venue and learning opportunities.  

During our closure, we set out to make fundamental improvements to our building which aimed to address:  

• The limited capacity of our building which was making it unviable to introduce inclusive ticketing offers and concessions which would address the financial barriers many are experiencing.
• A lack of dedicated facilities which support a wider range of people, including a sensory room, a multi-faith space and a larger lunch area for schools and community groups to use.
• The perception that ‘STEM is not for everyone’ which was being exacerbated by the lack of accessible educational resources to make everyone feel valued and welcome.  

Capacity improvements delivered 

Through the adaptions made to our venue we now anticipate that up to an additional 35,000 students (82% increase) will visit within three years and communities will be able to run regular sessions in our spaces providing a vital starting point for engagement in multiple inclusive programs.  

Thanks to the generous funding from our supporters, we have achieved this incredible increase by:  

• Connecting our foyer and picnic area with flexible picnic bench seating to support more schools and community groups to visit;
• Reconfigured our exit points and retail shop to expand the area of our building open to the public;
• Installed free lockers and school bag storage to accommodate an increase in visitor numbers;
• Created a new reception area (including a lowered desk for better wheelchair access and improved acoustics for people with audio impairment), wheelchair and buggy park areas as well as improved wayfinding signage with larger text across the venue. 

Thanks to this increased capacity, we are now able to introduce inclusive ticketing offers: 

50% off school entry for Bristol schools with over 22% Free School Meals. 28 Bristol schools took advantage of this offer between the first six months of reopening. We also saw a total of 589 'Holiday Activity Funded' ticket admissions during the 2024 summer holiday. 

A free community group membership programme, tailored for charities, not-for-profit services and groups who face barriers to accessing We the Curious and STEM learning. We currently have over 100 community memberships with a forecast of 5,500 free visits per year.

Free tickets to the venue for refugees and asylum seekers at any time, to support those who are often marginalized in our communities and may have limited access to educational and cultural experiences. 

We evaluated and adapted our general membership prices, as well as our concession tickets, to now offer a variety of options to suit diverse families and household income. For more information, please visit our Membership page.

Dedicated Facilities to support a wider range of people

Sensory "Quiet" room  

Our quiet room has been purpose built to provide visitors with a place to come away from the noise and visuals of the main venue. It has been built specifically with those in mind who are neurodivergent or have special education needs or disabilities, however, it is available to everyone during opening hours.  

Working with our partner organisations, West of England Centre for Inclusive Living (WECIL), we built this room with sensory tools, soft furnishings, neutral décor, a blackout blind and an adjustable 'star ceiling', to offer a calming, quiet environment. 

Multi-faith room

The room includes new carpets and soft furnishings, an ablution unit plumbed in with a water jug and towels for washing, a sign on the ceiling showing the direction of Mecca; books donated by a local Islamic bookstore, reading books about various faiths, and a Quran donated by the local Rabbi from Park Row Synagogue in Bristol, providing a safe, calm space for people of all faiths to prayer and reflect. 

Inclusive learning rooms and resources

We updated and improved the critical equipment, resources and facilities in our learning rooms to provide our teams better flexibility and confidence to deliver interactive STEM experiences, which also supports children who are neurodivergent or have special educational needs or disabilities: 

Adjustable height desks, 65" presenter screens, hearing loops, wireless microphones, interactive digital screens and iPads, accessibility tools, dyslexia-friendly, large print resources in multiple formats and languages including 3D printed braille resources, and technical upgrades to support new equipment. 

For more information on our education workshops and learning opportunities, please visit the Education page.

Conclusion

From the delivery of this project, We The Curious has reopened stronger and more resilient than ever. We have received an incredible response from the public, welcoming 240,000 visitors in our first year of reopening!

Our improved inclusion will influence the development of exhibits, programming, tailored sessions and educational programs as we continue to build community partnerships and implement our longer-term strategic plans. 

Now, as we enter our 25th Anniversary year in 2025, we are developing and launching a series of projects which will range from free school visits for schools in Bristol's most underserved areas, ground-breaking community-led research partnerships, inclusive career pathways for disadvantaged communities, continual development of our organisational inclusion practices, carbon zero practice, sustainability public engagement and more!

Thank You

We’d like to give a huge thanks to our generous funders for supporting our reopening as a more inclusive and accessible education charity, and helping to transform how we work with communities and support schools across Bristol and the Southwest – Bailey of Bristol, Camilla Rigby, the Churngold Fund, Fairfield Charitable Trust, G F Eyre Charitable Trust, the Exploratory Fund, the Gosling Foundation, J and M Britton Trust, the James Dyson Foundation, Medlock Charitable Trust and the Quartet Community Foundation. 

And a big thank you to every single visitor, member, and out & about participant for being part of our journey!