It’s June already – and it’s a great month. There is the Festival of Architecture and the Great Exhibition Road Festival going on as well as loads of other brilliant shows and activities for London families to get involved in! Below we have selected our best picks.
World Oceans Day
Celebrate World Oceans Day at the Horniman, take part in interactive activities, go on an underwater storytelling journey and have a go at the ocean-themed poetry competition. You can explore ocean objects with their curators and see a new giant turtle taxidermy specimen on display in the Natural History Gallery. Lots of activities from 10:30 throughout the day – full info and tickets here.
When: 8th June
Where: Horniman Museum
How much: From £8 full info and tickets here.
Meet Jess French & make a bird feeder
Jess French is a vet, explorer and Cbeebies presenter. She joins Open Garden Squares Weekend to teach children how they can attract more wildlife into their gardens and talk about her latest book How to Help a Hedgehog and Protect a Polar Bear.
When: Sat 8 June at 12pm
Where: Oasis Farm SE1
How much: free with a £20 weekend ticket to Open Garden Squares. Children under 12 get free entry with a paying adult.
Sketchbots at the National Gallery
Join the National Gallery to redefine the line and push the boundaries of drawing at the Gallery. Organised in collaboration with The Bartlett School of Architecture, this family friendly event invites you to work with artists and architects from STORE Projects and experiment with coding to create a collaborative drawing design.
When: 6 & 9 June from 11am
Where: The National Gallery
How much: Free admission
The Colour Palace at Dulwich Picture Gallery
The Colour Palace’ – a lively and celebratory fusion of European and African cultural traditions by Pricegore and Yinka Ilori – is the second edition of the Dulwich Pavilion, and the winner of a design competition co-hosted by the LFA and the Dulwich Picture Gallery for an exciting outdoor events structure. The Colour Palace is a celebration of colour, pattern and light, and draws upon both European and African cultural traditions in creating a design that reflects multicultural London and creates a powerful contrast alongside Sir John Soane’s iconic gallery building.
When: 12 June til 22 September 2019
Where: Dulwich Pavilion
Tickets: Free but if you wanted to visit Dulwich Picture Gallery tickets start at £7
Architecture Weekender Workshop
What does a building sound like? If you had to describe a building using sound, what would you use? The voices of the people who lived here before? Footsteps, hammer noises? Imagine and explore architecture as a family at Pitzhanger Manor in Ealing by contributing to a collaborative sculpture, adding to the structure over the two days, and use sound to tell the story of a building.
When: 22 & 23 June 2019 10.30am-12.30pm and 1.30-3.30pm
Where: Pitzhanger Manor
Tickets: Admission: Free for children. The Full adult price plus Gift Aid is £7.70 more info here.
When Wild Beasts Roamed
Audiences will enter what seems like an exhibition with information panels and exhibits, but in fact they go on a journey, immersing themselves into the backstreets of London to visit animal traders, learn about how animals were captured and transported. They learn about the philosophies behind animal exhibition and training, imperialism and early animal rights movements and confront them with their own views. The artefacts will be based on Victorian toys, but they will be manipulated/hacked by interactive sensors and technologies, contradicting and questioning the ideas outlined in the written panels .
When: 22 & 23 June 11am – 5pm
Where: The Old Church, Stoke Newington
Tickets: pay what you can on the day
Serpentine Gallery’s big family weekend
Taking its cue from Faith Ringgold’s summer exhibition and the themes of art and activism, poetry and print, the Serpentine presents a weekend of artist-led workshops and performances for children and families. Over two days young people are invited to share their experiences of growing up in London, the issues they care about and the struggles they face. The aim is to open up a conversation between artists and young people about the power and potential of language, voice, print and archives.
Over the course of three days, children and their families will have opportunities to work with artists to make magazines, perform poems and write stories to share their opinions about issues that are important to them. With art collective One of My Kind (OOMK), poet Belinda Zhawi and special guests.
When: Saturday & Sunday 29 & 30 June from 10am til 6pm
Where: Education Space at the Serpentine Gallery
Tickets: free to attend
V&A families: The imagination station
This is a family activity created by the art collective Fallen Fruit. Fallen Fruit are part of the V&A exhibition FOOD: Bigger than the Plate. Please note, in the event of wet weather this activity will take place in the V&A Sackler Centre.
When: Saturday 29 June from 10:30 til 5pm
Where: Exhibition Road V&A workshop tent (part of the great exhibition)
Tickets: free event for the whole family
Young Astronomers Workshop
Get hands-on in these short drop-in family workshops themed around space science and exploration, from the most recent discoveries about the Solar System to our latest understanding of the wider universe. Our team of Observatory Explainers include those who are studying astronomy at degree or postgraduate level and can answer your burning space questions such as: how big is the Universe and why is Pluto not a planet anymore? Also if you’ve always wondered what it takes to become an astronomer – they are the people to ask!
When: Weekends and holidays throughout June 2019 from 11am til 2:30pm
Where: Astronomy Centre, Royal Observatory Greenwich
Tickets: Workshops rely on voluntary donations. Suggested donation: £2
Ted’s Space Adventure: special under-7s show
Follow the adventures of Ted as he searches the Solar System for the great, big bear in the sky, visiting the Sun, the Moon and the Planets. In collaboration with local schools, music and songs have been developed by Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance. Suitable for ages 7 and under.
When: Throughout June at 11.00 and 17.00 (holiday weekdays and weekends)
Where: Peter Harrison Planetarium
Tickets: £8.00 Adult and £5.35 Child and Concession (Under 25/Student, Senior Tuesdays only) Book here.