Welcome to Hollywood was the theme of this year’s autumn half-term Family Art Fun programme. On entering the Sackler centre families were greeted by a red carpet, theatre lights and a sound installation by the HalfCut theatre company. On The Imagination Station, they could play the popular game of consequences where children designed costumes for film characters using a paper filmstrip. In Digital Kids children took their photograph and transformed themselves into film stars by virtually trying on a selection of accessories from the V&A collections.
Make-it: Costume Design was led by V&A resident costume designer Hayley Nebauer and families created inventive costume design illustrations.
Within the Pop-up Performance programme families went on a Technicolour adventure through Hollywood with the new interactive show True Colours; took part in drama workshops for under 5’s exploring ‘goodies’ and ‘baddies’ and attended free film screenings of the The Wizard of Oz and Addams Family Values. Back-packs and trails were also available.
We had a 10.07% increase on our figures from October half-term last year. From Saturday 27 October – Sunday 4 November 11,439 visitors took part in the family programme. There were lots of happy families taking part in the events programme, but I particularly like this quote from Martha aged 6:
“[The V&A] is the best museum I have gone to in London…in my life! I loved it!”
The Christmas and New Year family programme is nearly upon us and we have been working with Royal Collage of Arts graduates on new activities. Isobel Manning has created a new Imagination Station activity where you can create and add imaginative Victorian Christmas decorations to a specially commissioned wreath and Sarah Bridgland will be leading workshops on paper sculpture in Make-it from 31 December – 4 January (bookable). Alongside the making programme there are two Pop-up Performances. A beautiful “Victorian Ballet”, set to the Music of Tchaikovsky’s Nutcracker Suite will take place at the weekends and “A Christmas Gathering” gallery play during the week. This new performance by the in house Little Lights Theatre company explores all things festive, from Christmas cards to Christmas trees. You can also find out how Victorian children entertained themselves on Christmas day.
If you can’t wait until then, get a sneak preview of A Christmas Gathering on the 22 December and make a sparkling jewel on 23 December in Drop-in Design.
We hope to see you soon.
Event dates and times vary. Please check the website for details and to book Make-it workshops.
