What animals do you have represented in your local gallery or museum? In The Fitzwilliam Museum there are various animals represented in objects and paintings. I am always on the look out for linking stories to objects in the museum and it occurred to me there there were several of the animals in the book “Monkey Puzzle”…
“Katie and the British Artists” – Using Postcards during Museum and Gallery Visits
We love the Katie series of books, in particular “Katie and The British Artists” by James Mayhew (ISBN 978-1846167379) it is such an easy and inspiring way to be exposed to different paintings. S recognises and remembers the name of artists and their paintings and A is quick to see the paintings he recognises in…
Our Visit to the Bullock Texas State History Museum
We spent a fun afternoon at the Bullock Texas State History Museum in Austin, Texas. The Bullock Museum celebrates and illuminates Texas history and culture through exhibitions, films and programs. The boys were particularly interested in Cowboys and spent time pretend-lassoing around the exhibits. As well as exploring Texan history we enjoyed one of the temporary…
Our visit to the Thinkery in Austin, Texas
On a recent visit to Austin we visited the amazing Thinkery, formly the Austin Children’s Museum founded in 1983. The Thinkery delivers its mission through an ever evolving mixture of exhibits and sessions that focus on science, technology, engineering, art and math and museum activities revolve around educational experiences led by staff. On our two week…
Shape in Art – Shape View Finders
Building on our Shapes in Art and Shape Hunting experiences we made some shape view finders to further explore shapes in the museum. Our view finders were simply made from cutting a shape from a piece of cardboard and decorating them. Using paints and felt tip pens. The felt tip pen didn’t have great contact…
Shapes in Art – DIY Game
After our Shapes in Art activity at The Fitzwilliam Museum in January, I wanted to create a shape resource that would help us explore shapes in other galleries and museums. Using the idea of going on a hunt for shapes I created some prompts on luggage tags which we held together using ribbon. I laminated…
Hertford Museum
This week’s post is a celebration of Hertford Museum. Situated in Bull Plain, Hertford, its mission is “to collect, preserve and interpret evidence of the history of the county town and surrounding parishes in the district of East Hertfordshire for the interest, enjoyment and understanding of the local community and others.” The Museum opened in 1903…
Cambridge Museum Twilight Trail
We spent a wet but enjoyable evening taking part in the Cambridge Museum Twilight Trail. All the museums in Cambridge were open free of charge to the public between 4:30pm and 8:30pm. Armed with our torches and dressed for the cold we set out on the trail. Our evening began at The Cambridge University Botanic…
Celebrating the Chinese New Year at the National Gallery
Today we took part in some Chinese New Year inspired activities at the National Gallery. Although the activities were created by the gallery, the ideas could be used in any museum with just a few resources. Our day started with a Magic Monkey Carpet story telling session. Poised on the magic carpet we listened to…
Shapes in Art
As part of the Family First Saturday activities at the Fitzwilliam Museum we took part in a shape hunt at the beginning of January. We searched for geometric shapes described as simple shapes like a circle or a square and organic shapes described as shapes found in nature such as a leaf or an ear. S…