With the Bank Holiday weekend fast approaching, we’ve got a packed schedule full of ideas and activities for all ages. Here’s a Top 10 of everything that’s going on in our venues this long weekend!
1. Polish Heritage Day, Sudley House
Sudley House
On 5 May, join Merseyside Polonia and celebrate Poland’s Constitution Day at Sudley House. Take part in Polish dance fitness and Polish language classes, treasure hunts and you can even make your own flower wreath to take home with you! Running from 1pm to 4pm, this is a free drop-in event with no need to book.
2. Faces of Change Badge Making, International Slavery Museum
Make and take home your very own brilliant badge to pay tribute to freedom fighters of the past, in this free family craft workshop on 6 May. There’s no need to book for this event – just drop in between 1pm and 3pm.
3. Whistler and Pennell: Etching the City, Lady Lever Art Gallery
Opening on 4 May, this new exhibition captures the changing landscape of New York and London in the final years of the industrial revolution. Featuring 38 prints from two of the most influential and innovative etchers – James McNeill Whistler (1834-1903) and Joseph Pennell (1857-1926), the exhibition highlights an important period in the history of etching known as the ‘Etching Revival’. It explores how both artists championed a declining art medium, and their motivation to create a definitive technique and style.
4. Performance, Piermaster’s House
Roleplayers outside Piermaster’s House
Travel back in time to the 1940s on 7 May and learn about life in Liverpool during the Second World War with rationing, blackouts and ‘make do and mend’ in the Piermaster’s House. Held at intervals between 1 and 4pm, this event is free entry.
5. Lights Out Liverpool!, Merseyside Maritime Museum
Roleplayer in Merseyside Maritime Museum
On 5 May, meet Jim Coleman, the sailor turned ARP warden, to hear some of the heroic tales that happened at sea during the Battle of the Atlantic, as well as here in Liverpool in the May Blitz of the Second World War.
6. Liverpool Shanty Kings performance, Museum of Liverpool
Shanty Kings performing at Museum of Liverpool
Enjoy a fabulous performance from the Liverpool Shanty Kings who will be entertaining us with English, Scottish and Irish folk tunes as well as the classic sea shanties that powered British ships around the globe in the atrium of Museum of Liverpool on 6 May!
7. Indian Textiles talk, Walker Art Gallery
At 11am on 5 May, join us for a talk by Jasleen Kandhari, Tutor of Indian Textiles, Dress and Fashion at Oxford University. This gallery talk presents the historical Indian textile traditions of Phulkari, Kashmir Shawls, Muslin and Chintz from National Museums Liverpool’s collections and their influence on The Singh Twins Slaves of Fashion exhibition. This is a drop in event, with no need to book.
8. Ancient Egypt Gallery, World Museum
Ancient Egypt is much more than just pyramids, mummies and hieroglyphs. Join us on a 5,000 year journey to discover what life was really like. Come and explore our Mummy Room to find out how people achieved eternal life. Read spells from the Book of the Dead and smell ingredients used in mummification. Find out about Liverpool’s connection to excavations in Egypt and Sudan, and how thousands of artefacts ended up in World Museum. See objects damaged when Liverpool was bombed, now on display for the first time since the Second World War.
9. Customs Contraband, Merseyside Maritime Museum
A smuggler’s hoard, here for you to get your hands on! Discover more about our contraband collections and learn about the ways of the smuggler with our handling collection on 5 May, between 1 and 4pm!
10. Online Games
Children’s website
If you don’t plan on venturing out with the kids this weekend, there’s plenty of fun to be had online on our interactive kids website! Follow the link below to play games, watch videos and make things.