Summer Holidays: Crafting Coventry’s History
Saturday 24 July – Friday 3rd September
10.30am - 12.00pm & 2.00pm - 3.30 pm
Show all dates and times
This summer join us for an exciting discovery of Coventry’s diverse and inspiring past.
.jpg)
Designed for age 5+, but all are welcome
Featuring Lady Godiva, Medieval Coventry, the Tudor Times, the Victorians, World War II and 2 Tone. Coventry is the UK City of Culture 2021, making this an even greater and exciting time to learn about the city’s thriving past and pioneering people.
These popular workshops are fantastic for encouraging creative minds and enhancing the skills of budding artists. A member of our Learning Team will be on hand to help, give advice and encourage your children during this 90-minute workshop. All creations can be taken home with you on the day.
Did you know we can support your child in achieving their Arts Award Discover if they are aged 5-11? Taking part in our school holiday activities and visiting our exhibitions helps them to do the majority of the work needed to complete their award. Find out more about the Arts Award at Home programme.
Daily activities:
Week 1: Lady Godiva Coventry
Saturday 24 July: Stained Glass Window Scene: Create a stunning stained glass window scene using colourful tissue paper, black card and contact paper as a sticky canvas. Design an amazing scene by reimagining the City’s heroin Lady Godiva, riding through the streets of Coventry, or another favourite historic event. The finished scenes can be hung on your windows at home to allow the natural light to shine through and illuminate the colourful creations you have made.
Monday 26 July: Stained Glass Window Scene
Wednesday 28 July: Lady Godiva’s Hobby Horse: Reimagine socks, buttons, a piece of felt, cloth and a stick by turning them into a fabulous Hobby Horse to ride away on. What adventures will you go on as you gallop around our galleries and Coventry City?
Friday 30 July: Lady Godiva’s Hobby Horse
Week 2: Medieval Coventry
Saturday 31 July: Medieval Mystery Play Mask: In the Middle Ages actors wore the most amazingly fashioned masks to perform in mystery plays. Craft an ingenious mask by collaging pieces of fabric and cardboard shapes onto a base. Be sure to embellish with gold and silver pens, and feathers. Take your masterpiece home and perform your own mystery play for your friends and family.
Monday 2 August: Medieval Mystery Play Mask
Wednesday 4 August: Orange Pomanders & Posies: In the spirit of Medieval Coventry join us in making pomanders, which were carried around by people to hide the stink of the waste filled streets. Get creative by studding patterns into oranges with cloves, finally embellished with a ribbon. Also try your hand at making decorative posies with colourful pipe cleaners and straws, inspired by the sweet-smelling herbs which were often carried to hide smells in medieval times.
Friday 6 August: Orange Pomanders & Posies
Week 3: Tudor Times
Saturday 7 August: Craft the Coventry Sword: After almost 500 years the Coventry sword has returned and is temporarily resting in the History Gallery. The years have not been kind to it; can you shape and design a new sword and hilt using cardboard, tinfoil, string and tissue paper? Finally embellish your sword with a decorative pommel using an array of resources.
Monday 9 August: Craft the Coventry Sword
Wednesday 11 August: Perfect Paper Tudor Roses: The Tudor rose, an unmistakable flower in England; both red on the outside and white in its centre. Make your own variation with modern day materials, such as doilies, paper plates, felt tips, water colours, ribbon, yarn, skewers and masking tape. Take home your amazing creations to display in a jug full of water and enjoy.
Friday 13 August: Perfect Paper Tudor Roses
Week 4: The Victorians — Playthings
Saturday 14 August: Zooming Zoetropes & Spinning Tops: Spin away with your imagination whilst handcrafting mesmerising cylinders and moving images hand drawn by you. Spin your finished Zoetrope and enjoy watching your very own amazing animation. Also try your hand at upcycling materials, cork cones and wooden skewers into a collection of colourful spinning tops.
Monday 16 August: Zooming Zoetropes & Spinning Tops
Wednesday 18 August: Wooden Clothespin People: Try your hand at making fun and quirky figures using wooden clothespins. Let your imagination spin away whilst decorating your figure using layers of fabric, yarn, ribbon, colourful pipe cleaners, felt tips and other resources. Will you be inspired to make a famous person from the past, your family members or even a traditional Victorian doll? Take home and display your amazing textile art pieces.
Friday 20 August: Wooden Clothespin People
Week 5: World War II — Make do and Mend
Saturday 21 August: Splendid Soap Sculptures: A simple commodity transformed into the most splendid gift. Have a go at some soap carving and create beautiful abstract art. Make it extra special and take it home gift wrapped in some simple cloth and ribbon, just like the old 'make do and mend' times.
Monday 23 August: Splendid Soap Sculptures
Wednesday 25 August: Decorative Glass Jars: During World War II people in Coventry had to keep their lights turned off in the evening, and they used candles to see in the dark. Make your own colourful candle holders out of glass jars. Decorate your glass jar with acrylic paints and adorn with embellishments to play with a colourful array of light illuminations. A battery operated tealight will also be provided to go inside your wonderful creation.
Friday 27 August: Decorative Glass Jars
Week 6: 2 Tone Exhibition
Saturday 28 August: Wooden Spoon Musician Puppets: Turn wooden spoons into your favourite musician or pop star. Craft amazing musician puppets by adding details using paper, googly eyes, pipe cleaners, felt and other craft materials. Then take them home to entertain your friends and family.
Monday 30 August: Wooden Spoon Musician Puppets
Wednesday 1 September: Vibrant Vinyl & Cover: The specials are a 2-tone band formed in Coventry in the 1970’s, they creatively made their own posters and unique vinyl covers for their record albums. Imagine you are in an upcoming band and design your own vinyl, inspired by 2-tone, using cardboard pizza bases and an array of other art resources. Complete your amazing art piece by designing an album cover.
Friday 3 September: Vibrant Vinyl & Cover
Covid-19 Safety Measures
We want you to feel safe and assured that attending our workshops will enable you to have a fun and engaging experience with your children. Here is what we are doing to ensure this for you:
- Workshops are bookable in advance only. This way we can guarantee we are within our capacity for the space we are using and set the room up to suit the number of people booked on.
- Visitors will not be permitted to enter the workshop if they have not booked in advance.
- Hand sanitation stations will be available upon entering and exiting the room.
- Hand sanitizer available throughout the session.
- Each family, from the same household, will have their own dedicated workstation, with social distancing in place between you and the next workstation.
- Each child will receive their own dedicated kit to work with, which will have been cleaned beforehand using antibacterial products and stored in a way to keep them clean and sanitized until the time comes for your child to use their kit.
- The workshop location has gone through a thorough deep clean and continues to be cleaned thoroughly after each use.
- A member of staff will be with you throughout the workshop, wearing a clear face visor and will keep a safe distance from you whilst guiding you, talking to you and helping you to have an enjoyable experience.
- If you have any concerns or questions prior to booking/attending this workshop please contact hareena.liddar@culturecoventry.com (Family Learning Officer).