First school group in!

The new Wakefield Museum has welcomed its first school visitors! Last week saw a group of lower foundation children from West Bretton Junior and Infant school visiting the museum to learn about toys and games of the past.

Toys on display at the new Wakefield  Museum

They learned about different toys from history, they played and interacted with a selection of old-fashioned toys, and they even made their very own Victorian-style thaumatropes. This session was a pilot, allowing the learning team to discover how the spaces work, and make sure that the learning offer is as good as it can be.

This Toys and Games session is now available to book!

Children and staff all had a brilliant time, and we look forward to welcoming many more school groups to the new museum!

Crafty Crocs Launched!

The first of our brand new Crafty Crocs sessions was held in the Learning Zone at Wakefield Museum today.  Our younger visitors enjoyed creating some messy painted autumn crafts such as leaf-printed owls and even window painting!

Leaf  Printing!

A special paint was made especially for painting onto windows (so that it could easily be washed off!), and the Crafty Crocs had great fun being creative with it.  Hopefully it will have cheered up any passers-by on such a cold, wet day!

Painting  a monster onto  the window!

Painting the window with special washable paint was fun!

Messy creative fun on a wet day

The next Crafty Crocs sessions are on Tuesday December 4^th 2012 and the team are taking bookings now.  Sessions are for 2-5 year olds and please wear clothes you don’t mind getting messy!  (Photographs are published here with written consent of the parents).

Sessions run from 10am to 11am, and from 1.15pm to 2.15pm, and are free, but booking is essential as places are limited.

Call 01924 302700,  or email to book.

Our first week in the new museum!

This half term has seen the learning and skills team deliver our first family workshops at the new Wakefield Museum and Learning Zone.  Children aged 2 – 12 years were invited to take part in the family workshops ranging from looking at the season of autumn and the amazing people who have lived in our city.

For ‘Autumn’s Arrived’ our younger visitors looked at the season using leaves as a focus.  Having drawn round their arms and hands they created an autumn scene, moving on to completing hedgehog spikes by drawing round their fingers and then colouring acorn images using spices to make their pictures smell! 

Children also had a go at leaf rubbing, something many of us may have done as a child and forgotten the fun it brings – why not give it a go!

Comments from children and parents included;

“It’s been a lovely morning thank you”

“I’d have never have thought of doing this – it’s simple really”

“I likd all of it fankyou”

At the 'Wow  It's Wakefield' workshop, we learned all about some of Wakefield’s most famous and important people. We explored the life of Charles Wateron, learning all about the places he went to, the animals he found, and his very peculiar habits, as well as making very frightening caiman puppets to take home. We then learnt about Sheila Capstick and her campaign for women’s equality in snooker, and made some fab and groovy 1970s-inspired posters for her campaign!

Comments from workshop participants included:

 "I never knew anyone cool was from Wakefield before!"

 "I’m going to make another crocodile at home. No – I’m going to make a HUNDRED crocodiles at home!"

"This was the perfect way to finish off the holiday. Thankyou so much – I’ve never seen them look so involved!"

We Are Open!

Wakefield's new museum opened its doors today, and has been well-received!

The Museum and Library are now open:

Mondays, Tuesdays and Saturdays
9.30am - 6.00pm

Wednesdays, Thursdays and Fridays
9.30am - 8.00pm

Adrian is here to welcome you!

Squeals of delight were heard as our first young visitor discovered the crocodile under the floor, and the response wasn't that different from most of the grown-ups!

There's a lot going on, so be sure to look at our programme of activities, and make sure you keep coming back as new features are continually added to the museum.

As always, we would love to hear what you think!

Come and see!

We are very excited to open bookings for our events and activities programme for Wakefield Museum and Library!  We're planning a huge range of activities and events to introduce you to what we have on offer - have a look at the programme and come and join the fun!

Activities include:

Meet the Expert - every Thursday

Object highlight- lunchtime talks - starting with Parliament Week

Family workshops for October half term, including the Big Draw, handling real animals and lots of fun crafts.


Children's illustrator, Lynne Chapman will be joining us for the Big Draw

 

Crafty Crocs - new monthly creative fun sessions for 2-5 year olds

Crafty Crocs! for ages 2-5

 

Medieval Menus - drop-in session to find out about medieval food


Find out about medieval eating with the You Are What You Ate project

Victorian Christmas -  storytelling, crafts and the very wonderful Palace of Curiosities sideshow!

The Palace of Curiosities Victorian Sideshow

Into the mind of a Doctor Who writer!

Doctor Who writer, Robert Shearman

For all  of these events - and loads more, follow this link to the full events programme, and get yourself booked on!




Follow the link above to see the full programme!

Wedding Dress on display... ...coming very soon now!

We will be showing off a whole range of wedding dresses at Wakefield Museum. Here volunteer costume curator Nicola Townend and Sobia Pervaiz, who has kindly agreed to lend us her dress, prepare it for display. See the results very soon in the Love display.  It's not long now...

Wedding dress being prepared for display

Special Offer for Young Archaeologists!

We are really pleased to announce that Wakefield's new museum will be included in the Young Archaeologists' Club annual pass.  Museums and attractions across the UK have been invited to participate, and so we are now developing an interactive museum trail - exclusive for YACs! 

The trail will look at the history of Wakefield from its archaeological and object evidence - from Palaeolithic hand axes to a gold posy ring excavated at Sandal Castle - all are clues to Wakefield's past!

Young Archaeologist Club members can show their membership card when they visit the museum, to be given this exclusive trail which will use our new multimedia handheld devices.



The 2012 pass.   We're proud to be part  of the YAC pass 2013!

If you are interested in finding out more about Young Archaeologists' clubs, have a look at their website. 

The most local branch is based at Pontefract castle, meeting once a month on the second Saturday.   Sessions are all on an archaeological theme, including craft skills, practical archaeological skills, and plenty of fun! There are usually several opportunities each year to take part in real archaeology, either within the club itself or via connected organisations.  

For more information email or call 01924 223373