Summer Family Fun at Aberdeen Maritime Museum

Photographs by Grant Anderson

http://www.grantanderson.me/

This Summer I had the pleasure of running Aberdeen Maritime Museum's Family Fun workshops. For this I was asked to design four unique arts activities, aimed towards primary school children, to run over the course of four weeks during the school holidays.

Although I have assisted with art workshops in the past, this was the first time I've been the lead artist. It was very exciting (and slightly terrifying!) to have complete creative control over the planning and execution of such an event.

Working with children is always a lot of fun and this was certainly a lovely way to spend the Summer. It's so great to see kids let their imaginations run wild and also to see how proud they are of their creations.

Each activity was inspired by different exhibits displayed at the museum at the time. This was to encourage children to engage with the exhibits in a new way. Here's a short description of each of the activities;

Folded Fancies Inspired by Japanese paper crafts; have a go at designing a folded paper fan, test your origami skills or create a colourful flying carp fish.

Wish You Were Here Explore the museum's wonderful collection of objects; diving suits, a narwhal's tusk and even a treasure chest are all waiting to be discovered. Choose your favourite object and then design and print a postcard to tell someone special about your exciting museum adventures.

The Champions Cup With summer sporting contests and our exhibition News Balls Please in mind, we invite you to collage a decorative trophy to take away.

Tea Merchant's Challenge Come and see our latest acquisition; the original shipbuilder's model of the famous tea trade ship Thermopylae.
Take on the tea merchant's challenge and construct a ship from basic materials. Set sail to discover just how much tea your model can carry!

There was a lot of good feedback from the sessions which is amazing to hear! It was a great experience, hopefully I will take part in similar projects in the future!