MORE THAN 2,000 children in the Bradford district are being given activity packs by Bradford Council’s museums and galleries service to encourage them to take part in creative activities at home this summer.

While all Bradford Council’s museums have been closed due to the coronavirus, the Museums Learning Team has created weekly online ‘Inspire me to…’ activities for children and families.

This online activity uses creative ideas from the museum services’ extremely popular family and school workshops to get children and families drawing, playing, moving, exploring and even building.

The team initially extended the online ideas by creating 200 family activity packs on the theme of exploring including sketchbooks, maps and telescopes; these were distributed by Keighley Healthy Living Centre.

The team have now put together over 2000 packs with all the items needed to enjoy 12 museum inspired activities at home. These new packs involve creative story ideas from across the district and the much loved museum collections and contain activities such as paper weaving, creating creatures, foil embossing, designing a stained glass windows and collaging, to help children get creative at home.

‘Inspire me to …’ packs have been supported by funding from Arts Council England & DfE Museums and Schools and are being distributed across the district via community hubs and schools. They have been made possible with the help, support and encouragement of Keighley Healthy Living Centre, Cliffe Castle Support Group and Cliffe Castle Park.

Councillor Sarah Ferriby, Bradford Council’s Executive Member for Healthy People and Places, said: “It is hoped these packs will help children to get creative and remind children and families across the district of our much loved collections and museum buildings. I’d like to thank the staff in our museums and galleries service for all the work that they have put in to getting these packs together.”

Nina Baptiste, Senior Relationship Manager, Arts Council England, said: ‘‘I’m delighted to see that Bradford Museums and Galleries has been providing support for children to explore their creativity during lockdown. I hope that by using the museum’s collection to engage their audience online more people will be encouraged to visit the museum in person when they can.”

This week ‘Kids in Museums’ have named Bradford Museums and Galleries ‘Inspire me to…' online activities in their ‘top ten’ of online resources. For more information visit www.kidsinmuseums.org.uk

For more information about the ‘inspire me to…’ online activities visit www.bradfordmuseums.org.

If you are a school of local community hub in the Bradford district and would like details about the Inspire me to... activity packs email learing@bradford.gov.uk.