Children see things differently. Naturally creative with everything from mud to macaroni, they’re always finding new and surprising ways to express themselves. Devote time to creativity as a family this summer with the Royal Academy of Arts’ family programme. Entertaining, inspiring and educational, there’s plenty to enjoy, from interactive tours to hands-on artistic activities and a very special Lego competition.
First up is The Big Architecture Family Day on June 23rd, with a selection of workshops, classes and studios to explore. Pick up some pipe cleaners and put together an experimental sculpture as part of the Shapeshifters studio, or take the Royal Academy’s Drawing Tour, sketching your thoughts on paper as you go. Alternatively, join your kids in a multi-sensory activity class, or take part in the highlight event: the RA Lego Architecture Challenge.
Each year, the Lego Architecture Challenge sees frenzied teams compete to create the most innovative Lego building project. Three of the UK’s most prestigious architectural practices will go head-to-head this year, with children and parents welcome to join in and help them with their creation. Whilst balancing brightly coloured bricks to form towers, bridges and buildings, children can begin to learn the basics of architecture, and have fun in the process.
Later in July and August, the Holiday Family Workshop is a wonderful chance to explore the Summer Exhibition as a family, before creating a unique souvenir to take home and treasure. You’ll start with a guided tour of the show, stopping at key pieces to discuss them as a group and hear how adults and children interpret them. Then, in family groups, visitors will create their very own artworks together, right there in the beautiful Summer Exhibition galleries. With sleeves rolled up and a range of media to play with, it’s a brilliant way to bond and create lasting memories.
Stay in a family room or suite at Brown’s during The Big Architecture Family Day or the Holiday Family Workshop, and benefit from complimentary entry to one of these events.To book or find out more, please email concierge.browns@roccofortehotels.com or call +44 207 493 6020.
Image credit
Agnese Sanvito
The soul of a destination – that special something all travellers yearn to glimpse – is really the soul of its people. It is timeless humanity refracted by a place’s unique qualities, by its bounty and scarcity, its landscape and climate.
A child with flour-dusted hands, entirely absorbed in the soft tactility of dough, falls quiet in concentration. The same wonder is felt as a small finger points skywards, following the erratic flight of a bumblebee – noticing that the orange pom-poms clinging to its legs are, on closer inspection, minute pockets of pollen. These are the seemingly small moments, observed offline, that are exactly the kind of adventure the best family holidays create. One where each destination invites children and teens to become absorbed in the world around them – not their devices – making, discovering and noticing along the way.
Florence becomes the most compelling creative retreat when you fall in step with the city’s pace. In Milan you might ‘get your hustle on’ and Rome leans into a meandering walk or Vespa ride, this city, the birthplace of the Renaissance, draws us more towards strolling.
