MakeIt! Easter Holidays - Space
Out of this world - we're heading out into the cosmos for the week!
- Tuesday 9th April - make a moon rock or UFO
- Wednesday 10th April - solar system collage
- Thursday 11th April - star gazing
- Friday 12th April - rockets from rubbish - Aboriginal art with local artist Catherine Farr (learn more about Catherine by clicking HERE)
These activities will run in our Education Room on the lower ground floor 10.30am - 12.00pm and 1.30pm-3.00pm. The workshop is suitable for ages 4-11, but if you're older or younger you'll still be more than welcome.
No booking is necessary, although if it gets a little busy we may have to limit numbers for everyone's comfort and safety.
Activities are FREE with but a donation (suggested £1.00-2.00 per child) towards workshop materials is appreciated.
For further details CLICK HERE to go to our contact form, call 01303 257946 and select option 0 (office hours only) or call into Folkestone Museum & Town Hall.
The Metropole Collection
Folkestone’s 20th Century Contemporary Art Collection
In 2023 Folkestone Museum were the recipients of a very generous gift from Creative Folkestone!
For a little over forty years Folkestone had an arts centre on The Leas, the New Metropole Arts Centre, housed in what until 1959 had been the Metropole Hotel. Whilst the majority of the building was converted into flats the main public rooms were not. Into these the building’s owner, and philanthropist, Gerald Glover created a venue that would see art, in its widest sense, embedded in the town.
As the work and reputation of the New Metropole Arts Centre grew it became nationally renowned. Attracting major exhibitions including retrospectives including Henry Moore and Jacob Epstein during its first ten years, it would, during the 1970s come under the wing of the Kent Education Committee; in effect Kent County Council (KCC), as well as attracting funding & support from the Arts Council.
Initially the Centre only borrowed artworks for display but with a new education remit as an adult education venue it started to assemble its own collection. The collecting occurred in a variety of ways, including gifts from artist, purchases and works produced on site. Much was driven by the centre itself but acquisitions also came about while working alongside the KCC visual arts loans service, which as lent to schools and similar organisation across the county. With the closure of the centre in the 2000s the collection was inherited by Creative Folkestone, who in turn worked with the Folkestone Arts Trust, as day-to-day custodians to display the collection in other venues in the town until the global pandemic arose.
The collection includes work by Royal College of Art graduates Fred Cuming and John Titchell, who both lived and worked locally. Others such as David Greenhall and Michael Chaplin also feature, Chaplin being well known as one of the experts on Channel 4's Watercolour Challenge. Beyond artists working in Kent the collection also features work by well known artists such as John Piper, Edward Ardizzone, Peter Blake and Carel Weight. The last significant acquisition occurred in the 1990s with a gift from Carel Weight of work from his own collection, both his paintings and works by Andrew Freeth, Lucien & Orvida Pissaro among others.
With thanks to Chair Sir Roger De Hann CBE DL and fellow Trustees of Creative Folkestone
With over 200 works in The Metropole Collection the exhibition will be regularly rehung as it is not possible to display it in its entirety. Please note that for preservation of the works on display light levels have been kept low, but can be risen temporarily for those with visual impairments.
The exhibition closes on Saturday 15th June, open hours are 10.00am to 4.00pm; last entry to the exhibition at 3.30pm.
For further details email enquiries@folkestone-tc.gov.uk, call 01303 257946 and select option 0 (office hours only) or call into Folkestone Museum & Town Hall.
Smoking Apples Theatre Company - what Folkestone means to you
We're really pleased to be working with Smoking Apples Theatre Company on their latest project 'We Are More Alike than You Think We Are'!
They’re collecting stories about the people who live and work in Folkestone and mapping how you got here and why, and they'll be here at the Museum on Saturday 23rd March (10am- 2pm) to do just that, asking:
- What are your memories of Folkestone and how has it changed now?
- What makes you proud to live or work here and how did you end up here?
MakeIt! Easter Holidays - Myths & Legends
We're heading through the mists of time for the Easter holidays to explore myth & legend!
- Tuesday 2nd April - Iron Age horse brooches
- Wednesday 3rd April - Jupiter and the bee
- Thursday 4th April - dragons eggs
- Friday 5th April - Dream time - Aboriginal art with local artist Catherine Farr (learn more about Catherine by clicking HERE)
These activities will run in our Education Room on the lower ground floor 10.30am - 12.00pm and 1.30pm-3.00pm. The workshop is suitable for ages 4-11, but if you're older or younger you'll still be more than welcome.
No booking is necessary, although if it gets a little busy we may have to limit numbers for everyone's comfort and safety.
Activities are FREE with but a donation (suggested £1.00-2.00 per child) towards workshop materials is appreciated.
For further details CLICK HERE to go to our contact form, call 01303 257946 and select option 0 (office hours only) or call into Folkestone Museum & Town Hall.
MakeIt! What's the TIME?
How do we use the sun to tell the time, a children's workshop for British Science Week!
This year's British Science Week theme is time and we'll be making sundials; to find out more about British Science Week click on the logo below.
This activity will run in our Education Room on the lower ground floor 10.30am - 12.00pm and 1.30pm-3.00pm. The workshop is suitable for ages 4-11, but if you're older or younger you'll still be more than welcome.
No booking is necessary, although if it gets a little busy we may have to limit numbers for everyone's comfort and safety.
Activities are FREE with but a donation (suggested £1.00-2.00 per child) towards workshop materials is appreciated.
For further details CLICK HERE to go to our contact form, call 01303 257946 and select option 0 (office hours only) or call into Folkestone Museum & Town Hall.
POSTPONED MakeIt! Geology Rocks!
Delve deep into the Earth and find out what makes it spin!
One of our occasional series of craft led children's drop in workshops exploring geoscience and our regional geological heritage, linking into the Cross-Channel Geopark, which we're a geosite of.
If you want to know more about the project to make a UNESCO Cross-Channel Geopark, which is a partnership between Kent Downs National Landscape (England) and the Caps et Marais d’Opale Regional Nature Park (France), CLICK HERE.
This activity will run in our Education Room on the lower ground floor 10.30am - 12.00pm and 1.30pm-3.00pm. The workshop is suitable for ages 4-11, but if you're older or younger you'll still be more than welcome.
No booking is necessary, although if it gets a little busy we may have to limit numbers for everyone's comfort and safety.
Activities are FREE with but a donation (suggested £1.00-2.00 per child) towards workshop materials is appreciated.
For further details CLICK HERE to go to our contact form, call 01303 257946 and select option 0 (office hours only) or call into Folkestone Museum & Town Hall.
School Holidays - Spring into Spring! Leaf Prints & Pendants
Its half-term and we're getting ready for warmer days when nature springs back to life!
You can tell a tree by its leaves, oak, sycamore, hazel, they all have their own shapes, and today they'll be inspiring us to make clay prints from them and make pendants too.
This activity will run in our Education Room on the lower ground floor 10.30am - 12.00pm and 1.30pm-3.00pm. The workshop is suitable for ages 4-11, but if you're older or younger you'll still be more than welcome.
No booking is necessary, although if it gets a little busy we may have to limit numbers for everyone's comfort and safety.
Activities are FREE with but a donation (suggested £1.00 per child) towards workshop materials is appreciated.
For further details CLICK HERE to go to our contact form, call 01303 257946 and select option 0 (office hours only) or call into Folkestone Museum & Town Hall.
School Holidays - Spring into Spring! Woodland Animals Collage
Its half-term and we're getting ready for warmer days when nature springs back to life!
We're off to the woods to find out what wonderful animals live there and make a collage of them.
This activity will run in our Education Room on the lower ground floor 10.30am - 12.00pm and 1.30pm-3.00pm. The workshop is suitable for ages 4-11, but if you're older or younger you'll still be more than welcome.
No booking is necessary, although if it gets a little busy we may have to limit numbers for everyone's comfort and safety.
Activities are FREE with but a donation (suggested £1.00 per child) towards workshop materials is appreciated.
For further details CLICK HERE to go to our contact form, call 01303 257946 and select option 0 (office hours only) or call into Folkestone Museum & Town Hall.
School Holidays - Spring into Spring! Spring Agamographs
Its half-term and we're getting ready for warmer days when nature springs back to life!
Do you know what an agamograph is? Its a way of making one picture appear like two, and we'll be making a spring version of what you can see below...
This activity will run in our Education Room on the lower ground floor 10.30am - 12.00pm and 1.30pm-3.00pm. The workshop is suitable for ages 4-11, but if you're older or younger you'll still be more than welcome.
No booking is necessary, although if it gets a little busy we may have to limit numbers for everyone's comfort and safety.
Activities are FREE with but a donation (suggested £1.00 per child) towards workshop materials is appreciated.
For further details CLICK HERE to go to our contact form, call 01303 257946 and select option 0 (office hours only) or call into Folkestone Museum & Town Hall.
School Holidays - Spring into Spring! Bug & Bee Crowns
Its half-term and we're getting ready for warmer days when nature springs back to life!
Today we'll be making our younger visitors insect royalty with our bug & bee crown make and take activity.
This activity will run in our Education Room on the lower ground floor 10.30am - 12.00pm and 1.30pm-3.00pm. The workshop is suitable for ages 4-11, but if you're older or younger you'll still be more than welcome.
No booking is necessary, although if it gets a little busy we may have to limit numbers for everyone's comfort and safety.
Activities are FREE with but a donation (suggested £1.00 per child) towards workshop materials is appreciated.
For further details CLICK HERE to go to our contact form, call 01303 257946 and select option 0 (office hours only) or call into Folkestone Museum & Town Hall.