Top Picks for the week ahead 23rd – 29th July 2020

Actual real life events are BACK! So if you’re up for leaving the house, here’s our pick of the best things to do in London

Check out our previous blog on what is opening up in the real world! From theme parks, cinemas, museums and attractions. 

Vue and Cineworld finally open their doors on 31st July and all the Tates open from Monday 27th July. If you’re not close or are preferring to stay closer to home, get your art fix with Tate Kids https://www.tate.org.uk/kids

Plus don’t forget Kew Gardens and Go Ape also opened last week to get the kids active but safely outdoors. But there’s lots of virtual fun to be had too. If you have a budding talent on your hands why not enter POPFEST 2020! Or enjoy the Royal Greenwich Museum Solar Discovery and Virtual Planetarium Tour, or Sleeping Beauty at the Royal Opera House at Home and so much more! 

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Tate Britain, Tate Modern  Tate St Ives and Tate Liverpool Reopen on 27th July 

Entry remains free for everyone, with a charge for some exhibitions. All visitors, including Members, will need to book a timed ticket online before visiting. There are one-way routes around the gallery, guiding you through rooms in the collection. Each route offers access to toilets, a shop and an opportunity to buy food and drink.

Tate Modern – Andy Warhol Exhibition Paid (until Nov 15th) and How Art became Active – free plus Free Collection routes. Kara Walker – Free Hyundai Commissions. Free Entry

Tate Britain – Steve Mqueen Year 3 (extended until Jan 2021 ) Free. Aubrey Beardsley (extended until 20 Sep 2020) Paid.  British Art 1540–1890 and from 1930s –  free collections. Free Entry

Tate Liverpool – Collection routes All Free Displays Discover new work, make connections between artists, and explore optical art on this route through Tate Liverpool. Free Entry

Tate St. Ives – Collection route Modern Art and St Ives with Naum Gabo – Explore the histories and ideas of Modern Art in St Ives, and discover the work of Naum Gabo. Tickets from £9.50

Mayfield Lavender Farm (Surrey) 

This 5 acre lavender farm with café and shop is located in Banstead (Woodmansterne), Surrey – approximately 15 miles from Central London. The farm is a popular visitor attraction throughout summer where you can wander through a sea of beautiful organic lavender. Its now open until August 31st. Open 7 days per week from 9am to 6pm (Last entry for cars is 5.45pm). There’s a cafe and shop plus a tractor ride around the  farm which is an effortless way to experience the undulating purple expanse of their gorgeous organic lavender.  Tractor rides cost £2 per person. Entry is £4 per person with kids 16 and under free. 

OUR TOP VIRTUAL PICKS FOR THE WEEK AHEAD

Royal Museum Greenwich – Solar System Discovery, Virtual Planetarium Show (Thursday 23rd & Friday 24th July, various times)

Join the RMG for Solar System Discovery, a live online planetarium show presented by an astronomer from the Royal Observatory Greenwich.  

The Universe is a vast and intriguing place, and this show explores our own little corner of it: the Solar System. Starting from our home planet, the Earth, we’ll travel through our celestial neighbourhood, visiting objects like planets, moons and asteroids, and ending with a fly-out to view our galaxy, the Milky Way. 

Ages: 7+

Dates & Times: 

Thursday 23rd July; 12pm – 1pm, 2pm – 3pm, 3pm – 4pm

Friday 24th July; 11am – 12pm, 12pm – 1pm, 2pm – 3pm

Start exploring here

Camp Wonderpolis

Camp Wonderopolis® is the free online summer-learning destination that’s full of fun, interactive STEM and literacy-building topics boosted by Maker experiments!

Keeping kids and their families learning together throughout the summer and out-of-school time, Camp Wonderopolis can help build vocabulary, background knowledge in science, reading comprehension, critical thinking, and other literacy skills along the way

You can sign up and get activities around Symphony of Wonders where you explore different music activities and learn about techniques, Build Your Own Wonderocity where you explore wonders of engineering and construction. 

Check out more here. 

Museum of London’s SoundClash: London’s dub reggae roots,(Live event on Friday 24th July)

Immerse yourself in the history of dub reggae in the capital with exclusive interviews, articles and photographs from the Museum of London’s collection.

As part of a year-long celebration marking the anniversary of Bob Marley’s 75th birthday, Island Records and Tuff Gong will be releasing a special documentary on Bob Marley’s time in London in the 70s. Join MOL for unseen footage and new and exclusive content exploring the influence of this reggae icon on the city. There’s Dub Reggae interviews, collections. Dub London – inside the record stores, 10 records that tell the story of Dub London and much much more. 

Find out more here

Later this year their Dub London display will be opening at the Museum of London. 

Royal Opera House at Home – Sleeping Beauty Online Premiere ( Friday 24th July at 7pm, available until 6th August 2020)

Sleeping Beauty holds a special place in The Royal Ballet’s unique repertory. It was the ballet with which the Company reopened the Royal Opera House in 1946 after World War II, its first production at its new home in Covent Garden

In 2006, the original 1946 staging was revived by then Director of The Royal Ballet Monica Mason and Christopher Newton, returning Oliver Messel’s wonderful designs and glittering costumes to the stage.

Find out more here and you can donate here 

Royal Albert Hall at Home – Piano Party! (Saturday 25th July, 2pm)

Albert’s Band’s pianist Dawn Hardwick will deliver an exclusive set from her home as part of the Royal Albert Home sessions.

Featuring new music by Colin Riley, Adrian Sutton, John Psathas and Julian Jacobson, this delightful introduction to the piano will be sure to entertain the whole family.

Watch here 

Wildlife Trusts – National Marine Week (25th July – 9th August) 

National Marine Week is The Wildlife Trusts’ nationwide celebration of all things marine. Despite the name, it lasts 15 fun-filled days to allow for the variation in tide times around the country. This year is slightly different, due to the Covid-19 crisis, but there’s still lots to get stuck into it! Dive in here

Arts Depot – Storytime (Sunday 25th July, 10am)

Join children’s author Joseph Coelho in this fun story time session recorded especially for artsdepot this Sunday. 

Joseph will share poems from some of his children’s poetry collections and give a reading of his latest picture book Luna Loves Art, illustrated by Fiona Lumbers. And he’ll also give you his top tips on becoming a writer and poet!

You’ll need to book and will be sent a link to watch it and you can watch as many times as you like for 7 days. A range of ticket prices are available for this event. Please choose what you can afford from the options, which include £0.

Ages 5+
Duration: 30 mins

Find out more here

ACTIVITY QUEST Things for Kids and Adults to do. Fun Kids Podcast (Monday 26th July and every Monday throughout the summer holidays) 

Fun Kids Radio’s podcast Stuck at Home is turning into Activity Quest this summer!

It’s the same style of programme, packed with things to do wherever you are, but we’ll all be getting out-and-about a little bit more.

Bex, Dan and the rest of the Fun Kids crew will be visiting places across the UK that have recently opened and talking about some things that you can do now we’re not stuck at home as much.

Find out more here

Mix it – A Play in a Week Virtual Summer School (Tuesday 27th – Friday 31st July) 

Kids can do a week’s summer school online and learn how to write a play, shadow puppetry, production writing – all that help build confidence and spark creativity! 

The team will be using the fab ‘zoom’ platform to run larger ensemble activities, such as singing and dancing all together, plus breakaway sessions without tutors in smaller groups, so you can develop ideas, improvise and work on scenes as you would normally at a Mix it! Summer School but through the power of the internet. The end of week will see a part live and part pre-recorded film of this year’s theme ‘A Night at the Fairground!’

Cost: £40 per household

Find out more here 

The Beatbox Collective: The Beatbox Experience (Wednesday 29th July, 2pm)

Join the official 2015 world beatbox champions The Beatbox Collective for a journey through sounds, instruments, rhythms and bass lines to learn simple patterns, famous songs and unleash your inner voice. Featuring a team of the UK’s top vocal artists, this is a show of mind-blowing sound, energy and beats not to be missed. It’s a simple setup of your voice and imagination (and wi-fi) and open to all ages and abilities.

The Beatbox Collective, iIndividually, have won almost every beatbox competition on the planet. Together, this vocal supergroup creates a wall of sound that simply has to be seen to be believed.

To join in this workshop you will need Internet + Audio and if interacting on Zoom a microphone / inbuilt computer mic.

Unleash your inner voice here

Part of Live Art Local, find out more here

ANYTIME 

POP Channel looking for Talent in POPFEST 2020! 

Looking for some great Summer fun? Look no further!

The Big Top Academy gang at the POP channel is back with new adventures and a chance for you to be the protagonist! Do you have a special talent you’re itching to show them?

Then take a video of your best performance, upload it above and enter the competition. The best ones will be shown on tv!

You could also be in with a chance of winning incredible prizes! Competition closes on 30th August. Check out more here and find more Pop Fun here

V &A KIMONO Exhibition 

These films take you on a personal curator tour of the V&A’s exhibition Kimono: Kyoto to Catwalk.

Captured as the museum was closing its doors, curator Anna Jackson guides you through the exhibition spaces, providing a personal insight into the making of the show, star exhibits and the fascinating history of the kimono. Sometimes perceived as traditional, timeless and unchanging, Kimono: Kyoto to Catwalk counters this conception, presenting the garment as a dynamic and constantly evolving icon of fashion.

Watch it here

V & A is re-opening on 6th August 

Eureka! At Home

Eureka Museum is offering  new ideas, activities or stories for you! There’s brain training, dissecting love and attraction, storytelling, songs, how to sign animal names in BSL sign language to name a few! 

Harry Potter – Watch all Chapters so far! 

Watch familiar faces read Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone for Harry Potter At Home – including Daniel Radcliffe, Eddie Redmayne & Stephen Fry.

Watch them here. 

Apple at Home! – Inspiring creative activities. 

Join Creative Pros from Apple Store locations all over the world for quick and fun projects they put together in their homes, so you can get creative in yours.

Get a guide to create seamless transitions and infinite video loops using the free Clips app.Add drama and style to your portrait photos and tips to make your videos more cinematic with iPhone!

Get creative here

The Imagination Channel

Brilliant video content & resources direct to your home! Sit back, relax and be inspired by World Book Day’s Imagination Channel  for brilliant new videos. Find out where AUTHORS and ILLUSTRATORS really get their inspiration from. 

Explore here

BBC’s Tiny Happy People

Tiny Happy People recognizes that your words build their worlds. So Tiny Happy People is here to help you develop your child’s communication skills. Explore simple activities and play ideas and find out about their amazing early development. Supported by the Duchess of Cambridge there’s tips and advice, interviews, science and facts.

Find out more here.

Looking ahead

Royal Opera House at Home -The  Mad Hatter’s Tea Party from Zoo Nation (7pm. 31st July) 

This is irresistible narrative hip hop dance theatre. ZooNation’s exuberant, sell-out show The Mad Hatter’s Tea Party taps into the heady imagination of Lewis Carroll’s much-loved world. The show was commissioned by The Royal Ballet, uniting ballet and hip-hop under one tradition of excellent storytelling through dance.

ZooNation’s take on Carroll’s classic is a riot of invention and infectious energy – not to be missed! 

The Secret Love Life Of Ophelia (with Helen Mirren) at Greenwich Theatre (7.30pm 31st July)

The relationship between Hamlet and Ophelia is one of the most tragic in all of Shakespeare’s plays, but so much of their burgeoning love affair is unwritten. The Secret Love Life Of Ophelia seeks to fill in the gaps, revealing the growth of that young love through an exchange of letters between the two characters which are both intimate and direct, tender and passionate.

In direct response to the current closure of theatres, the play is now being adapted for a unique online premiere which will see the letters reimagined as video messages and a cast of 40 exceptional actors coming together to perform them. Together this diverse cast will reveal just how universal the experiences of the young lovers are.

Radio 1 Ibiza Prom (BBC Four, 1st August) 

Pete Tong takes charge of the BBC Radio 1 Prom and decides to employ the Heritage Orchestra to play a selection of Ibiza classics. The Royal Albert Hall has never seen anything like it!

Jules Buckley conducts the orchestra through dance masterpieces by Fatboy Slim, Eric Prydz, Shapeshifters, Robert Miles, ATB, Moby, Frankie Knuckles, Orbital, Inner City, Daft Punk, Faithless, Stardust and so many more, with the help of Ella Eyre and John Newman.

Kew Gardens 

A perfect family day out, explore gorgeous landscapes and gardens, stroll along a soaring treetop walkway, wander through tropical glasshouses and discover shady woodlands. It’s an amazing way to get the kids playing outdoors and learning about the importance of plants at the same time. At the moment the Children’s Garden is temporarily closed and remember, you must book in advance before visiting. 

If you’re looking to visit in August, from the 22nd you can Travel the World at Kew, find out more here

Go Ape Tree Top Adventure

A jam-packed hour of wobbly bridges, intricate crossings and an awesome zip wire finale, Go Ape is designed with the whole family in mind and offers the perfect high ropes course for kids and grown ups. With adventures for all, choose from Tree Top Adventure for the little ones, Tree Top Adventure+ for ages 6+ and Tree Top Challenge for ages 10+.  

Go Ape has locations UK wide and offers tons of other adventures including Nets 

Adventure and Zip Trekking Adventure.  

Start your adventure here 

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