24 Hour Museum - official guide to UK museums, galleries, exhibitions and heritage
Gateway to Over 3,000 UK museums, galleries and heritage attractions
Skip to navigation
MGM 2008 - Alfred East Art Gallery Gears Up For Its First Night At The Museum
By Phillipa Davies
14/05/2008
Image: a photograph of plasticine man and dog racing along a street on a motorcycle and sidecar
Wallace and Gromit will be the stars of nearly 80 UK museums and galleries special events over the Museums at Night Weekend. © Aardman
For the first time ever, Alfred East Art Gallery in Kettering is holding a night at the museum on Saturday May 17 2008 to stir interest in youngsters as part of Museums and Galleries Month 2008.
The ‘Action and Invention Tea party’ is a free event based on Aardman Animations’ Wallace and Gromit films, and it’s proved so popular that all tickets for the event are taken.
“We tend to struggle getting younger visitors in. We thought a film showing would be a nice and friendly way in for families,” said Clare Wood, Museum and Gallery Manager.
The evening will begin at 5.30pm and kicks off with the opportunity for youngsters to recreate their favourite characters using plasticine.
Alfred East Art Gallery - one of the most picturesque museum locations in the East Midlands. © Kettering Borough Council
Then visitors will be able to take advantage of the spring night, treasure-hunt style, as they search for pieces of a diamond in the beautiful gallery grounds.
“It’s a tightly packed evening but I think it’s going to be a lot of fun,” said Clare. “It’s a bit of an experiment so hopefully it’ll be a really fun evening; we’re all looking forward to it,”
The physical work-out will be followed by a mental one when invention becomes the name of the game.
Kids will be shown Victorian machines and told how they work before getting their hands dirty as their own creation takes shape.
After working up an appetite, a picnic will be on offer - including Wallace’s favourite Wensleydale cheese - for families to get their teeth into.
Then it’s on to the grand finale, a showing of ‘Wallace and Gromit: The Wrong Trousers.’
Phillipa Davies is one of our three Renaissance East Midlands arts writers, reporting on MGM 2008 events all over the region for the whole month of May. Renaissance is the groundbreaking initiative to transform England's regional museums, led by MLA, the Museums, Libraries and Archives Council.
Alfred East Art Gallery, Kettering
Alfred East Art Gallery, Sheep Street, Kettering, NN16 0AN, Northamptonshire, England
Open: Tuesday to Saturday, 9.30-5.00 (last entry at 4.45)
Closed: Closed Sun, Mon & Bank holidays
E-news registration
E-mail story to a friend
Tell us what you think
Stunning Wedgwood Relaunch Celebrates Potteries Heritage
Library Bid To Save Earliest Surviving Score Of Opera In English Language
News In Brief - Museums, Galleries And Heritage News
Downs House Darwin Discovery Project Wins Funding Go-Ahead
Ryedale Folk Museum Lands Significant Harrison Collection
Portable Antiquities Scheme Is Fit For Purpose Say MLA
Leading Academics Call For Art Funding Support In Wake Of Titian Pledge
Glasgow Police Museum Edges Closer To A New Home
Museums Sheffield Announces Redundancies In Credit Crunch Battle
Hadrian's Wall Aerial Survey Exposes Wealth Of Historic Features
Mary Queen Of Scots Death Decree Returns To Scotland
Historic Sewage Pumping Station To Be Restored
New History Of Horsham Reveals Town's Surprising Colourful Past
Science Museum Reveals Robot That Could Revolutionise Medicine
National Portrait Gallery And Harris Museum Purchase Rare Arkwright Portrait
Archaeologists Try To Date The Brodgar Megaliths On Orkney
Coronation Street Star Roy Cropper Gets All Steamed Up At MOSI
Grants Encourage Links Between Museum Curators And Artists In The Southwest
Search this site
Home Page
News Page
Exhibition Page
What's On
Trails Page
Website of the Week
Letters Page
Welsh Home
Graphical Version
Copyright © 24 Hour Museum
Information published here was believed to be correct at the time it was prepared. Welsh language pages developed with CYMAL: Museums Archives and Libraries Wales, funded by the Welsh Assembly Government.