Our fabulous Norfolk museums offer you a warm welcome this half term – the Norwich sites are teaming up with the fantastic Norwich Science Festival to explore all sorts of intriguing topics, while over in Great Yarmouth you can go retro with workshops and talks on everything from patchwork to make up.
Norwich Castle
Over at the Castle they’re being guided by our stomachs this February half term! The Fabulous Food event explores the rich museum collections through the theme of food. For ‘Museum Masterpiece!’ you are invited to explore the museum galleries, collecting up different food and drink items to create your own marvellous museum meal along the way. ‘Terrific Teeth!’ takes a close-up look at teeth and skulls from the Natural History collections and then you can become ‘dental detectives’ as you try out toothy challenges around the Natural history Galleries. Finally, find out some growing tips from ancient Egyptian farmers in the ‘Fantastic Farming!’ activity – create your own Ancient Egyptian farm and choose carefully where to plant your crops to make sure they grow, then build a grain store inspired by one of their star objects in theirAncient Egyptian display to keep your crops safe after harvest.
Fabulous Food, A Norwich Science Festival event
Saturday 11 February to Saturday 18 February 2023, 10am-3.30pm
Please note this event is not running on Sunday 12 February.
Age recommendation: Suitable for families.
Tickets: Free with general admission. Book your tickets online
Museum of Norwich
The recreation of an early 20th century pharmacists’ shop is full of counters, drawers and shelves packed with an amazing array of mysterious potions, chemicals and pills, all in their original packets and containers.
This Valentine’s Day meet their friendly pharmacist and explore the nature of a range of beauty products from a bygone era in Skin Deep: Unpacking the Packaging. What was considered beautiful, and what were people willing to do to achieve it?
Skin Deep: Unpacking the Packaging, A Norwich Science Festival event
Tuesday 14 February 2023, 10.30am-12.30pm and 1.30pm-3.30pm
Age Recommendation: Suitable for families.
Tickets: Free with general admission. Book your tickets online
Strangers’ Hall
Do you know about their secret garden? It’s a beautiful green oasis in the centre of the city and is just beginning to burst into spring life. So why not join them this half term for Skin Deep: Natural Beauty when they’ll be exploring how people throughout history have used their knowledge and understanding of plants to create beauty products. Can you work out which plant is for where? Play our game and match the plant to the part of the body people wanted to make more beautiful. Once you’ve cracked that, have a go at some of the experiments!
Skin Deep: Natural Beauty, A Norwich Science Festival event
Wednesday 15 February 2023, 10.30am-12.30pm and 1.30pm-3:30pm
Age Recommendation: Suitable for families.
Tickets: Free with general admission. Book your tickets online
Time and Tide, Great Yarmouth
Over in Great Yarmouth, they’re embracing everything retro this half-term as they celebrate the last months of their Retro Games exhibition.
On Valentine’s Day you are invited to Love Your Clothes with a retro-themed patch-making workshop. We Wear The Trousers will be helping you to make patches inspired by retro themes that you can take home to fix your most loved clothes or bring in your broken pieces for top tips to patch them up. They will also be taking a break to talk more in-depth on retro DIY fashion trends – think punks and safety-pins, mods and patches!
On Thursday 16 February, they’ll be looking for Retro Champions! Norwich Retro Gamers are bringing some exciting extra consoles to the museum to host a day of retro competitions and tournaments! Are you a Mario Kart master or a Super Smash Bros legend? Bring your friends and find out who is the retro gaming champion in winner-stays-on tournaments and top-scorer competitions!
The regular Friday winter talks turn back the clock on Friday 17 February with Everything 70s! Join Angela Bishop for a fun interactive talk about this memorable decade – from fashion to space hoppers, with plenty of props to jog your memory.
Also on Friday 17 February there’s the chance to learn about some retro make up trends and try them out too in their Glow Up: Retro Makeup workshop. Whatever your style – whether that’s Classic 90s brows, 60s eyeliner or even Celtic war paint – this one-hour workshop will show you some highlights from retro makeup and give you the chance to recreate some designs for yourself. The museum will provide face-paint (and makeup wipes) to use for the workshop, but you’re welcome to bring your own makeup too if you’d like to.
February Half Term: The museum is open Monday to Friday 10am-4pm, Saturday and Sunday 12-4pm
Book your general admission tickets online
Love Your Clothes!
Tuesday 14 February, 11am-3pm
Tickets: Free with general admission.
Retro Champions!
Thursday 16 February, 11am-3.30pm
Tickets: Free with general admission.
Winter Talk: Everything 70s!
Friday 17 February, 1-2pm
Tickets: £4 per person or £2 for an online streaming ticket. 10% discount for Norfolk Museums Passholders. Book tickets for this event online.
Glow Up: Retro Makeup
Friday 17th February 3-4pm
Tickets: £4 per person. 10% discount for Norfolk Museums Passholders. Book tickets for this event onlin
With all the permanent displays and exhibitions to explore alongside these special events, a visit to Norfolk Museums this half term is great value for money – we’ll see you there!
