Festival 2018, Learning & Participation

Platform at the Museum

Thursday 6 December, 5.30–6.30pm (2018)

V & A Museum of Childhood

PRICE: Free, booking required

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Join us for a much-loved annual event at the festival, in partnership with THAMES. As part of Spitalfields Music’s award-winning, year-round Learning and Participation programme, festival artists will be working with young people from Tower Hamlets through the Autumn term to create new music, inspired by the architecture and design of the V&A Museum of Childhood in Bethnal Green.

The museum was built in 1872 and is a colossal iron structure, with a round-arched red brick exterior inspired by contemporary German architecture. Perhaps most striking is the fish scale pattern marble floor, laid by female inmates of Woking Gaol and the murals in the north and south exterior walls.

Audiences are invited to move around the space, however chairs will be available

The programme also features Soundbox Creative Ensemble, our all-ability inclusive music collective that brings together disabled and non-disabled musicians aged 16–25 from East London to make and create music using a mixture of traditional instruments, music technology and singing.

Delivered in partnership with Tower Hamlets Arts and Music Education Service (THAMES). Soundbox Creative Ensemble is delivered in partnership by Spitalfields Music, THAMES, Drake Music, and LSO Discovery.

Please note darkness and flashing lights will be used during this performance. For more information, phone 020 7377 0287.

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Venue information

V & A Museum of Childhood

Cambridge Heath Road
London
E2 9PA
United Kingdom

Get directions

Underground & Overground

Bethnal Green Overground  (6 mins)
Bethnal Green Underground (2 mins)
Cambridge Heath Overground (10 mins)
Walking times are given in brackets.

Buses

All of our venues are easy to reach by bus. To plan your quickest route use TFL’s journey planner.

Built in 1872, the V&A Museum of Childhood’s design was led by J W Wild and looked to contemporary German architecture in its round-arched style. Originally the museum housed a collection that ranged from 18th century French art to collections of food and animal products from the Great Exhibition and as a result the museum’s purpose and vision was undefined. In an attempt to re-engage visitors, and particularly children, the head curator, Arthur Sabin, sought to make the museum a more interesting environment for younger audiences. Subsequently, in 1922, the museum opened a classroom and started the process of sourcing child-related objects, including donations from Queen Mary of her childhood toys. Significant interest in the collection developed and subsequently, the museum re-opened in 1974 as the Museum of Childhood that we know today.