Family Fun | Get Arty: Roar-some Makes
Saturday 14, Wednesday 18, Friday 20 February 2026, 10.30 – 11.30am | Worcester City Art Gallery and Museum
Come and get arty this February half-term holiday at Worcester City Art Gallery and Museum!
Children will be able to make a roar-some clay creation – will it be a dino egg, footprint or a fossil?🦖
To go with it, make a fantastic prehistoric companion to take home, a 3D cardboard dinosaur.
And design collagraph prints inspired by dinosaurs and fossils too!
Get Arty is on: Saturday 14 February, Wednesday 18 February, Friday 20 February at 10.30 – 11.30am.
£5.50 per child. A parent or carer must stay during the session. Free entry to the Art Gallery and Museum.
More dino fun in February:
Family Trail | Egg-splorers: Dino Discovery Trail – Saturday 14 February – Sunday 22 February 2026 (closed Mondays), £1. Find out more.
Roar-some Bags of Fun – Saturday 14 February – Sunday 22 February 2026 (closed Mondays), £2.50. Find out more.
Family Mornings | Spectacular Space!
Tuesday 17, Wednesday 18, Thursday 19 February 2026, 10.30 – 12noon
Go out of this world in a fun galactic stay and play family morning in the February half-term holiday!
Children can design their very own astronaut mask, create moving rocket pictures, and paint the planets with balloons. Get hands-on with space-themed messy play trays too! 🚀
Family mornings end with a drink, a biscuit and a story.
Suitable for children pre-school age to 11 years old.
£5.50 per child + general admission. General admission applies to all visitors and can be purchased online or on the day of your visit.
Pikelets: Tots Through Time (early years sessions)
Wednesdays in term time, 10.15 – 11.45am | The Commandery
Pikelets: Tots Through Time is The Commandery’s first early years programme designed to encourage little ones to explore, play and learn.
Each week, the session will take place in a new area of the museum and gardens, with the activities tailored to the space. Be a shape detective in the Great Hall, join in a tea party in the Georgian rooms, take part in sensory scavenger hunts in the beautiful walled gardens and much more. 🌻
Pikelets: Tots Through Time has been carefully designed for crawlers to pre-school children, with fun activities each week to help develop fine motor skills, counting, play-based learning and creative thinking – all within The Commandery’s unique museum setting.
Sessions end with drink, biscuit and a story.
Facilities include a baby change, lift access, and onsite café Little Al’s at The Commandery, all in a convenient city centre location (WR1 2HU) with parking nearby. Pikelets takes place in term time only, so there is no session on Wednesday 18 February.
£5 per child (£2.50 per additional sibling).
If you wish to visit the museum after the session, you can enjoy a 50% discount on day admission (£4.50 for adult day ticket instead of £9).
Living History 2026
All day, Saturday 21 and Sunday 22 February 2026 | The Commandery
Come face to face with the past at The Commandery’s biggest weekend of the year! ⚔️
Explore living history encampments and watch marvellous military displays at Worcester’s historic Commandery.
The site will be alive with performances by musicians and dancers, and you can learn about traditional crafts too.
Encounter reenactors throughout the beautiful Grade-1 listed building and gardens, where they’ll be demonstrating and displaying historical weaponry.
A full schedule will be available before the event.
Living History 2026 is organised in partnership with The Worcester Re-enactors.
Plan your visit
Opening hours
- Saturday 21 February, 10am – 5pm (last entry 4pm)
- Sunday 22 February, 10am – 4pm (last entry 3pm)
Admission
Usual admission applies; free admission to those with a season or residents’ pass. Find out more.
Advance booking is not essential, you can just turn up, pay in the shop, and enjoy!
While you’re here…
See how many things you can tick off The Commandery’s top 10 highlights list!
The High Dosage Tour of Steward’s Chemist Shop
First Friday of the month, 11 – 11.30am | Worcester City Art Gallery and Museum
Step inside the fantastic Steward’s Chemist Shop at Worcester City Art Gallery and Museum and discover its history…
Take the High Dosage tour – with the chance to see items that are not usually on display – in the hidden realm behind the Dispensing Screen.🧪
What secrets does the Victorian Chemist’s Shop hold? Come and find out!
The display was set up after the closure of Steward’s Chemist Shop at 27 High Street, when the entire shop along with the fixtures and fittings were purchased in 1974 and transported to the museum to be redisplayed.
£4.50 for the talk; book now! Worcester City Art Gallery and Museum is free to visit.
Please note that in April, the chemist shop will be open on Friday 10 April (the Art Gallery and Museum is closed on Friday 3 April due to Good Friday).
Spotlight Talk | Skin. John Singer Sargent and the scandal of Madame X
Saturday 23 May 2026, 11am – 12noon | Worcester City Art Gallery and Museum
By 1883 John Singer Sargent was establishing what would become a glittering career as the go-to portrait painter of high society. As a young artist in Paris he implored a beautiful socialite to allow him to paint her. Over the following year Sargent laboured over what he later considered to be his masterpiece, the portrait of Virginie Gautreau. The painting, exhibited at the Paris Salon of 1884, shocked its viewers with its connotations of sexual impropriety, and the breaking of class taboos in the artificial colouration of his subject’s skin. It ruined Virginie’s reputation and ended Sargent’s career in Paris, but he would quickly create a new life in England as the portrait painter of the era, creating visions of beauty and swaggering privilege.
In his second talk for Worcester’s exhibition on Sargent’s work, art historian Justin Reay discusses Sargent’s approach to painting Virginie Gautreau, including how the sexuality of the artist played a role in this portrait; he describes the public response to the painting now known as ‘Madame X’ and the reasons for the scandal which ensued, and discusses how the painting arose from the self-identity of the sitter which resonates today with modern society’s fascination with how we recreate ourselves as we wish to be seen.
If you’d like to visit the exhibition too, advance booking is available online. There are a variety of admission options to choose from. The rest of the Art Gallery and Museum is free to visit as usual.
Bridges of Light - New Festival in Worcester
We are excited to announce Bridges of Light, a new, two-day light festival, with a focus on communities, creativity and collaboration.
-
Wednesday 29 and Thursday 30 October
-
6pm - 9pm
-
Worcester City Centre
-
Free to attend and suitable for all ages
Through high quality light artwork, we invite you to share in our community stories. Visit our light installations, take part in our interactive artworks, grab a bite to eat, and enjoy Bridges of Light with family and friends.
Find out more by following us on socials @SevernArts #BridgesofLightWorcester and visiting our website: https://www.severnarts.org.uk/listing/category/bridges-of-light
Bridges of Light is presented by Severn Arts and is part of the Local Voices, Creative Choices Programme
Your Worcester: Gallery Tour
Every other Saturday, 11am and 2pm | Worcester City Art Gallery and Museum
Enjoy a guided tour of permanent display, Your Worcester, an exciting exhibition new in 2025. Find out about the city, its astonishing history and changing traditions, and what this all means to the people who live here now.
Your Worcester features favourites from the museum collection together with new objects added to the collection by the community, all with a link to Worcester’s long and rich heritage.
Covering everything from the teeth of King John to Lea & Perrins, Worcester City Football Club, and the clothes of Windrush arrivals to the city, the exhibition is designed by the community, for the community.
This tour will take you on a journey through Your Worcester – bring along your questions and see what you’ll discover!
Talk dates, autumn 2025
- Saturday 6 September, 11am and 2pm (unfortunately, 20 September talks have been cancelled)
- Saturday 18 October, 11am and 2pm
- Saturdays 1, 15, 29 November, 11am and 2pm
- Saturday 13 December, 11am and 2pm
£4.50 for the talk (free entry to the Art Gallery and Museum). Book your tour.
Family Trail | Potion Panic!
Saturday 25 October – Sunday 2 November (closed Monday) | Worcester City Art Gallery and Museum
Lots of important potions have gone missing – can you find them all and reveal their powers?
Look around the museum and see if you can spot them all and discover what magical powers they’d give you. Match them up on your trail sheet and head to the shop to collect your prize!
£1 per child. Free entry to Worcester City Art Gallery and Museum.
Eliza Carthy & Jon Boden – The Wassail Christmas Tour 2025
Eliza Carthy & Jon Boden – The Wassail Christmas Tour 2025
Tuesday 18th November 2025, 7:30pm (doors open 7pm)
Location: Huntingdon Hall, Crowngate, Worcester, WR1 3LD
Tickets: £28.00 – available from the Worcester Theatres Box Office or call 01905 611427
Before there was carolling, there was wassailing, where seasonal songs were exchanged for money, food and ale. In the countryside trees were blessed, while in the towns wassaillers went house to house with their songs and calls for Christmas treats. Coming from the Anglo Saxon waes hael, ‘wassail’ is a toast wishing good health with a ‘be well’.
In November/December 2025 Eliza Carthy and Jon Boden combine their considerable talents and reputations within the UK folk scene, touring as a duo once again, for a nationwide wassail across key venues. Presenting seasonal, traditional material on a stage decorated for the occasion, they will take audiences back to some of the oldest songs in the English canon, telling Christmas tales, spreading good cheer and lighting up the darkest days of the year, ahead of Christmas Day itself.
In 2023 The Wassail hit the road for its first full tour, supported by the release of the seasonal album, ‘Glad Christmas Comes’ (Hudson Records):
‘Beautiful music from two of our very finest and most valuable artists currently working; Glad Christmas Comes is a very easy album to love.’ Folk Radio UK
The tour sold out in venues across the UK, with over 90% of tickets sold across the whole tour.
After a two year break, The Wassail returns to a host of very special venues in November/December 2025. Get your tickets while they are still available.
Jon Boden
One half of Spiers & Boden, lead singer of the mighty Bellowhead and with his own successful career as a soloist and with Jon Boden & The Remnant Kings and Jon Boden & The Remnant Strings, Jon has been a major name in English folk music for over twenty years with more BBC Folk Awards than any other artist. Add in a performance in the Hollywood movie About Time, his role singing/playing the theme tunes of both the BBC Radio 2 Folk show, The Archers and the Beyond Paradise TV series, and his place as a respected singer songwriter for both theatre and the folk scene, there is no question that Jon is a musical force to be reckoned with. Together with John Spiers, he also did a stint in The Ratcatchers, the backing band for Eliza Carthy in the mid-noughties, so has a long association and friendship with Eliza that has led naturally to the creation of The Wassail project.
‘The stand out performer of his generation’ The Guardian
‘Alone, Boden still has the energy of a twelve piece band’ EDS Magazine
Eliza Carthy
Twice nominated for the Mercury Prize and winner of innumerable other accolades over a 20-year career, Eliza has performed and recorded with a diverse array of artists including, Paul Weller, Rufus and Martha Wainwright, Patrick Wolf and Bob Neuwirth. Eliza grew up immersed in the world of traditional music. She still divides her time between touring and recording with her legendary parents, Martin Carthy and Norma Waterson as well as engaging in numerous pioneering solo and band projects. She has co-presented the BBC Radio 3 World Music Awards, been a regular guest-presenter on the BBC Radio 2 Mark Radcliffe Show and has made many appearances on BBC TV’s 'Later…with Jools Holland'. Eliza was awarded an MBE for services to folk music in 2014.
‘Eliza Carthy is one of the figureheads of the English folk revival.’ Evening Standard
‘Brave and anything but predictable’ **** The Guardian www.eliza-carthy.com / www.jonboden.com
More info & music:
✨ Book your tickets now and celebrate the season with two of the UK’s finest folk voices.
For more information contact: Terry O’Brien, Playpen Agency | 01953 850 810 | 07932 720 058 | terry@playpenmusic.co.uk