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Art Venues

Upcoming Events

• Journey of a Century: From the Forbidden City to the Palace Museum

  Dec 19th 2025

  2025 marks the 100th anniversary of the foundation of the Palace Museum in Beijing. Using archival and recent photographs, this exhibition presents the transformative 100 years of the Palace Museum from an imperial palace complex to a public institution that serves as a museum, research centre, cultural tourist attraction, historic palace complex, and World Heritage Site.

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• Echoes of Friendship: the Squire Family in Meiji Era Japan

  Dec 19th 2025

  In 1902, two young British girls, Dorothy and Marjorie moved to Japan. The girls and their mother, Lydia, were travelling to join their father, George Squire, who had been working for the Senju Paper Company in Japan since 1898. For the next two years the family lived, worked and made friends within the Japanese community in Kokura, a town on Kyushu, the southernmost of Japan’s main islands. After the family left Japan, they settled in Sunderland. This exhibition tells their story using the objects which they donated to the Oriental Museum more than 70 years after they left Japan. It also tells the story of the Moriyama family, pioneering Japanese photographers. Photographs taken at the Moriyama Studio offer glimpses into the lives of both families and friendships that endured across continents.

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• Family Activities: Toothy Tales from Ancient Egypt

  Jan 3rd 2026

  Find out why the Ancient Egyptians had bad teeth and make your own set of chompers to take away.

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• Family Activities: Devoted Ducks

  Jan 10th 2026

  Get ready for Valentine's day and spot the devoted Korean wedding ducks at the museum and make a quacky companion of your own.

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• Sgraffito Art Workshop

  Jan 10th 2026

  A creative workshop lead by artist Suzanne Williams. Sgraffito is an artistic technique that involves scratching through a top layer of colour to reveal an underlying layer. The word comes from the Italian "graffiare," meaning "to scratch." In this session, participants will create several Sgrafitto compositions, using oil pastels and acrylic paints on board.

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• Family Activities: Hello From Here

  Jan 17th 2026

  Visit the exhibition about two British girls who went to live in Japan in the early 1900s. Find out about their lives in Japan and how they stayed in touch with their friends after returning to the north-east. Then design and write a postcard your own postcard - who will you post it to?

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• Family Activities: The Fabulous Phoenicians

  Jan 24th 2026

  Spot the ancient Phoenician hedgehog pot in the Silk Roads Gallery and make a super cute pine cone hedgehog!

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• Family Activities: The Eye of Horus

  Jan 31st 2026

  Learn all about the Ancient Egyptian god Horus and make an Eye of Horus amulet.

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