There is tons of creative fun for little hands and feet in relaxed and engaging art session.

Mini Makers - Messy Play at The Herbert Art Gallery

• Dates: 11 January, 1 February, 7 March (World Book Day Special), 11 April, 2 May, 6 June 2024 
• Times: 10.30am - 12pm & 1.30pm – 3.00pm 
• Venue: Herbert Art Gallery & Museum, Jordan Well, Coventry, CV1 5QP
• Price: Drop in | £2 per child, including babies | Pay on the door
• Suitable for: For ages 0-4.

There is tons of creative fun for little hands and feet in this relaxed and engaging art session. Babies and toddlers will have the opportunity to explore various materials across the sessions including paint, glitter, paste, sand, clay, slimy spaghetti, chalk and much more! These sessions will also expose them to early mark making, enabling them to develop good concentration, muscle control and encourage their imaginations.

11 January – Winter Wonders:
In the calm and quiet of January, embrace the winter season with serene sensory play. Children will explore small world ice trays, dive feet first into foamy snow, make melted snowmen paintings and cute keepsake handprint mittens.

1 February – Portrait Heads:
Let your children explore faces through art and reflections inspired by the fabulous portraits in the ‘Coventry Art Societies Exhibition 2024’. They will jump through rainbow paint to make their mark on reflective tin foil, explore mirror play trays filled with feathers, bash colourful baked cotton smile emojis and create fun abstract faces with scented plasticine and pasta shapes.

7 March – World Book Day Special, The Tiger Who Came to Tea:
You are invited to the most terrific tiger tea party this spring; stalk and pounce through paint, leaving tiger-shaped footprints around the studio, pour colourful petals and mint tea, ice and sprinkle rich tea biscuits, decorate stripey tiger masks to take home. Join us for our annual celebration of World Book Day with our retelling of The Tiger Who Came to Tea by Judith Kerr in our unique Sensory Stories and Rhymes sessions.

11 April – April Showers – It’s raining, it’s pouring, but Mini Makers is never boring.
Discover the fun of rain-based activities as we explore the colour blue with trays full of dyed rice, shredded paper and hundreds of cotton wool balls to pretend your little ones are floating in a rain cloud. Plus, get creative and experiment with mark-making using our water spray bottles, paint dabbers, pipettes and, of course, a bit of puddle paint jumping to get those feet involved.

2 May – Move ‘n’ Groove – Let your children musically explore art.
They will ping rubber bands to make vibrating paintings, mark-make with drumsticks, explore monochrome sensory trays filled with shredded paper, leave their mark on the dancefloor as they stomp through paint, dancing to the beat of the music and craft their own trumpets too.

6 June – Celebrate Summer
One of our favourite themes of the year! Delve into our sandpits, pick shells and pebbles from seaside-inspired trays, bring to life sunny scenes with hand printing, and so much more with this colourful Mini Makers session.

It is advisable that you and your child wear items of clothing that you are happy to risk getting paint on. Whilst the paint is water based it may stain if not washed out quickly.