Discover the Laing with your little ones and support their early development in a fun and relaxed way, exploring a different theme each week. Each session involves a short introduction, an adventure around the gallery with fun interactive activities, a practical art activity with various materials and a short story time. Fun for children aged 12 months--5 years, every Tuesday morning during term time.

Over the course of 3 days (Tuesday-Thursday), young people are welcome to explore the galleries, talk about art, and create their own work in sessions led by a professional arts educator. Experiment with materials, learn new skills, and create a dynamic set of works in the Laing's Art Studio! For an extra charge we also have an option to add early drop-off available from 9.30am and late pick up until 4pm. Please select which days you would like to add these when purchasing your general ticket. Please note this additional cost is per child.

10am-3pm For an extra charge we also have an option to add early drop-off available from 9.30am and late pick up until 4pm. Please select which days you would like to add these when purchasing your general ticket. Please note this additional cost is per child. Over the course of 3 days (Tuesday-Thursday), young people are welcome to explore the galleries, talk about art, and create their own work in sessions led by a professional arts educator. Experiment with materials, learn new skills, and create a dynamic set of works in the Laing's Art Studio! Parents/Carers will need to fill out a registration form for each child attending. The information gathered in these forms is essential to the wellbeing of your child and the success of these sessions, failure to submit these forms may result in your booking being cancelled.

Explore the diversity of colour theory, from painting to printing and beyond. This is one of a series of Secondary CPD sessions taking place on Wednesday 7 May, 4 June, and 2 July.

This workshop showcases activities that are all about considering artwork from a variety of perspectives and developing students critical thinking skills. Find your voice as a welcome critic in the gallery and discover what else we're talking about when we discuss art. This is one of a series of Secondary CPD sessions taking place on Wednesday 7 May, 4 June, and 2 July.

An inclusive art class held on the first Saturday of every month for7-12 year olds and parents. Each ticket covers entry for one child and one parent. Participants will have the opportunity to work with professional art educators, working in a different medium or with a different technique each month. This group aims to be fully inclusive and anyone with additional needs is welcome. If you would like to have an informal conversation with the tutor before attending then please contact the Laing learning team [email protected]. Run in partnership with Arts Connect.

With These Hands explores the representation of craft in paintings, drawings, and prints. The process of making and mending by hand, whether a domestic pastime, rural and semi-industrial labour, or essential war effort, is a persistent theme to which artists return. Yet these artworks are rarely straightforward observations of everyday activity. Instead, the act of making is used to symbolise personal and communal identity, leisure and work, tradition and progress. Produced in Britain and Europe from the 1750s onwards, these images reflect a society undergoing immense change. The growth of industry, the reorganisation of the methods and places of work, the changing status of women and the conflicts of World War I and II all impacted the value placed on hand skill. Some artists were interested in capturing traditions – their works romanticising crafts they perceived as almost lost – while others were drawn to the atmosphere and activity of the workshop and factory. With These Hands takes you from refined drawing rooms to weaving sheds, from a woodland saw pit to an inner city carpenter’s shop, and from country blacksmiths to industrial forges. It focuses particularly on the changing role of making in women’s lives, the relationship between craft and community, and its impact on our landscape. The exhibition features paintings and prints by artists including Mary Cassatt, G.F. Watts, Stanhope Forbes, Harold Knight, Evelyn Dunbar, and Ralph Hedley. At a time when we are reassessing the importance of hand making, for mental health and environmental benefits, paintings and prints help us to understand our complex attitudes towards craft. The exhibition will bring together paintings and objects – quilts, embroidery, metalwork, wood carvings, ceramics and basketry – to explore both traditional techniques and contemporary approaches. Makers include C. R. Ashbee, Bernard Leach, Michael Cardew and local quilter Amy Emms. Loans from Tate, V&A, Royal Academy of Arts, Imperial War Museums and regional galleries complement the strengths of North East Museums’ collections. Objects from the Shipley Art Gallery’s outstanding craft collections and the Discovery Museum’s textile collection are shown alongside paintings from the Laing.