A creative start to spring with Spring Holiday Pop-up
Families takeover Gallery 1 to kick start the school holidays
Our Spring Holiday Pop-up returned to Gallery 1 this year for a weekend full of family fun.
The space was filled with activity sheets, art materials, a play area for ages 0-3 and the walls were covered in artwork created by community groups and schools during projects with our Learning team. Families enjoyed making their own works of art and hanging them on the gallery wall, as well as adding to our giant vinyl mural outside of Gallery 1.
We also welcomed families into Create Space for Family Print Lab and Family Art Lab workshops and in Cinema 2 for screenings of Discovery Shorts for Tinies. Take a look at what everyone got up to...
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Our drop-in space inspired creativity
Gallery 1 became a drop-in space for the weekend, filled with activity sheets, art materials and a play area. We welcomed over 300 children and adults over three days and they created some wonderful artwork. They also added to a giant mural on the outside of Gallery 1 by creating some lovely vinyl shapes and characters. Here's what they had to say:
Thank you for a lovely afternoon. A wonderful and inspiring space to share with the family and spend valuable time together making memories.
Great space full of inspiration. Lots of materials to craft with. Nice having space for the kids to run around and the little corner for the wee ones.
Thanks for making this great space available for everyone!
We love the DCA, especially the free activities.
Fun for everyone in our family workshops
As well as the drop-in area, we also held a selection of family workshops in Create Space. There was Messy Play on Friday, which saw babies aged 0-3 learning how to make their mark, and then a selection of Family Art Lab and Family Print Lab sessions across the weekend. All of these workshops sold out , with over 90 babies, children and adults taking part. Families really enjoyed learning creative skills together, with the help of our artist tutors.
This was a wonderful workshop. The kids enjoyed it thoroughly. Would highly recommend it to families.
Workshops always good - even for adults! As a teacher I still use ideas from one that I did 10 years ago!
Monsters and zebras in the cinema
For this year's Spring Holiday Pop-up, we expanded into Cinema 2 with screenings of Discovery Shorts for Tinies. This mix of short films and interactive activities went down a treat, with wee ones creating their own creatures, roaring like dinosaurs and dancing in their seats.
Thank you for today! We really enjoyed it. Great choice of films and activities, and staff fantastic too!
Such a lovely morning - excellent films and super engaging activities! Thank you very much. We've has loads of fun.
Display by community groups and schools
As well as activity sheets, Gallery 1 also housed a display of artwork made by community groups and schools, created during projects with our Learning team. This year's display focussed on first-time printmaking and included Gelli plate monotype, screen printing, letterpress and more.
There was work by Kings Park School, ST/ART@DCA with Tayside Healthcare Arts Trust, Amina Muslim Women's Resource Centre, ScrapAntics, New Scots' Family Club, Art at the Start and Braview Academy. Find out more about these projects in our handout and explore images of some of the work below.
Spring Holiday Pop-up 2025 Handout
Thank you!
A big thank you to everyone who came along to Spring Holiday Pop-up 2025 and made it such a great success. We loved seeing the inside and outside of Gallery 1 fill up with your artwork and creativity. We especially loved this bit of feedback from a family who got so much out of their visit...
Had a great Morning! Our 2-year-old enjoyed the films for 'tinies' and is very happy with his monster and zebra art. A wee break for brunch in the restaurant, then up to Create Space. He enjoyed using the soft play and exploring stencils for the first time. He liked using the scissors too. All staff were very welcoming! A brilliant service to the community!
