Primary school children help Rugby Art Gallery and Museum celebrate Platinum Jubilee

Rugby Art Gallery and Museum invited children from across the borough to create paintings and drawings celebrating Queen Elizabeth II's historic reign to decorate a giant rugby ball sculpture.
 
The sculpture looks set to be unveiled in the Swan Centre ahead of the Platinum Jubilee bank holiday weekend (2 to 5 June), featuring 200 designs.
 
But an exhibition featuring all 1,000 paintings and drawings submitted for the project has now opened at Rugby Art Gallery and Museum's Floor One Gallery.
 
The art project forms part of the art gallery and museum's programme of events to celebrate the Queen's Platinum Jubilee.
 
On Saturday 4 June the venue hosts a catwalk show and tea party to celebrate the culmination of Tea Leaf Tales' Hats Off! project, which secured funding from Arts Council England.
 
Tea Leaf Tales hosts a number of workshops at community venues in the town during May, where, inspired by Her Majesty’s well-documented passion for hats, participants can upcycle headwear to create hats fit for a Queen.
 
The monarch-inspired millinery takes to the catwalk outside Rugby Art Gallery and Museum from 1.30pm to 3.30pm.
 
A team from Rugby Art Gallery and Museum join the council’s Play Rangers at a Community Fun Day organised by the Fareham Youth Partnership at GEC Recreation Ground on Saturday 4 June. 
 
In addition to arts and crafts workshops, the fun day includes a host of family fun and games from 11am to 3pm.
 
Rugby Art Gallery and Museum’s Platinum Jubilee celebrations also form part of the venue’s packed programme of half-term activities, which run from Saturday 28 May to Saturday 4 June.
 
Throughout the week, visitors can hunt for a host of portraits of Her Majesty hidden throughout the art gallery and museum, with participants who complete the hunt entered into a prize draw.
 
For more information on the half-term programme, visit www.ragm.co.uk/holiday-activities

The exhibition of primary school pupils’ jubilee paintings runs at the Floor One Gallery until next Thursday (26 May).
 
Cllr Howard Roberts, Rugby Borough Council portfolio holder for leisure and wellbeing, said: “We were hugely impressed by both the quantity and quality of paintings, drawings and designs submitted for the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee art project, and we’re looking forward to unveiling the finished sculpture in the town centre ahead of the jubilee bank holiday weekend.
 
“The council has organised and supported a wide range of events to mark the historic milestone of the Her Majesty The Queen’s 70 years on the throne, and we’re all looking forward to joining in the celebrations.”

For more information on Hats Off! workshops, and to book a place, visit Tea Leaf Tales' Facebook: www.facebook.com/Tealeaf.Tales.Rugby