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Free Events in South Kensington

We have an abundance of free events in South Kensington for a great day out. From guided tours through the galleries, self-led walks, a new series of Lates events, free displays and miles of galleries covering art, science, design, natural history and so much more. 

Great Exhibition Road Festival

17th-18th June 2023
South Kensington
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Join us in South Kensington on 17-18 June 2023 to celebrate the power of awe and wonder to spark innovation in science and the arts with a weekend of free events for all ages.

Easter Family Fun: Be a Palaeontologist

3rd-16th April
11am-4pm
Natural History Museum
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Join the Museum for a day of activities that will challenge the way your little ones think about the natural world - its past, present and future - and inspire their curiosity and fascination.

Japan House London Family Workshops

10th-16th April
Times vary
Japan House London
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Explore the cultures of Japan this Easter with a series of free family-friendly workshops. During each workshop, participants can enjoy learning about Japan and unleashing their creativity while trying an activity using original Japan House London worksheets.

Registrations open for the Great Exhibition Road Festival

17 & 18 June
Great Exhibition Road Festival
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The Great Exhibition Road Festival returns to South Kensington! Register now to come along for a great weekend of free events for all ages celebrating how awe and wonder can spark innovation in science and the arts. Check out the first events we've released for a taste of what's on this summer.

Great Exhibitionists

27th March-1st April
Times vary
Royal College of Music
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Taking up the spirit of the 1851 Great Exhibition, the Great Exhibitionists series is curated entirely by students. Expect a variety of innovative performances, including collaborations with visual artists, dancers and actors, a multimedia composition and much more.

Serpentine's Pavilion 2023

June 2023
Serpentine
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Serpentine have announced that Lebanese-born, Paris-based architect Lina Ghotmeh, has been selected to conceive the 22nd Pavilion. Ghotmeh’s Pavilion will be unveiled at Serpentine South in June 2023 with Goldman Sachs supporting the annual project for the 9th consecutive year.

Portrait of Melissa Thompson by Kehinde Wiley

Until 26th Oct 2023
10am-5:45pm
V&A
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Nigerian-American artist, Kehinde Wiley is best known for his portraits of people of colour in settings and poses that reference Old Master paintings. Wiley’s portraits replace European figures of power, asking us to consider the power dynamics behind who is represented in these portraits and why.

Print and Prejudice: Women Printmakers, 1700 – 1930

Until 1st May 2023
10am-5:45pm
V&A
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This display charts the development of women artists’ remarkable but overlooked engagement with printmaking from the 18th to early 20th centuries – from picturesque landscapes, to intimate portraits and vibrant botanical works.

BBC at 100

From 27 July 2022
10am-6pm
Science Museum
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Celebrate 100 years of the BBC with a new display that explores how the BBC has used broadcast technologies to deliver its mission to inform, educate and entertain its audiences.

Titanosaur: Life as the Biggest Dinosaur

31st March-7th Jan 2024
10am-6pm
Natural History Museum
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Step into the world of the colossal titanosaur Patagotitan mayorum, the largest known creature to have ever walked our planet. On display for the first time ever in Europe, this is your chance to meet this extraordinary dinosaur up close.

KUMIHIMO: Japanese Silk Braiding by Domyo

23rd Feb-11th June
9am-6pm
Japan House London
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Discover the past, present and possible futures of kumihimo, an intricate, decorative braided cord from Japan, in the first major UK exhibition exploring this ancient yet contemporary Japanese art.

The Artistic Home

Until 23rd Sept 2023
10am-5:45pm
V&A
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Displaying art pottery was key to creating a fashionable, 'artistic' home in the late 1800s. This display showcases the creativity and innovation of British art potteries and their artists, many of them women, who painted and decorated wares by hand.

Field Notes

Until 31st Aug
10am-5:30pm
V&A
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What can the forest teach us? That is a key questions that runs through this display of contemporary design projects. This display is part of Make Good: Rethinking Material Futures, a ten-year project supported by John Makepeace OBE.

Laughing Matters: The State of a Nation

Until 8th Dec
10am-5:45pm
V&A
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Through over 30 objects, ranging from costumes to scripts, from puppets to music, this display unpicks the punchlines to discover what humour since the Victorian era – whether subversive, surreal, mocking or celebratory – can tell us about what it means to be British today.

The Web(s) of Life

19th Jun-17th Oct
Serpentine
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From June to September 2023 Serpentine will present The Web(s) of Life, a major new exhibition by artist and researcher Tomás Saraceno. The exhibition will present a series of artworks, activities & experiences that explore the ways life forms, weather systems and climate change are connected.

Pay What You Want at Leighton House

First Monday of Every Month
10am-1pm
Leighton House and Sambourne House Museum
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Set your diaries for Monday 6 February for the start of a new Pay What You Want scheme at Leighton House. Visit the museum on the first Monday of each month (from 10am to 1pm) and take the chance to only pay what you want to see inside the iconic historic house interiors.

OPEN! CHANNEL! FLOW!

27th Feb-29th April
11am-5pm
The Royal Society of Sculptors
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Polly Morgan's new work explores appropriation in the animal world; how colour, pattern and iridescence are used to dazzle and misdirect. New painted snakeskin-textured sculptures explore the politicisation of bodily adornments by drawing parallels between military and cultural warfare.

Quiet walking routes to and around South Ken

Discover South Kensington
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If you’re planning your trip to South Ken, take a look at our new walking map, created with Footways, where you can discover a range of wonderful routes to take a quiet stroll & discover our extraordinary history. Get off the tube a stop early and explore London’s home of arts, science and inspiration by foot.

John James Audubon and his Birds of America

Now open
10am-5:50pm
Natural History Museum
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This free display of engravings from John James Audubon's The Birds of America reaffirms why it continues to inspire artists, bird experts and conservationists alike.

Metalworking Now

Until August 31st
10am-5:30pm
V&A
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Contemporary metalworking is a dynamic field and today’s metalsmiths continue a long tradition of experimentation in a range of metals to create exciting and innovative work. This display highlights work by metalsmiths from across the world that have been collected by the museum since 2010.

Fake Lates

29th March
6:30pm-10pm
Science Museum
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From conspiracy theories to deep fakes, cryptocurrency and NFTs, counterfeits to AI art. As our world becomes increasingly digital and feels less tangible where do we draw the line on what we consider real and fake? And how do we know who to trust?