This year’s Family Arts Festival is running over 24 days from 9 October – 1 November 2015. It’s a national festival with a wonderful range of events and creative activities for families all over the UK.

We’re part of a local Family Arts network for Medway, which includes The Guildhall in Rochester, Play On Words Community Theatre at The Brook in Chatham and the LV21 Lightship in Gillingham. All the Family Arts venues have signed up to festival guidelines that encourage high quality standards and best practices for workshops and events for families.

Have a look at INTRA’s line up for the festival below, or search the Family Arts Festival website for other local events.

Autumn Themed Printed Lampshades

Explore three wonderful methods of printmaking to create autumn themed designs, and craft them into a beautiful lampshade. Prints from nature, hand drawn designs, and prints using a selection of thermofax screens.
Sun 18 October, 12:00 – 16:30
£55 adults /£75 joint ticket for an adult with a 13 – 16 year old
Full details and booking (on the Medway Fine Printmakers website)

Halloween Decorations

Prepare your home for visiting spooks with decorations made from card, paper, vinyl stickers, recycled materials and printmaking. Create cats, bats, jack-o-lanterns, owls and ghouls! We’ll decorate paper lanterns, make hanging decorations, and cut stickers from coloured vinyl for spooked-up windows.
Sunday 25 October 2015, 11:00 – 13:00
£9, All ages
Full details and booking

Print A Spooky Tote Bag or T-shirt

Mini screen printing that is so much fun you’ll find it hard to stop! Choose from lots of designs including spooks, vampires, ghouls, monsters, Day of the Dead designs, spiders, bats, spirals, stars etc. and print your own combination on a small tote bag (£5), or a shopping bag or t-shirt (£9).
Tue 27th October, 11:00, 12:00, 13:00, 14:00 or 15:00 start times
£5 – £9, Suitable for ages 5 years old+, but adults love this too!
Full details and booking (on the Medway Fine Printmakers website)

Day of the Dead Festival

Try out some of the beautiful crafts seen across Mexico during the Day of the Dead festivities, and take part in creative activities inspired by this colourful fiesta. Everyone can get involved, making, printing, decorating, painting, looking and remembering. Help us to build a big colourful shrine, decorate sugar skulls, make masks, have your face painted, craft some jewellery, join in the colouring competition, and create a piñata.
Sat 31 October & Sun 1 November 2015
11:00 – 18:00 both days
No need to book – just drop in
Free entry and activities under £5
Full details