Photo of kids having fun by Allen Taylor

Enjoy the Winter holidays with our quick guide to some of the best Victorian digital exhibitions, virtual galleries and museums for your family to explore during the colder months 

Melbourne Winter School Holidays  – Friday 24 June to Sunday 3 July 2022

If you’re reading this, you’ve no doubt started to gear up for the Winter school holidays by googling words along the lines of ‘Melbourne June School holidays kids’ activities. These holidays always seem to come around very quickly and with most of the kids' time spent at home over the last two years, it's now more important than ever to get them out of the house, socialise and have fun.  Luckily Melbourne delivers and there is something for everyone.

Experience ScienceWorks' fun activities, interactive exhibitions, and new Planetarium shows, create your own digital art at Melbourne Museum, learn how to make your own movies at ACMI, and wonder at The Lume's digitised exhibition that brings Van Gogh's art to life at MCEC, or explore virtual exhibitions from the comfort of your own home with Immigration Museum's 'Identity: yours, mine, ours', 'The Art of Science' with the WEHI Research Institute.  

Winter Holiday Program at ScienceWorks 

Science Works is the perfect place for those with an insatiable curiosity and a never-ending stream of questions. Their mind-bending, immersive and interactive experiences are brilliant at explaining big ideas to little people.  The new exhibition 'Lights, Energy, Action' is sure to be a hit where you can explore all different kinds of energy, including light, sound, and electricity, and the lightning dance is not to be missed - it's sure to impress! If you're looking for a fun and educational day out, Science Works is the place to be. 

Explore all things energy through three rounds of electrifying demonstrations with Lights, Energy, Action!

Digital Art Class at Melbourne Museum

Designed to inspire creativity, our Digital Arts Class is run in a unique digital immersive space. You will learn digital skills for drawing amazing museum objects.

This class uses fascinating source materials that tell the stories behind the museum's collection, from the unlimited natural textures and colours and forms of fossils and minerals, to feathers, insects and more.

Whether you are a beginner, expert or somewhere in between, this creative drawing class will introduce you to digital art technologies and skills in a relaxed environment.

Book your workshop here

Holiday workshops at ACMI

Keep young hands and minds busy with their rich program of fun and engaging workshops that also teach important STEAM skills.

These holidays, children can learn the skills behind creating a successful YouTube video, learn the secrets of special effects for amazing TikTok videos or explore how to make a film masterpiece. Younger kids can join us to learn how to create blockbuster movies using iPads.

The workshops include: Make a movie, YouTube Starz, TikTok Creatives: Special Effects and Junior Make a Movie.

For more information, click here

An Immersive Van Gogh Experience at The Lume

The inaugural experience at THE LUME Melbourne will feature the vibrant works of the Dutch master Vincent van Gogh.

Van Gogh’s works have been exhibited and admired for over a century – but never like this. Transcend time and space as you accompany Van Gogh on a multi-sensory journey through the Netherlands, Paris, Arles, Saint Rémy and Auvers-sur-Oise while his beloved masterpieces come alive on an epic scale.

Book tickets here

Have fun with City Libraries and the Alice In Wonderland holiday program 

This Winter the City of Melbourne

 libraries are excited to offer a school holiday programme themed around Alice of Wonderland. Take a trip down the rabbit hole with the six City of Melbourne libraries located in the CBD, Carlton, Docklands, East Melbourne, North Melbourne and Southbank during these school holidays and enjoy a range of events these holidays. Whether you join the tiny tea party, paint roses red at the Queen Gardens or make some cool crafty things at a Mad Hatter’s crafternoon, there is something for everyone.

#DIF pick: Alice automaton at the City Library

Get creative with this fun STEAM activity. Learn how to turn a paper cup and a few pieces of cardboard into a moving Alice in Wonderland automaton.

For more information, click here

SAE Create for a day workshop

SAE Melbourne is opening its doors this July for the SAE Create for a day, a one-day program to expand your skills and get you working on inspiring creative projects in the fields of Animation, Audio, Design, Film, Games, Music Production or Songwriting. Don’t miss out on your chance to experience life as an SAE student, and discover what it means to be a creative professional in state-of-the-art facilities with industry experts by your side.

During the workshop, attendees will learn valuable practical and collaborative skills to build a creative piece of work! They will also receive a certificate of participation to acknowledge the creative project they have undertaken.

For more information, click here

Neighbourhood Earth

Neighbourhood Earth is an award-winning exhibition combining the latest science with cutting-edge technology to create an immersive space experience. Developed by Toto Creative, in conjunction with the U.S. Space & Rocket Centre and NASA’s George C. Marshall Space Flight Centre, Neighbourhood Earth uses screens, surround sound, and a giant projection-mapped dome to tell the story of space science and exploration in a uniquely profound way.

This exceptional exhibit gives everyone the chance to journey through the galaxy to find out more about space using the latest in hologram technology, a 360-degree theatre experience, and a full-size replica of one of the Space Station’s key modules. The exhibit has plenty of hands-on experiences such as an Interactive Gravity Station and controlling for re-entry into Earth’s atmosphere, you can even build a rocket using different nose cones, fuselage, and tail fin components at an interactive game station.

Find out more about this stunning voyage through space here

ANYTHING BUT SQUARE: UNDER SURVEILLANCE

This winter at Fed Square, enter a hair-raising, spine-tingling world – where we are watched, everywhere, all the time. 

Our phones, our homes are listening. Our streets, our devices are watching. The Eyes are following you.

Creepy, huh?

In their winter Anything But Square: Under Surveillance program, they playfully explore these murky feelings of awkwardness and intrigue – the push and pull of the desire to know and the desire to be deceived.

The program full of events includes a dance party where you can dance up a storm like we’re all at an End of the World party in a dystopian movie, secret workshops making eye-catching jewellery with Wiradjuri designer Kristy Dickinson of Haus of Dizzy or join an embroidery program presented by Pink Ember Studio, there are specialty foods, an outdoor film festival and a huge sculpture of a head made of eyes as part of the art installation. 

Check out the full program of activity here

Making Art: Imagine Everything is Real

Curating creative experiences for children, teenagers and families is what the NGV does best. Through participatory exhibitions, events and sensory experiences, the NGV connects children with art and culture from all over the world, enabling them to experience the diverse and creative ways artists approach their work and allowing children access to new worlds and ideas.

Making Art: Imagine Everything is Real is the centre of creativity for children and their families at the NGV. Coinciding with the premiere exhibition, The Picasso Century, Making Art features a range of hands-on activities and multimedia experiences inspired by methods of working invented by some of the leading European artists included in the exhibition.

European artists Georges Braque, Remedios Varo, Pablo Picasso, and Natalia Goncharova lived and worked in Paris in the early twentieth century and are recognised for their innovative and experimental approaches to making art. While learning about some of the leading artists of the twentieth century in Europe, children can make their own surprising works when they explore collage techniques, write poetry and play surrealist games and turn everyday materials into large-scale sculptures.

Find out more about this event here 

If you have an event you'd like to list as part of our Winter Holiday article, get in touch to let us know or register your event directly on the website by following the steps here