Activities and Events

A variety of exciting activities, workshops and events take place in the museum galleries, the community rooms and out in the town. These include getting hands on with museum objects, art sessions, memory cafes and ‘behind-the-scenes’ tours of the museum stores. Keep checking back regularly to see what’s coming up.

Latest Events:

Full Details

January Relaxed Visit

Free entry and no need to book!

Newton Abbot Museum welcomes anyone who might benefit from visiting the Museum at a quieter time.

Explore our galleries in a calm and relaxed environment where we will ensure our sound levels are reduced. There will be a quiet space available away from the galleries, and you are welcome to borrow our new sensory bags and ear-defenders.

These sessions are great for visitors with Autistic Spectrum Disorder or other communication and sensory needs and their families / carers but are suitable for all.

To help you prepare for your visit we have made a visual story which you can see if you click here. For other access information please visit our Museum Access page.

If you have any questions about the Museum’s relaxed visits or require any further information please email [email protected] or phone 01626 201121

Museum Make and Create: Love Token

Saturday 5th February 10:30am-12.30

Be inspired by the 18th century love token in the museum collection and create your own messages for yourself, for a loved one and for the world.

Use origami and creative writing to make fabulous tokens of admiration.

Book your free ticket here

Due to high COVID cases whilst planning this event we will be taking the following precautions to ensure safety for attendees: facemasks are compulsory for over 11s (unless exempt), the maximum group size has been kept low and attendees will be spaced out from other households.

Relaxed Visit

21st Feb 4-5.30pm

Free entry and no need to book!

Newton Abbot Museum welcomes anyone who might benefit from visiting the Museum at a quieter time.

Explore our galleries in a calm and relaxed environment where we will ensure our sound levels are reduced. There will be a quiet space available away from the galleries, and you are welcome to borrow our new sensory bags and ear-defenders.

These sessions are great for visitors with Autistic Spectrum Disorder or other communication and sensory needs and their families / carers but are suitable for all.

To help you prepare for your visit we have made a visual story which you can see if you click here. For other access information please visit our Museum Access page.

If you have any questions about the Museum’s relaxed visits or require any further information please email [email protected] or phone 01626 201121

Brick Ideas Lego Workshop

Monday 21st February

Family friendly, half term activity building trains! £3 a ticket
👀booking links coming soon watch this space👀

1st session: 10am – 12pm; 2nd session: 1-3pm, community rooms

Coming soon- March Events

Museum: Make and Create- Spring into Life

Saturday 5th March, 10.30am-12.30pm

Celebrate the coming of Spring – find the flowers throughout the museum, make some origami flowers and plant seeds to take away with you. 

Free to attend, will be bookable via website

Relaxed visit

Saturday, 26th March, 1-3pm

A quieter time to visit for anyone with sensory needs and their carers but open to all

Nicky Swann live at Newton Abbot Museum – ‘Songs from a Market Town’

Saturday 19th March 2022, doors open at 7:30pm

A rare chance to hear Nicky performing songs from her 2012 album ‘How does your land lie?’

An album of songs sharing the stories of the town, inspired by the museum collection. Celebrate the tenth anniversary of its release and hear the stories that inspired the album in the stunning surroundings of the museum.

Tickets are available from Newton Abbot Museum, or you can purchase them online at www.wegottickets.com/nickyswann

£10.00 per ticket

Later in 2022

Devon in the 1920s: Transport in the Twenties

A Day Conference on Saturday April 23rd 2022

Event details coming soon!

Heritage Open Days ( A country wide event from 9th-18th September: this years theme is Inventions)

Newton Abbot Museum Event day: 17th September

Event details coming soon!

Temporary Exhibitions

With the community rooms now up and running our temporary exhibition programme is on! You can find them upstairs (or button 2 on the lift)

👀There are currently no temporary exhibitions on display but watch this space, there will be more in the new year 🎆

Upcoming exhibition:

Torquay Pottery Society exhibition ‘Fired for Royalty’ – 15 Sep – 13 Oct 2022

More details coming soon

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Within the community rooms, the museum and local groups/schools can hold regular exhibitions of collections and artwork.

There is always something new to see and do in the museum – even for regular visitors. Every month, a different group or school chooses a new item for our ‘Object of the Month’ case. The photo wall has a new theme each month, with historic images of local places, people and events from different eras. The ‘Your Space’ case is updated regularly with displays of collections or artwork by the local community. Our ‘Recent Donations’ area allows us to display the very latest objects that have been added to the museum collection. In addition, our bespoke gallery cases have a flexible design so that displays can be easily updated and changed and the objects swapped with items in our stores.

Do you have an idea for an exhibition or display you’d like to do? We’d love to hear from you – please contact us with your suggestions.

You can find details of Town Council events here and the full listing of Museum Friends Talks here

You can view our museum gallery of past events and activities here or explore past temporary exhibitions and the museum collection here

The community rooms in Newton’s Place are available for hire, full information is on The Town Council’s website here