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.

Full details about our upcoming events:

Half-Term in the Museum

Find the Bones – Halloween themed quest

Free trail around the museum during half-term, collect from the Welcome Desk

Help! Someone is playing tricks on the archaeologist and has hidden bones around the Museum! Use the clues to find the artefacts.

Don’t forget to collect your sticker for your Pastport!

Workshop – Thursday 31st October

Free workshop, 10am-12pm. No booking required.

Help add leaves and words to a fabric version of the Community Tree mural during a drop-in workshop. Find out about the history of a famous oak tree from Newton Abbot’s past.

Museum Make and Create

First Saturday of the month, 10:30am – 12:30pm

2nd November – Migratory Birds in collaboration with Stover Country Park

In partnership with Stover Country Park, our November Make and Create family workshop will be inspired by the Winter visitors to Newton Abbot including the Tufted Duck, Wigeon, Teal and Pochard along with the Gadwall.

How many of those names are familiar to you?

Come and learn about where they have travelled from, how they feed and what they look like, then create your own duck artwork to decorate your garden or home.

7th December – Christmas Crackers!

Learn about the history of the Christmas Cracker and then make your own bespoke cracker with environmentally friendly contents – your favourite joke, a hand-made present and a hat.

Twilight Sketching

Every Monday fortnight 4pm – 6pm

28th October

11th, 25th November

9th December

No booking required, FREE

Bring your sketch pad and pencils and relax in the magnificent surroundings on the Museum. Be inspired by historical treasures and being out your creative side.

Toddler Tuesdays, during term-time

Upcoming sessions will be available to book for FREE from the week before, you can even set a reminder through Eventbrite! You can look at all upcoming sessions here

Upcoming sessions:

• Free informal sessions for children up unto the age of 4
• Every Tuesday during term-time
• 9:30-10:30
• Takes place within the museum space

Please note that food and drink (except water) are not allowed in the museum space, but we have a seating area on the first floor where you can enjoy any food that you have with you.

Take advantage of Newton’s Place facilities:
• Hot drinks machine and seating area upstairs with highchair
• Accessible toilets with changing facilities

Upcoming Relaxed visits

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

The next Relaxed Session will be:

Monday 28th October, 2pm-3pm

In the meantime you can contact the museum to find out when the quieter times in the museum are.

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

Temporary Exhibitions

Your Space Case (in the conservation section)

We have some wonderful displays lined up for 2024, so don’t forget to check back here to find out what is on show!

Currently on display:

A brilliant collection of LEGO sets from Pauline, one of our lovely volunteers! Pauline has been collecting LEGO ever since she was given a set from her children in the 90s. She is particularly proud of the LEGO typewriter. Pauline looks forward to seeing what new set she will get for Christmas!

Do you have a collection that you would like to share? To find out if any of your cherished items could go on show in the Your Space Community Case in the future, please have a chat with staff in the museum or email our Community Engagement Officer Kate Green at [email protected]

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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 a collection or make anything that you would like to share in the Your Space Community Case? We’d love to hear from you – please contact us with your suggestions.

You can find details of Town Council events 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