Marvellous Makers: Summer Reading Challenge @ British Museum, London

This event, featuring storytelling and a workshop where you can make your own comic, is designed to be more accessible for children and adults who are autistic, learning disabled, or have mental health conditions.
Selected parts of the Museum (Rooms 1–2a, 4, 6–10 and 12–23) will open at 8am until 10am for two hours, before the Museum opens to the public.

Visitors can explore the galleries and take part in sensory-based activities including object-handling and arts and crafts.

Join storyteller Olivia Armstrong for a sensory storytelling adventure into myths, magic and made monsters in Room 1: Enlightenment. Come face-to-face with a monstrous mermaid and hear its mysterious tale. Gaze into a magical mirror – what can you see? Search for tiny arrows and giant feet. Join in with the stories or sit and listen – you decide.

The event also includes a creative drop-in workshop led by Iqra Babar. Immerse yourself in the art of comic books and come and create your own. Get inspired by a curated selection of objects from the collection and unleash your creativity by crafting stories around them!

This event will be taking place as part of the Marvellous Makers-themed Summer Reading Challenge 2024, developed by The Reading Agency and the arts charity Create.

About the speakers
Olivia Armstrong is a friendly storyteller from Northern Ireland. She loves to tell stories that use all our senses and is always happy if you want to listen quietly or join in noisily! Her stories can be adventures that take us into other times and other places. She works in many exciting places from palaces to parks, ships to schools and museums and galleries across London.

Iqra Babar is an ‘auDHDer, Muslim and Pakistani digital artist, advocate and teacher’ who explores the intersection of her identity within art and education and creates a diverse range of fictional characters for her ongoing web series Darjin.