A practical introduction to embroidery stitches and techniques, and an opportunity to meet artist Christine Rose Brown and discuss her work.

Materials are provided. This workshop is aimed at adults, aged 16+.

Tickets: £3

This event has a limited number of free bursary places available, aimed at families or individuals who otherwise may not be able to attend events in the festival. Please email admin@bloomsburyfestival.org.uk to apply.

Professional and amateur calligraphers from the South London Lettering Association will be practising their art using a wide variety of scripts and tools. They will sit at tables in the body of the beautiful Hawksmoor church of St George’s Bloomsbury with quiet music in the background.

Visitors will be able to walk around and watch the scribes at work and stewards will be available to answer questions about the calligraphy world and what people are doing. There will also be a have-a-go table and light refreshments to purchase on the portico.

FREE – Just Turn Up

Tickets: FREE – but pre-booking is essential

Join an intimate writing workshop with experienced professionals from various writing backgrounds. An open space to ask questions, participate in group and solo activities, alongside connecting with other writers.

Tickets: £5
This event has a limited number of free bursary places available, aimed at families or individuals who otherwise may not be able to attend events in the festival. Please email admin@bloomsburyfestival.org.uk to apply.

A practical introduction to embroidery stitches and techniques, and an opportunity to meet artist Christine Rose Brown and discuss her work.

Materials are provided. This workshop is aimed at adults, aged 16+.

Tickets: £3

This event has a limited number of free bursary places available, aimed at families or individuals who otherwise may not be able to attend events in the festival. Please email admin@bloomsburyfestival.org.uk to apply.

26 Orphans is an exhibition of writing about fictional characters, whose stories involve being abandoned early in life, orphaned or fostered. It’s a familiar theme in storytelling, but not often thought about deeply. This work by writers from writing organisation 26 www.26.org.uk has been inspired by the poet Lemn Sissay’s installation Superman was a Foundling that can be seen on the walls of the Foundling Museum in the heart of Bloomsbury. Lemn’s list includes David Copperfield, Harry Potter and Superman. Who would you pick? Join international writing group 26 for a special poetry workshop inspired by their exhibition and the Bloomsbury Festival’s theme of ‘breathe’. Led by members of 26, the workshop will encourage you to draft and edit a poem under expert guidance.

The workshop will conclude after lunch with a live performance and tour of 26 Orphans at the museum.

Tickets: £15 (£13.50 friends of the Foundling) – includes admission to all collections and exhibitions

Booking opens soon via the Foundling Museum – please check back.

Let’s repair that precious item rather than take make and throw away! We have the tools and several skilled and experienced partners to help you breathe new life into that object/toy/equipment which is “too good to throw away” but “not quite working as it should”.

UCL Mechanical Engineering, a department of your neighbour University College London, invites you and yours to visit our student hub MechSpace to help you repair that special item. We’ll show you how it’s fixed, get you involved in the repair process and/or advise you on the steps needed to bring back your valued item to full working order.

List of activities on this weekend event may include repairs to bicycles, electronic items, toys and many other household items. You will be invited into a well equipped facility where UCL students learn to design and build prototypes.

Tickets: FREE – but pre-booking is essential

Tickets will be available soon via UCL – please check back

A 40-minute Breath Workshop run by Nina Chesworth. Nina is a Holistic Therapist who lost her sight in 2018. As a consequence, she has also been diagnosed with Charles Bonnet Syndrome (CBS). People who lose more than 60% of their vision may begin to experience visual hallucinations which can range from the beautiful ot the bizarre and even the disturbing. These images are symptoms of the condition CBS. It is not a mental health condition but caused entirely by severe loss of sight. There is no cure for CBS but Nina’s holistic approach, rooted in stillness and breathing techniques, can help people deal with these disturbing visual experiences as well as helping all of us feel more present.

Tickets: FREE – but pre-booking is advised

Explore your relationship to creativity and self expression through breathwork, visualisation, meditation, free writing, reading and guided discussion.

Led by creative wellbeing practitioner and writing coach Patsy Isles and creative entrepreneur and Words of Colour’s executive director Joy Francis, this two-hour interactive session is for people who don’t ‘believe’ they are creative but want to be.

The session is delivered as part of Words of Colour’s Creative Wellbeing Hub.

Tickets: £10

Audiences will learn to sing a vaudeville song from the popular music hall tradition to show how subversive working class songs reflected popular movements for change. A professional singer will lead participants through a vaudeville song exploring both the words and the melody and having fun all the way.

Suitable for all ages.

FREE – Just Turn Up