Image: British Museum, London
The British Museum has used its latest Young Friends newsletter to frame August around music, linking objects in the collection with hands-on activities, family storytelling and a small cluster of events for older visitors. The email presents music as a thread running through celebrations, ceremonies, dance and shared expression, and points readers toward collection pages, making activities and live programmes that draw on instruments and sound across history.
At the centre of the newsletter is a guided look at musical objects in the collection. The museum invites readers to explore the history of musical instruments, to make a lyre at home from recycled materials, and to hear what very early rock music sounded like. One featured item is a lyre from Ur, used as the model for the home-making activity. Another strand focuses on an ancient rock gong, which appears in a short video with archaeologist Dr Cornelia Kleinitz and drummer Liam Williamson. The museum also flags a collection explainer on musical object types, asking readers whether they know their chordophone from their aerophone.
The newsletter’s collection section also turns the objects into a teaching point. A prompt called ‘Connection in the collection’ asks what links three clay works, and the answer identifies them as musical pots. The first is an Udu drum from Nigeria, originally a water jug transformed into an instrument by adding a hole in the side. The second is a rattle from ancient Cyprus, described as being filled with beads, stones or seeds and likely used either to soothe babies or to ward off bad spirits. The third is an acoustic jar from Surrey, placed in walls, ceilings or floors in medieval churches to make singing sound better and louder.
Alongside the collection material, the museum is programming a series of free and ticketed activities. ‘Firedrakes, folktales and falling stars’ is a summertime storytelling series with Olivia Armstrong, scheduled for Wednesday 5 August, Wednesday 12 August and Wednesday 26 August. Each session is free and suitable for families with children from six upwards, with 30-minute performances at 11.00, 12.00 and 13.30. The same newsletter also lists ‘Bon Dance, dance, dance!’, a traditional Japanese Bon Dance session for children aged five and under, led by Haruka Kuroda of the Japanese theatre company A Thousand Cranes on Thursday 27 August, with sessions at 10.30–11.15 and 11.30–12.15.
For older Young Friends, the newsletter points to ‘ARIRANG: A BTS trail at the Museum’, described as a trail through The Korean Foundation Gallery, Room 67, that delves into historical references behind the latest BTS album ‘ARIRANG’. It also advertises ‘How to play an ancient rock gong’, and a public showcase for the Scrap Collective’s Young Poets project. That event, ‘Scrap Collective: Young Poets final showcase’, is hosted by Lemn Sissay OBE and features 13 emerging poets sharing new work in response to the British Museum collection.
The poetry showcase is scheduled for Friday 21 August, 18.30–20.30, in the Round Reading Room, with free admission and booking required for ages 14 and up. The newsletter presents it as part of a broader August line-up that also includes the music-focused collection pages and family programmes, with the British Museum using its collection to connect instruments, sound, dance and performance across time.
