Free family fun at Tate this summer with Yayoi Kusama’s The obliteration room and Tate Draw

Tomorrow, Yayoi Kusama’s interactive work The obliteration room returns to Tate Modern for its biggest iteration to date, joining a summer of free art-inspired activities for all ages across Tate galleries.

As part of UNIQLO Tate Play, Tate Modern’s year-round family programme in partnership with UNIQLO, visitors to Tate Modern are invited to transform a white domestic apartment into a sea of colourful dots using bright stickers. Families visiting Tate Britain, Tate Liverpool and Tate St Ives can also discover an exciting range of creative activities and materials on offer for free, while the launch of Tate Draw, supported by Bloomberg Philanthropies, at both London galleries and online will give budding young artists a new platform to produce their very own digital drawings.

Mark Miller, Director of Learning, Tate said “It’s more important than ever before that families in the local communities around Tate’s four galleries know that there are fun, creative, memorable experiences available to them here for free throughout the school holidays.”

Originally commissioned by the Queensland Art Gallery in Australia, The obliteration room is one of Kusama’s most ambitious participatory works and reflects the artist’s enduring obsession with accumulation, obliteration, and becoming one with the artwork. Beginning as a completely white domestic space filled with all white furniture, visitors are given a sheet of colourful dot stickers of varying sizes which they can place wherever they like to help turn the room into a riot of colour. UNIQLO Tate Play: The obliteration room at Tate Modern will be the largest iteration of this artwork yet and will incorporate furniture and objects donated by members of the local community around Southwark ready to be adorned with stickers. Over the weekend of 13th and 14th August, The obliteration room will also host a house-warming party, celebrating one year of UNIQLO Tate Play with music and activities for all the family.

Families looking to add even more colour to their visit can engage with free digital drawing activities available at the newly launched Tate Draw. At both Tate Modern and Tate Britain, permanent digital drawing stations offer visitors the chance to create sketches inspired by art in the galleries. Once the finishing touches have been made, the illustration is projected onto the gallery walls and aspiring artists can download a copy of their work for free by scanning a QR code. Those wishing to flaunt their artistic talent further can choose to order a t-shirt with their drawing printed on the front, creating a one-off design to wear themselves or gift to others. Families keen to get creative from home can engage with Tate Draw online, including a word prompt activity and an invisible drawing challenge. Elsewhere on the Tate Kids website, Who is Yayoi Kusama? offers anyone curious about The obliteration room the chance to discover what all the dots are about, while the Create Dots Like Kusama virtual workshop provides a step-by-step guide to making your own Kusama-inspired art.

Families visiting Tate Britain this summer can enjoy the new Play Studio, a free immersive space for everything from sand-play and cardboard assemblage to music and movement. Taking the principles of therapeutic play as a starting point, everyone is encouraged to explore, test and create using a range of materials and objects inspired by art in the galleries. Free artist-led workshops that respond to Hew Locke’s The Procession will take place every Saturday over the summer holidays. Elsewhere in the gallery, young readers can immerse themselves in children’s books by writers of colour in Story Space, a library celebrating a diverse range of talent and helping everyone to see themselves reflected in what they read.

Tate Liverpool is offering free sketchbooks full of art activities, giving young visitors a fun way to Explore and Draw their way around the free collection displays. The dedicated Family Space also provides somewhere to play, relax, talk and read stories together, while every Saturday, Sunday and Monday Create Your Tate encourages visitors to imagine and design a new Tate Liverpool building for the future using a range of creative materials to draw, make and build your ideal gallery.

Families in Cornwall can use their Locals Pass to get unlimited year-round entry to Tate St Ives, where free Tate Create workshops will run every day throughout August. Inspired by Ad Minoliti’s colourful exhibition, visitors can help transform the Foyle Studio into an intergalactic space station, a fantastical place for community, learning and play. There are also lots of other inspiring activities to help children of different ages explore the galleries, including sketchbooks, Tate Shapes packs, Art Challenge cards, and Explorer Backpacks.