The best thing you can give a child this summer is not a screen but a gallery, a wide-open space, and the radical permission to find something beautiful.
And glorious, inexhaustible London has quietly assembled one of its most spectacular seasons for young art lovers, from a stop-motion wonderland in Bethnal Green to a luminous installation threading its way through Borough’s Victorian arches.
The practical bit? Pack snacks. Wear comfortable shoes. Say yes when kids want to sit on the floor and stare at something for seven minutes. The Oyster card works everywhere. And the summer exhibitions are busiest at weekends, so Tuesday mornings are your secret weapon.
This is a curated edit of London’s most transporting, imaginative and genuinely enjoyable art experiences for little ones – from newly walking to nearly teenage. Because it’s never too early to begin.
The Royal Academy Summer Exhibition
Every summer since 1769, Burlington House has flung open its doors for the world’s longest-running open-submission art show – and this year’s 258th edition is, frankly, a masterclass in organised chaos. Over 1,700 works jostle for wall space across the grand galleries: paintings hang cheek-by-jowl with sculptures, photography brushes up against experimental installations, and established Royal Academicians share space with brilliant unknowns. This year’s show is curated by the brilliant Ryan Gander under the theme Interconnectedness — a concept that rather handily explains why your child’s bedroom wall has always looked like a curatorial statement. Bring the children, let them be overwhelmed in the best possible way, and prepare for them to return home demanding a floor-to-ceiling rehang of their own masterpieces. We consider this a win.
Inside Aardman at the Young V&A
If you have somehow not yet visited the Young V&A since its magnificent transformation two years ago, now is the moment to sprint. Winner of Art Fund Museum of the Year 2024 and the Council of Europe Museum Prize 2026, Young V&A is, simply, the finest children’s museum in the country. There are three gloriously distinct galleries, Play (ages 0–5), Imagine (5–11), and Design (11–14), meaning that every child in your party will find their world. Dress-up boxes, marble runs, a stage, the life-size War Horse puppet. The museum’s third major exhibition is a full, glorious dive into the rubber-faced genius of Aardman – the studio behind Wallace, Gromit, Shaun the Sheep and enough plasticine brilliance to fill several childhoods. The exhibition is wonderfully hands-on: children can press their noses up against genuine sets and props, understand how a single second of stop-motion film requires twelve painstakingly individual frames, and best of all, imagine and design their very own animated character. It is the kind of experience that produces both focus and mess, which is, of course, what excellent art education is made of.
What Blooms Beneath
Winding its way through the Victorian railway arches of Borough Yards is What Blooms Beneath, a site-specific installation that asks a radical question: what does hope look like in the dark? The work is constructed from metres of translucent and coloured crin – a delicate, net-like fabric beloved of milliners – which catches the light and shifts with the air in ways that feel alive. For children, this is pure enchantment: all colour and texture. For adults, it’s an ode to poetry and imagination installed right in the heart of Central London, free and open to all. Take a detour through on the way to Borough Market and let the children touch everything.
David Hockney: A Year in Normandie, Serpentine North
Free at the Serpentine North Gallery until 23 August, this latest chapter in Hockney’s extraordinary career arrives with the advantage of Hyde Park on its doorstep. His colour is so vivid and so unapologetically joyful, that children respond to it instinctively, without being told how. Combine it with a rowing boat on the Serpentine, a picnic on the grass, and the Serpentine Pavilion. This is summer in London at its most civilised.
National Gallery
The National Gallery’s annual summer programme is nothing short of magnificent. Castle-building, painting masterpieces, hands-on workshops made by kids for kids, this is creativity in its most exuberant form. An AR immersive experience transports ages 7–11 into a reimagined 1600s Dutch courtyard with light, shadow and sound. The Roden Centre for Creative Learning hosts drop-in activities every day of the holidays. Pack a lunch; plan to stay all afternoon. No booking, no entry fee. Just bring curiosity.
Banksy Limitless
For the older child who has opinions and isn’t afraid to use them, Banksy Limitless is electric. Over 250 works – prints, large-scale installations, digital experiences, the Infinity Room – gathered into one sharply considered retrospective. Cinderella’s carriage. Wry social commentary that teenagers will actually want to discuss. Edgy, thrilling, and precisely the kind of cultural immersion that stays with a child for years.
National Portrait Gallery: Little Explorers
Monthly free sessions for the under-fives introduce portraiture through beautifully illustrated family trails. Older children become young detectives, uncovering a secret code hidden within the paintings. SEND families may collect a specially equipped sensory backpack at the front desk. The building itself is newly transformed – light, expansive, welcoming – and the collection is an ideal first encounter with the idea that faces tell stories. An unexpectedly moving hour for parents, too. Bookings open three weeks before each date and it gets booked up quickly, so fast fingers are recommended for this one.
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