Families

Visit any day of the week to explore our exhibitions. Spend time drawing at our little art table or borrow an Art Kit from the Information Desk. Art Kits are free, in-gallery activities designed for visitors ages two to twelve. Every Art Kit is packed with everything you need for a small art adventure in the galleries.

If you are looking for more opportunities to explore art with your family, join us for Make Something Sunday, a free, monthly drop-in program that introduces new materials and ways of working through informal hands-on workshops for kids and their adults.

An adult and two children sit on folding stools in a darkened gallery. They hold clipboards and pencils and look towards two large, flat dress-shaped sculptures that hang on the wall.

Current Programs for Families

In a gallery an adult and child sit together at a table cluttered with small scraps of cut paper. The adult uses a pair of scissors to cut small pieces of paper while the child watches. Behind them adults and children work at other tables.

Make Something Sunday

Hands-on workshops for families

A child plays with a colourful set of geometric blocks, stacked one on top of the other. The blocks are composed of light wood frames with translucent coloured insets in green, pink, blue, and yellow. There are various shapes, including rectangles, triangles, half-circles, and circles.

Play Atelier

Sensory and Creative Play Pop-up Space

A small wooden cradle-like bookshelf with a display of children’s picture books sits on a round red carpet.

Little Library

A collection of art books for young readers

Two people each hold up an illustrated paper cutouts in a room filled with framed artwork hanging on a red wall. The left cutout resembles an open suitcase, filled with drawings of a hoodie, chocolate bars, graham crackers, a roasting stick, a knit hat, matches, bug spray, and a flashlight. The right cutout looks like a closed suitcase with a drawing of a house on a stamp.

Owens Art Kit

Mini-making activities inspired by our exhibitions

Past Programs for Families

White snail silhouette with the text “SLOWENS” against a photo of a pink and yellow gradient background of the of the Owens Art Gallery's front doors.

Slow Art Study Break

Chill, snack, linger with art

A sepia-toned photograph shows a stone building with classical architectural features. Across the street from this building, two figures plow a field with a team of horses.

Celebrating 130 Years of Art at the Owens

Celebrate our past and look forward to our future

Two dice sit on a sea-foam green background. One dice has simple line drawings of a house, a car and a sail boat. The other shows images of a cat, a bird and a dog.

The Colville Drawing Dice

A drawing game for all ages

Kamaya sits on the grass near a garden, drawing in a sketchbook.

Sackville Sketching Walk with Kamaya Lindquist

A digital guide that leads you on a drawing exploration across campus

Two hands hold the cover of a Cloud Collection with "CLOUD COLLECTION DIANE BORSATO" in large uppercase blue type.

Diane Borsato: Cloud Collection

Observations of clouds and other ephemeral phenomena in the Owens Collection

A smartphone is held up in front of a lush green sports field. On the right side of the screen is a map with a point that reads, "Alex Colville, Running Dog". On the left of the screen is an image of a Wire Fox Terrier racing across a sports field marked with painted white lines.

You Are Here

Seeing Sackville through the Owens Art Gallery Collection

A circular vinyl decal is installed on the glass vestibule of the Owens Art Gallery. The stone building with copper siding sits atop a slight hill, with stairs leading to the entrance.

Let’s imagine our future together!

What is the Owens to you now? What could the Owens be in the future?

Block letters spell out ‘Make Something Sunday’ in grey and “To Go’ in black. The text is written on a white sheet of paper surrounded by a yellow background.

Make Something Sunday To Go

Take home activities for families

In a large gallery, adults sit together around several large tables making collages. Scattered across the surface of the tables are many different colourful scraps of paper, magazines and supplies. In the centre of the room is a large table piled high with books and magazines.

The Collage Party

A nomadic, public studio by Paul Butler

A close-up of a child’s hands using a tactile drawing tool to emboss lines of a drawing into a sheet of white paper.

Automatisme Ambulatoire Matinée

An afternoon of art and dance

A clothed figure model stands in the centre of a gallery on top of a wooden plinth, with their feet apart and arms outstretched. Adults sit in a circle around the model, drawing them from observation.

Drawing in the Galleries

An all-ages drawing extravaganza

A hand holds a star-like object made of several strips of black card fastened with a gold-coloured brad. The strips are covered with hand drawn images of stars, lines and dots made with metallic marker.

Family Literacy Day

Community partnership

A student holds up a publication near a painting of a colourful grid on a gallery wall. The page on the left has several paragraphs of text. Two circles have been cut from the right page, allowing details of the painting to peek through.

Slow Zine

Discover what happens when you look closer and look longer