British Museum Friends - Young Friends | Meet the animals hiding in our collection 🐾

 

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Start your animal adventure at the Museum  Dear Dominic, This week in Young Friends, we’re going to meet some of the wild and wonderful animals hiding in our collection! Read on to discover how your favourite animals have helped shape history. This week you can… Make your own Gayer-Anderson cat Go on an animal trail across the Museum Create your own origami animals Learn about the history of bees in the collection For older Young Friends, learn more on the influence of tigers in traditional Chinese culture and uncover hidden animal images in the Iron Age Witham shield with curator Julia Farley. Discover even more at the Museum with our Museum explorer trail and enjoy seeing the amazing creations from other Young Friends. We would love to see what you make too, please share your creations with us! Read on to get involved!  The Young Friends and Schools and Family Programmes Teams

Activities to try at home

Gayer-Anderson cat The Gayer-Anderson cat is a bronze sculpture that depicts the ancient Egyptian goddess Bastet. Have a go at making your own. Get crafting Arty animals trail  Go on a safari around the world and discover the wild and wonderful arty animals found in the Museum. Get exploring

Origami animals Origami is the ancient art of Japanese paper folding. Try creating your own origami inspired by Japanese prints in the collection. Make now The bee's knees People have been keeping bees across the world throughout history. Explore the fascinating objects in the Museum related to beekeeping and bees. Learn more

Some of these are articles are taken from Remus magazine. Visit our digital archive to dive into new and past issues of Remus.

Older Young Friends Ages 14+

China's talismanic tigers Learn more about how, in traditional Chinese culture, the image of a tiger was used as a symbol of bravery, and how its depiction also acted as a defensive talisman. Learn more Hidden animals in Celtic art Join curator Julia Farley as she shares the hidden images of animals found on the Witham shield, a British Iron Age shield found in the River Witham in 1826. Watch now

Find the connection in the collection What is the connection between these three objects? Hint: think carefully about how accurately each object represents its animal.  Read on below to find out.

Visiting the Museum soon?

Museum explorer trail Fantastic creatures Voyage around the world to discover how people have painted, carved, hunted and farmed animals throughout history. Download now

Connection in the collection answers  All three objects were created by artists who never actually saw the real animals! The elephant sculptures were likely based on drawings and sketches from Buddhist sources that depicted Asian elephants.   Albrecht Dürer (1471–1528) based his rhinoceros woodcut on an anonymous written description and a quick sketch of an Indian rhinoceros brought to Lisbon in 1515. Maruyama Okyo (1733–95) faced the challenge that there weren’t any live tigers in Japan at the time. So, he used pictures from China, studied cats and imagined how a tiger might move and behave based off this. One theory even suggests he studied tiger skins, which might explain the flattened tiger faces in his work! You can watch the video below to find out more.  Watch now

Crafts corner  Take a look at the Nemes headdresses Young Friends Thomas and Isabel (aged 6) have created! Share your Young Friends’ creations with us for a chance to be featured in an upcoming Young Friends email. Share now

Thames Festival Trust - Last Chance: Thames Lens 📷 An End Of Year Note From Our Director 🎉

 

Director Adrian Evans CVO at the Art Explora Event, Paris | Photo: Matthieu Joffres Art Explora A Message from our Director on 2025 2025 was an extraordinary year for Thames Festival Trust, connecting young people and communities to their local rivers, and each other, through our arts, heritage and education programmes. Find out more and watch an episode from this years' docu-series here! We achieved many milestones this year and hosted the 28th Totally Thames festival in September! We completed our inaugural ‘Lost & Found’ heritage traineeship programme, which we hope will develop further in 2026 and onwards, and  were fortunate to collaborate on our River of Hope schools project with partners in Dorset, Newham, Norfolk & Tees Valley and with France and Ethiopia too.  To cap it all off, we were delighted to win the prestigious Art Explora European Award for our very exciting 2026 project 'Turning The Tide' with artist Catherine Yass. Watch out for further details in the New Year! In 2025, we worked with 11,000 students and reached an audience of 453,500 people in-person and online. We hope you will join us in making 2026 even better! Wishing you and your loved ones Season’s Greetings as the year draws to a close.   Adrian Evans CVO Director Watch our 2025 Docu-series Photos left to right Rekindling by Compagnie Carabosse | Photo: Milo Robinson Lighting up the Lea at Cody Dock | Photo: Milo Robinson Mudlarking Exhibition in Roman Amphitheatre | Photo: Milo Robinson Thames Lens Launch 2025 | Photo: Milo Robinson Tideway Blackfriars Public Realm Opening 2025 | Photo: Milo Robinson Thames Lens Winner | First of Many Sunsets, Subhajit Ghosh Deadline Soon: Thames Lens 2026 Photography Competition In collaboration with Port of London Authority, we are thrilled to announce Thames Lens 2026 is now open for entries! Thames Lens encourages photographers to get out and explore the River Thames with their creative lens. We have six distinct categories, each of which speaks to a different facet of the river and all offer fantastic potential for amazing photography. This year we have also launched a new video category in collaboration with the Illuminated River Foundation.  Winners and runners-ups will be exhibited in central London. Prizes include vouchers for photography kit, a year’s membership to the Photographer Gallery, Hop-on Hop-off tickets courtesy of Uber Boat by Thames Clippers, and much more. Under 30? Tick the box in the submission form and be in with the chance to win a special extra prize. The competition closes to entries on 11.59pm Friday 9 January 2026. The winners will be chosen by a panel comprised of representatives from Thames Festival Trust and Port of London Authority.  Submit your entries Quick links We are a registered charity, donate to help us continue our work.