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On Sunday afternoon we headed to Sunderland Winter Gardens to see their new exhibition Leonardo da Vinci: A Life in Drawing. The exhibition marks the 500th anniversary of the death of Leonardo da Vinci, and is part of a nationwide event across 12 venues, all showing different drawings from the Royal collection. Sunderland Museum & Winter Gardens is the only place to see this work between Leeds & Glasgow! Good job we don’t live too far from Sunderland then!
What do you need to know about the exhibition?
You do need a ticket to the exhibition so please book online before you head down. On the day we visited on the opening weekend visitors were being turned away due to full capacity. The tickets for the exhibition are available in one-hour time slots and can be purchased via sunderlandmuseum.org.uk or at the Visitor Services desk in the museum. Adults are priced at £2.50 and children are free (but still need to book a slot). The Leonardo da Vinci Exhibition runs until 6th May 2019 so plenty of time to get down to check it out
The exhibition is on the first floor of the museum and it’s definitely worth saving some time to look at the other exhibits in the museum. We spent a good few hours pottering around & had time for a cup of coffee in
Sunderland Museum & Winter Gardens is really easy to find slap bang in the middle of the city
Who was Leonardo da Vinci?
Da Vinci has been described as the true renaissance man, an artist, inventor, sculptor, and scientist. He lived between 1452 and died in 1519 at the age of 67. There is much more to da Vinci than the famous paintings of Mona Lisa & the Last Supper. This is a man who over 500 years ago invented the

Personally, the anatomy was the most interesting to me, and where you could see Leonardo da Vinci’s Drawings and famous mirror image writing in all it’s


Leonardo da Vinci: A Life in Drawing
As the event was ticketed the gallery wasn’t too crowded and you certainly weren’t rushed to look around! Unlike some other exhibitions we have visited with the kids, there was no specific child activities or quizzes to do in the da Vinci gallery itself due to space & limitations of the exhibition.
Sunderland Museum & Winter gardens have recognized this and have developed a full programme of activities with children in mind, some events are free to drop in and some pre-bookable through the Sunderland Museum & winter gardens website. The aim of the supporting education programme is to bring the works of Leonardo da Vinci to life in a fun and exciting way.
Chinese New Year Zodiac Trail
For £2.50 a zodiac trail was available to buy from the reception which took the kids on a trail around the museum looking for Chinese zodiac animals. For each animal they found, there was a task such as make the noise of the animal or hug a member of the family which amused them.




The Winter
Further
Holmeside Coffee shop
All that culture & treasure hunting required a pit stop for something sweet. The girls went for a brownie & a croissant. I went for the fruit scone & Alan the smashed avocado on toast. This with 2 diet Cokes and 2 Americanos (made from




Sunderland Museum & Winter Gardens
As mentioned the Leonardo da Vinci, a life in drawing exhibition is on in Sunderland until the 6th May 2019. After this time, all of the drawings which have been exhibited around the 12 venues in the country will be compiled at a large scale exhibition in Buckingham Palace.
During the time the da Vinci drawings are in place in Sunderland a supporting programme of events & activities has been compiled for adults & children. Events include guided tours, 3-D model making and a series of children’s holiday craft events (some additional charges may apply-see website) I would recommend coming when an event is on to bring the work of da Vinci to life and gain more understanding of the renaissance man.
See https://sunderlandculture.org.uk/our-venues/sunderland-museum-winter-gardens/
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