Visiting Tate Britain’s Steve McQueen Year 3 with kids

Many London families will be heading to Tate Britain in the coming months to see Steve McQueen Year 3, which is a group portrait featuring a huge collection of London class photos of more than 76,000 Year 3 children. Here are my tips for visiting this museum with children:

1. Ask for school photo location before your visit
Steve McQueen Year 3 features more than 3,000 class photos, and it can be impossible to find your photo in the mix unless you know the location in advance. The photos are not marked with school names, and museum staff cannot provide you with details about location. Before going, I would instead recommend contacting your school, so you know which section you should be looking for your child’s school’s photo/s.

2. Use the family activities guide and online tips
Before going, I also read up on the concept behind Steve McQueen Year 3, which had given me ideas for conversation starters. We looked for different characteristics and talked about children as the future. The Family Activities guide, which is available for free from the museum, has a number of creative suggestions for ways to explore the art with children.

3. Participate in art activities
After exploring Steve McQueen Year 3, we headed to the Making Studio where there are drop-in activities for children on weekends and during school holidays. To tie in with the exhibition, children could now create photo collages by cutting and sticking images together, exploring photography (see picture above). The collages can stand on sticks and be placed around the gallery.

Steve McQueen Year 3 is on display at Tate Britain until 3 May 2020. Entry is free.

Tags: Family day out, London with kids, Museum, Steve McQueen, Tate Britain