Half-term washout? Planet-friendly fun at Welsh museums and galleries

Nation Cymru staff

It’s been a wet and windy start to half term. But Wales’s local museums and galleries are offering shelter, stories and a gentler way to celebrate the season, as part of the Welsh Museums Festival.

It has hardly been the half term families hoped for. Strong winds swept in on Friday, and Monday has brought heavy rain, gales and flood alerts across Wales. For many of us, weeks like this are a reminder of how the climate is changing.

It seems fitting, then, that this year’s Welsh Museums Festival has been encouraging participating museums and galleries to develop more sustainable activities and events. More than 60 are taking part until Sunday 1 November, the highest number in the festival’s 12-year history, and many are having a go using seeds, scrap fabric and natural materials.

Wales has around 100 accredited museums, so most of us live near one. Many are small, free to enter and run almost entirely by volunteers. On a wet afternoon, they are warm, dry and brimming with stories.

In Wales, sustainability has never been only about the environment. The Well-being of Future Generations (Wales) Act 2015 defines sustainable development as improving the economic, social, environmental and cultural well-being of Wales. Where most frameworks stop at three pillars, Wales made culture the fourth.

The Future Generations Commissioner, Derek Walker, has called for a Culture Act to protect access to culture. In February he said: “Culture is not just about performances and institutions” but about “the stories, places and traditions that bind us together as a nation.” He has also warned of a “cultural postcode lottery” as local services face cuts.

Wales’s national institutions are also setting the pace. In August, the National Library of Wales launched Culture and Climate Cymru, a platform to help cultural organisations act on the climate crisis. Amgueddfa Cymru has replaced fossil-fuel boilers with heat pumps at four of its museums and cut emissions from its buildings by 31% in six years.

Welsh Government research into the culture sector and the climate and nature emergencies found that most organisations are still at an early stage, often relying on a few committed individuals. But it also found that culture can reach people in ways facts alone cannot. “Facts don’t change opinion […] the culture sector has a really vital role to play,” Catherine Allan of CARAD in Rhayader told the researchers.

Most of the festival’s participating museums and galleries are small, with little money and few staff, so its approach is about small, practical changes rather than getting everything right.

“It’s been lovely to see so many trying new ideas, from willow lanterns to bat boxes,” said Dr Ken Griffin, President of Museums Federation Cymru, which organises the festival with Welsh Government funding. This year the Federation has awarded grants totalling over £12,000 to help 18 museums take part.

The festival’s free bilingual resource on Calan Gaeaf, the Welsh Halloween, explores the season’s Celtic roots alongside ideas for a celebration that’s kinder to the planet. It points out that around seven million Halloween costumes are thrown away in the UK every year, the equivalent of every person in Wales binning more than two.

Heledd Fychan, Cabinet Minister for Culture and Sport and herself a former museum professional, has welcomed “the Festival’s approach to celebrating Halloween in a greener and more sustainable way.” In July, the Welsh Government also announced £5.28 million for 31 museum, library and archive projects, including small museums such as Holyhead Maritime Museum and Penmaenmawr Museum.

Small museums matter beyond their size. In 2024, 3,000 volunteers gave more than 326,000 hours to Welsh museums, and a Welsh Government study found that a museum visit lifted visitors’ wellbeing by 28% on average.

A new Museums Association report, Museums Change Lives – Wales, makes the wider case. In her foreword, Rachael Rogers, Vice-President of the Museums Association and Museums and Arts Manager at MonLife Heritage Museums, writes that museums “can also be catalysts for positive change in society, inspiring engagement, debate and reflection.”

Greener festival activities

The forecast looks brighter from midweek. Check times and booking before you travel.

North Wales

• Storiel, Bangor: Natur by Morgan Elwy, Thursday 29 October. A musical drama about how the way we live affects the planet and its wildlife. Ages 6+, booking essential.

• Plas Glyn-y-Weddw, Llanbedrog: Paned i’r Blaned, Saturday 31 October, 10am. A relaxed chat in Welsh about the environment, with cake, for speakers at every level. Free.

• Brambell Natural History Museum, Bangor: Small Beasts, Saturday 31 October. Needle-felt creatures inspired by the museum’s specimens. Free, ages 8 to 12, booking essential.

Mid and West Wales

• Ceredigion Museum at the Bandstand, Aberystwyth: Pop-Up Museum. Bat box demonstrations and crafts from natural materials on Wednesday 28 October, and pumpkin bakes on Thursday 29 October. Free.

• TimeScape Rhayader and CARAD: Spindle spinning and natural dyes, Friday 30 October, 1.30pm. Free.

• Parc Howard Museum, Llanelli: Garlic, Pumpkins and Vampires with Adam yn yr Ardd, Friday 30 October, 11am. Follow a pumpkin from seed to soup to compost. £5, book ahead.

South Wales

• Torfaen Museum, Pontypool: Spooky Scrap Ghosts, Wednesday 28 October, 10am. Turn scrap fabric into reusable decorations. Free, ages 5+.

• Museum of Cardiff: Halloween Zines with Flossy & Boo, Thursday 29 October, 11am to 12.30pm and 1pm to 3pm. Make your own zine from recycled materials. Free drop-in.

• Cyfarthfa Castle Museum and Art Gallery, Merthyr Tydfil: Spooky Seed Mosaics, Friday 30 October. Children free.

Whatever the weather, your local museum is on your doorstep. Take the children, take your mam, take a friend, or go on your own.

The Welsh Museums Festival runs until Sunday 1 November. Full event listings are at www.museumsfestival.wales –  some events need to be booked in advance.