A piece of reindeer metatarsal engraved with a cow looking animal A piece of reindeer metatarsal engraved with a reindeer
Free

21 Jun – 14 Sep 2025

Cliffe Castle Museum, Keighley

Ice Age Art Now

British Museum

We travelled back in time with this British Museum Partnership Exhibition.

We travelled back in time with this British Museum Partnership Exhibition and encountered works of art dating back thousands of years.

This visually stunning exhibition showed how artistic creativity existed thousands of years before traditional art histories suggest – as an essential part of human life.

Ice Age Art Now presented work by people living in Europe at the end of the last Ice Age, some as much as 24,000 years old. These astounding works reveal the deep roots of drawing, sculpture, realism, abstraction, signs, symbols and more – and the extraordinary skill and imagination of these early image makers find echoes in modern and contemporary art.

This family-friendly exhibition featured a wealth of rare items from the British Museum and local treasures from the collections of Bradford District Museums & Galleries, arranged into such themes as decorating the body, drawing animals and abstracting the female form. The exhibition also featured an installation reimagining cave art and other imagery from thousands of years ago for the 21st century.

The exhibition was supplemented with a programme of talks, family activities and other special events.

Credits
A British Museum Partnership Project with Bradford 2025 UK City of Culture and Bradford District Museums & Galleries.

Lead image: Mammoth spear thrower © The Trustees of the British Museum

Past event

Were you at this event?

Complete our feedback form and let us know what you thought.

Share your feedback

Related Events

FREE

If All the World Were…

Tutti Frutti Productions and Bradford & Leeds Libraries

A beautifully performed reading of "If All the World Were..." by award-winning children’s writer Joseph Coelho.

Part of PLAY

REPLAY

Families of all ages welcome!

Enter an endless world of play in this interactive family experience from The Herd.

A man leans down to guide a toddler in a soft play area
Part of PLAY

REPLAY: Early Years sessions

For ages 6 months to 5 years

A recycled playground without limits! Join a session just for little ones.

FREE Part of Our Patch

The DRAW! Tour: November Workshops

Hands-on drawing workshops across the district, part of Our Patch.

FREE Part of Turner Prize 2025

Turner Lates: December

Season’s greetings! Join us for creative workshops and festive fun.

Part of Loading Bay

Built by Sound

No Ghost, Dialled In and Bradford 2025

A mixed reality experience where memory moves to a beat.

FREE Part of Our Patch

Our Story, Our City

An exhibition exploring Bradford stories through photographs during the millennium and present day.