Kelly

"Capturing the Wild: With Wildlife Photographer of the Year Exhibition at Sunderland Museum & Winter Gardens"

We love visiting art and photography exhibitions and when I heard the Wildlife photography of the year exhibition was coming to Sunderland I got it straight in the diary.

On loan from The Natural History Museum London, the exhibition is free to enjoy and will be here until 1st June. There's some pretty spectacular photography and a few wow moments.

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I headed to the museum with Elliot who also enjoys photography and we spent a while looking and chatting about each photograph. We are lucky in that we live within walking distance of the museum and we do visit regularly but we still had a wander around the museum to kill a few hours.

The Wildlife photographer of the year exhibition

This exhibition is free to enter, there's a trail that you can pick up just outside of the gallery for free, along with a pencil for the kids to do on the way around the gallery. I honestly can't believe some of the photography was captured by children!

Elliot has always been keen with photography and this has inspired him to enter in the future.

You can explore the planet’s habitats, urban metropolises, deep polar seas, and meet the creatures that rely on these places.

See species at risk of extinction and see first-hand how human activities, both good and bad, are shaping the natural world we rely on.

The photography really will leave you inspired and hopefully give you a renewed drive to do what you can to protect it.

There's a staff member to help you with any questions you may have and you can scan the QR code for more info about the exhibition. I did notice a few bits in the gift shop from The Natural History Museum too.

The rest of the museum

If you are visiting for the exhibition you may as well have a wander around the rest of the museum. It is full of local history which we love learning about. The museum is going to be undergoing renovations hopefully soon, I am looking forward to seeing what outcome is as it has been a while since it was last updated.

Don't miss the Winter gardens which is always lovely and warm and currently the plants smell amazing! The board walk in the winter gardens is open but the lift is still out of order. You can also find a few dinosaurs in the winter gardens although not many ( I wouldn't make a trip just based on looking for dinosaurs) but worth pointing out if you have kids that love dinosaurs. My personal favourite in the winter gardens is the Cacti display.