Frieze Sculpture Is an ideal cultural day out with kids

There are some London exhibitions that sound brilliant in theory but require military-level planning with children. Frieze Sculpture is not one of them.

Returning to Regent’s Park until 1 November, the free outdoor exhibition takes over the English Gardens with 11 large-scale works by international artists. There are no tickets, no timed entry and, crucially, no expectation that children stand still and admire anything for more than 30 seconds.

This year marks the 14th edition, curated for the fourth time by Fatoş Üstek, with work from artists including Angel Otero, Ramesh Mario Nithiyendran, Catriona Robertson, Ivana Bašić, Conrad Shawcross and Tarini Sethi. The theme explores hybridity, but you don’t need to arrive armed with an art-history degree to enjoy it.

In fact, some of the works seem almost made for curious children. Otero’s Dreams and Salt resembles a doorway disappearing beneath the lawn, while Nithiyendran’s brilliantly coloured dual-faced figure is exactly the sort of thing likely to stop them mid-run. There are strange forms, enormous structures and plenty to debate over what, exactly, you’re looking at.

kid friendly culture

The joy of Frieze Sculpture is that it gives you culture without having to make an entire day about culture. You can wander through the sculptures at your own pace, abandon a work when it gets too much and let the children run around the park between stops. It works just as well as a 45-minute Sunday outing as it does as part of a longer Regent’s Park day.

And Frieze has made the family experience even better this year. For the first time, its free Bloomberg Connects digital guide includes a dedicated Family Guide, with an audio experience created specifically to help families explore the works together. There’s also a wider audio tour narrated by Üstek and the artists. For anyone wanting more context, Üstek is leading free public tours on Sunday 20 September and Sunday 1 November at midday, each lasting around an hour.

Frieze Sculpture also lands just in time for London Sculpture Week, 19–27 September, which brings together Frieze Sculpture, the Fourth Plinth, East Bank, Sculpture in the City and The Line for a city-wide celebration of public art. There are tours, talks and events throughout the week, many of them free and it’s the ideal way to explore art with young ones.

Frieze Sculpture 2026, The Regent’s Park, 16 September–1 November 2026. Free, no booking required.