THE National Portrait Gallery may have a ghoulish exhibition up in “Sideshow Alley: infamy, the macabre and the portrait,” but it’s hell-bent on having fun, with its family space, the Amusement Parlour, open this month.

As one of the only free family activities offered by cultural institutions in Canberra, the Family Space attracted over 3,500 people last summer with families describing it as “a fantastic place to bring the kids” and promising to return.

For these school holidays only and in keeping with “Sideshow Alley”, the family space has been transformed into a Victorian-themed amusement parlour taking visitors back in time to colonial Australia.

The Amusement Parlour theme is inspired by the stories of convicts, bushrangers and criminals and activities include” games of the past such as knuckle bones, hopscotch, dominoes and quoits; a library filled with books from the period; tools to create your own prison record including your own offence and sentence; a puppet theatre with handmade puppets of the Kelly Gang, policemen; the chance to uncover a friend’s character by examining their head and compare its shape with the phrenology map; and the means to make a ‘thaumatrope’, a pre-film animation device that produces a moving image of a drawing you have created using only paper and string.

The Amusement Parlour, at the National Portrait Gallery, King Edward Terrace, Parkes, until January 24 daily, 11am to 4pm. Free entry, all welcome.