Kids Asked to Stitch New Ending to Bayeux Tapestry

A 1,000-year-old cliffhanger is getting a kid-powered rewrite. As the Bayeux Tapestry heads to London's British Museum for a blockbuster loan show, the English Heritage charity and the Art Explora foundation are asking UK schoolchildren to dream up how its possibly missing ending should look, per Smithsonian. The "Beyond the Battle" contest invites classes of 7- to 11-year-olds to design and stitch a new final panel that moves past the Norman victory at Hastings and imagines a more hopeful future.

The project doubles as a craft lesson: Students will study the famous embroidery piece—often mistaken for a woven tapestry—before working in thread themselves. Winning groups get a free trip to see the tapestry in London next summer, plus a visit to the Battle of Hastings site or another Norman landmark. More here from the BBC on the Bayeux Tapestry's backstory, including why it's popping up in the UK.