This week I travelled all the way from Ancient Greece, through 19th-century France to land smack bang in the middle of Olympic London 2012 at the Royal Opera House in Covent Garden.

The ROH’s The Olympic Journey: The Story of the Games exhibition is a nice primer on the history of the games, followed by a just-what-I-wanted-to-see display of Olympic hardware in the form of torches, medals and select athletes’ memorabilia.

Beginning with the first Olympic Games almost 3,000 years ago, the show features sportily decorated Greek amphora dating from around 500BC, which inspires a cool animation of a chariot race. Moving on to Paris in the 1890s, we meet Pierre de Coubertin, whose vision of a civilising universal sporting event drove him, via the village of Much Wenlock in Shropshire, to create the modern Olympic Games. The first games of the modern Olympiad were held in Athens in 1896.

Following the history lesson, you get to see the Olympic Torches that were used for each games from Berlin 1936 onwards, accompanied by footage and diagrams of the most interesting torch routes. I found this bit unexpectedly moving, perhaps because it’s where local heroes and communities get directly involved in what is arguably the most “universal” event that happens in our world to this day.

The final room shows a set of medals from every summer Olympics (confirming my suspicion that the London 2012 medals are huge – the biggest yet!). There’s also a display on the games throughout the years comprising personal memorabilia from 20 representative athletes, who demonstrate the values of the Olympic movement.

The Olympic Journey: The Story of the Games is a great little exhibition. It’s free to enter and only takes about 45 mins to 1 hour to see. Plus there’s the opportunity to get your picture taken with the London 2012 torch – just be sure to grip it a little more firmly than I did (see above).

The Olympic Games aren’t just about victory at the finish line – creativity and design have played a part in making the ultimate sporting event in the world happen. Make sure you celebrate the artists and engineers involved as well as the athletes by visiting one of these top Olympic exhibitions this summer. They’re all free.

Design Stories and After the Party at RIBA
The Royal Institute of British Architects is putting on two Olympic exhibitions to toast the architecture behind the Games. Design Stories: The Architecture Behind 2012 explores the ideas and complex engineering behind the brand new Olympic venues like the Aquatics Centre. It compiles drawings, images, videos and detailed models. The second exhibition, After the Party: The Legacy of Celebration, compares the UK’s Olympic buildings to efforts for previous Olympic Games and celebrations and asks what happens to monuments celebrating events after all the hoopla has passed. 
Design Stories: 25 Jun-21 Sep
After The Party: 25 Jun-5 Oct

Road to 2012 at the National Portrait Gallery
None of the glory on the track and court would be possible without all the work behind the scenes of the Olympic Games. This free series of photographs at the National Portrait Gallery features not only the athletes but people who have put the event together, such as apprentices from the Olympic Park and the team that led the bid for London to hold the Games. It’s the final part of  the BT Road to 2012 project which has commissioned leading photographers to document the build up to the event. Katherine Green’s images of sports communities in London’s East End sit alongside the display. 
19 Jul-23 Sep

The Olympic Journey at the Royal Opera House
For two weeks only, an impressive collection of Olympic artefacts will set up camp at the Royal Opera House for The Olympic Journey: The Story of the Games. The exhibition traces the evolution of the Olympic Games from the ancient Greek games 3,000 years ago. The highlight has to be seeing every single summer Olympic medal since 1896 and every summer Olympic torch since 1936. 
28 Jul-12 Aug

London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games Posters at Tate Britain
The posters for the Olympic Games have always reflected the art – and the mood – of the city that hosts them. Artists like Tracey Emin and Chris Ofili are among the 12 to put their mark on the official posters for London 2012. Screen prints and lithographs of their creations will be among those on show at Tate Britain as part of the London 2012 Festival.
21 Jun-23 Sep

Olympics Through the Ages at Westfield Stratford City
Award-winning photography will showcase iconic sporting moments at this exhibition in the Getty Images Gallery. Taking place within walking distance from the Olympic Park, it looks at the Olympic Games through a camera lens – from the first modern event in Athens in 1896 through to Beijing in 2008. 
27 Jun-30 Sep

What will be the most iconic image from the London 2012 Olympic Games? Comment below and let us know.

Boxed: Fabulous Coffins from UK and Ghana is a free exhibition displaying bespoke coffins from the collection of Pa Joe in Ghana and Crazy Coffins in Nottingham.

The display is part of the Southbank Centre’s Death-themed festival four days of music, performance, talks and poetry aiming to lift the (coffin) lid on the subject of death.

Boxed: Fabulous Coffins, in the foyer of the Royal Festival Hall until 29 January 2012. Death Festival at the Southbank Centre, 27 to 30 January 2012

Photos by Baynes Media

The Caribbean is being well represented in London at the moment. Rihanna’s in town (both in real life, and in waxwork), it’s Black History Month, and there’s this new exhibition of photos from the Caribbean at the Redbridge Museum.

So, if you’re looking for a slice of Dominica in London, Island to Island: Dominica, Barbados and Britain is the show for you.

Island to Island: Dominica, Barbados and Britain is a collection of photographs exploring the links between East London and the Caribbean at the Redbridge Museum. The photos are complemented by stories of migration and experiences of living on the islands of Dominica and Barbados, and in Britain.

Photographer Tim Smith, who spent his childhood in Barbados and Dominica, shares his collection of photographs featuring the Dominican community in East London and Bradford and images taken on the two islands.  There are also photographs by Tim’s father, Derek Smith, showing everyday life on the islands during the 1960s.

One image features 76-year-old Wade Bells outside a fish and rum shop in Wesley, Dominica. Wade lived in Ladbroke Grove in London during the 1960s and has now retired to Dominica. 

The museum is also holding Caribbean-themed activities during October half term week.  Young visitors can enjoy stories and songs about carnival in the Caribbean on 25 October or join an arts and crafts session to make your own mini Caribbean island on 26 October.

Island to Island is at the Redbridge Museum until 31 December. Entrance is free. Visit www.redbridge.gov.uk to find out more.

This gorgeous artwork is on show from today at the Victoria and Albert Museum (V&A) as part of the London Design Festival.

Fancy creating your own version? An installation by Beyond the Valley allows you to hold up an iPad and interact with the printed forest around you. You can make the Victorian-style engravings come to life with butterfly-headed creatures and organic shapes. Then you can share your creation on social media sites or save it to your iPhone.

If you’re out and about in London this weekend, don’t forget to add your photos to the Visit London Flickr pool.

These handsome gorillas arrived outside London’s City Hall today. Part of Bristol Zoo’s Wow! Gorillas project, they’ll be on display until 22 September, before being sold by auction in aid of Wallace and Gromit’s Grand Appeal.

The most expensive painting to be sold at auction – Nude, Green Leaves and Bust 1932 by Pablo Picasso – went on display for the first time in the UK at Tate Modern today.

The painting was sold at Christie’s, New York on 4 May 2010 to a private collector for a world record price of $106.5m. Now you can see it in London for free!

You’ll find Nude, Green Leaves and Bust in the new Pablo Picasso room on Level 3 of Tate Modern, where it’ll be on show for two years.

The Women’s Library in East London has gone craft crazy. The current exhibition Hand Made Tales: Women and Domestic Crafts, explores the role of sewing, gardening, knitting and cooking in women’s lives. If you enjoy making things, you need to find time to visit this exhibition.

Hand Made Tales is full of beautiful hand-made items, as well as craft tools, vintage craft books and haberdashery. The exhibition explores connections between craft and history – in times when women had limited rights of ownership, they took care over the items they made. The exhibition also considers emotional connections made by craft, for example when we treasure and use our grandmother’s button jar, sewing box or knitting needles.

To complement the exhibition, artist Nicola Malkin has created some art pieces which have been scattered around the building, including giant knitting needles on the wall.

Last Saturday, London branches of the Women’s Institute took over the exhibition with a fun day of craft demonstrations, tea and free talks.

The most interesting speaker was Anne Stamper, the WI Honorary archivist who explained how the WI preserved, shared and developed craft skills throughout the 20th century, supporting rural communities and holding major exhibitions to showcase expert work.

It was also fascinating to see demonstrations of traditional craft and it inspired me to go home and teach myself tatting (with a lot of help from YouTube tutorials!).

Hand Made Tales runs till 26 March 2011. Free entry. The Women’s Library has an ongoing programme of thoughtful talks, walks and events. www.londonmet.ac.uk/thewomenslibrary

This stunning photo of the Panama Canal in the 1960s is currently on show in the National Maritime Museum’s Waterline exhibition.

The show looks back at the golden age of cruising from 1925 to 1970, featuring photos of conga lines, shark fishing, Victorian fancy dress and sumptuous banquets.

The 48-mile (77km) Panama Canal connects the Caribbean Sea to the Pacific Ocean. Travelling from one end to the other can take a whole day. This boat’s crewmen seem to be enjoying the view.

Do you know of more Panama culture in London? If so, let us know for our World in London challenge.

Waterline is at the National Maritime Museum until April. Admission is free

It’s the Tower of London, but not as you know it! This one is made from paper and on display at the V&A Museum of Childhood as part of their Cut it, Fold it: Build it with Paper exhibition.

If your early years were spent happily cutting out little tabs and assembling elaborate cardboard castles you’ll love this exhibition. The models on show are absolutely stunning and very carefully made (not one of the modellers had resorted to selotape!) The tiny elaborate buildings include Hampton Court Palace, shops, parks, houses and tourist attractions from all round the world.

One of the most interesting items was a lovely example of cinema merchandising, a printed kit for building Mr Blanding’s Dream House from the 1948 Cary Grant film.

The only frustration is that when you’ve seen this exhibition, you’ll be desperate to make paper models and the museum shop didn’t have any. Thankfully the internet does, so here’s a free paper model of Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre we found for you to stick to your fingers!

Cut it, Fold it: Build it with Paper at the Museum of Childhood. 9 October 2010 – 9 January 2011. Free entry. www.vam.ac.uk/moc