National Gallery to host spectacular big birthday weekend in May
Celebrate the National Gallery’s 200th birthday with Jools Holland and friends, light shows, and a weekend of activities.
Front of the National Gallery © The National Gallery, London.
The National Gallery is gearing up for an extraordinary celebration as it marks its 200th anniversary with a grand Big Birthday Weekend in May. This milestone event promises an unparalleled blend of art and music, featuring a special performance by Jools Holland and a lineup of musical talents such as Ruby Turner MBE, Louise Marshall, and Sumudu. Visitors can immerse themselves in an array of activities, from DJ sets to creative workshops, set against the backdrop of the Gallery's beautiful collection.
As part of the festivities, the Gallery will come alive with a light show illuminating Trafalgar Square, showcasing projections of iconic paintings and narrating the institution's rich history. Audiences will have the opportunity to engage with art in innovative ways, including sculptural postcard making and Renaissance Selfies.
Gallery 32 After Refurbishment © The National Gallery, London.
The weekend celebration extends beyond London, with twelve cherished paintings from the Gallery's collection on loan to museums and galleries across the UK. This initiative, known as National Treasures, ensures that art enthusiasts nationwide can partake in commemorating the Gallery's bicentenary. Gabriele Finaldi, Director of the National Gallery, expresses excitement about welcoming people to celebrate this momentous occasion, highlighting the diverse range of free activities designed to engage both existing and new audiences.
Date: 10 - 12 May 2024. Time: Friday Late 6pm to 9pm, Saturday - Sunday, 10am -6pm. Location: National Gallery, Trafalgar Square, London WC2N 5DN. Price: Admission free, booking required on Friday and advised on Saturday - Sunday. Book now.
After what has been a troubling few years for the art market (at home and abroad), Frieze London & Frieze Masters have brought a sense of unexpected joy and magic both in the art on the wall and in the sales that have followed. We’ve compiled a compact shopping list filled with all the art we can't stop thinking about….
Frieze London and Frieze Masters closed on 18 October after five days at The Regent's Park, with both fairs reporting sales from four figures to seven…
This week in London (19 - 25 October 2026), Hokusai opens at Dulwich Picture Gallery and Freddie Mercury's wardrobe goes on free display at the V&A. Spiritland opens in the Barbican and Bubala opens in Covent Garden. Plus Critical Sound at Fabric, Carl Stone at Café OTO, two UK premieres at Sadler's Wells, and the clocks go back on Sunday.
With 172 exhibitors at Frieze London alone, that’s a lot of booths, and you only have so many hours to spend time in them all. Our top ten ranges from the heavyweight blue chips to younger galleries, and from big-ticket showstoppers to the stands that literally made us stop mid-sentence…
You have your Frieze Exhibitions Guide. You have your Frieze Music Nightlife Guide. But what about all the other collateral events and activations around the city? Lo and behold, there are many. Luckily for you, we’ve compiled a separate list of events to keep on your radar this Frieze Week, from a knit-and-sip crochet club to the Frieze London opening parties everyone is invited to.
Morus Art Group, a London cultural initiative founded by Alya Entts, makes its first public appearance in the city on 15 October with Out of the Blue, an exhibition that follows an artistic career through its first phases, from early promise to a first award, guidance from others and the point at which an artist begins working independently…
Celebrating its 21st edition in 2026 is Darbar Festival: the leading festival of Indian classical music in the UK. The five-day celebration of Hindustani and Carnatic music is themedThe Shock of the New, and will feature many artists never heard before in the UK…
Ironworks is the latest venture from LWE and PROJEKT, transforming a historic industrial warehouse on the banks of the Thames in East London into a next-generation electronic music venue. Spanning more than 150,000 square feet of indoor and outdoor space, Ironworks has the capacity for 7,000 people…
The Hayward Gallery has announced the largest UK solo exhibition to date by Chinese multimedia artist Cao Fei, which is to open in April 2027. The survey will chart her practice from the early 2000s to the present…
Kistefos, an hour north west of Oslo in Jevnaker, pairs a preserved wood pulp mill with one of Europe's most ambitious sculpture parks. The industrial museum keeps its machinery turning, while 60 works, almost all of them site specific, are spread along the Randselva river. Here is a guide to the sculptures not to miss…
Frieze London and Frieze Masters run from 14 to 18 October 2026 in The Regent's Park, marking the 24th edition of the contemporary fair and the 14th of its historical counterpart. Between them they bring 318 galleries to north London for five days, and with them the annual reordering of the city's cultural calendar that is Frieze Week…
Olympia has announced a 12-month partnership with the Design Museum, bringing a programme of free cultural activations to the West London destination across 2026 and 2027. Announced on 24 September, the collaboration draws on the museum's exhibitions and creative programme, positioning the 140-year-old site as one of the capital's newest cultural hubs…
Tickets are now on sale for Skate at Somerset House with Virgin Atlantic Holidays, which returns to the Strand courtyard from 11 November 2026 until 10 January 2027.
Alice Delhanty's first solo exhibition, Invented Fire, opened at Tache on Newman Street in Fitzrovia on 24 September 2026. The show presents fifteen new paintings in acrylic, among them large triptychs measuring more than three metres across, all made over the past year.
Apple has opened Apple Music Hall, a new live music venue inside London's Battersea Power Station, aimed at bringing artists and fans together through small, one-of-a-kind performances…
This week in London (21–27 September): Wigmore Hall opens its Autumn Piano Festival, Cate Blanchett and Nina Hoss swap roles nightly in Electra/Persona at the National Theatre, and major new exhibitions from Amar Kanwar and William Kentridge open across the city's galleries…
Established in 2006, Contemporary Istanbul is Turkey’s leading art fair. This year’s edition sees more than 70 galleries from 24 countries participating. Nearly a quarter of these galleries are first-time exhibitors, demonstrating its growing reach…
FLO London’s Festival Correspondent Sofia Carreira Wham reports on the 2026 edition of Roskilde Festival, held from 27 June - 4 July in Roskilde, Denmark.
Somerset House Studios is marking its tenth anniversary this autumn with two major projects, a new film installation at its home in Somerset House and a three night takeover of a former power station in East London.
This week in London (14–20 September): Panels at Southbank's Letters To The Future, AW26/27 opens at Drumsheds, Grand shows at Fashion Week, Rodrigues' Catarina at the National Theatre, Outdoor art at Frieze Sculpture, Awakenings at the V&A Late, Historic tea at the Royal Albert Hall.
Artist Tschabalala Self unveiled her bronze sculpture Lady in Blue in Trafalgar Square, becoming the 16th commission for the Fourth Plinth since the programme began in 1998. The nine foot tall figure depicts an everyday young woman rendered in vivid blue…
Mike Skinner, the man behind The Streets, is teaming up with PATRÓN Tequila for a one-off evening in the capital this month, billed as Re-Mastered Live. The night will feature an in-depth conversation between Skinner and two long-time collaborators who've worked alongside him…
There is no doubt the temporary loan of the Bayeux Tapestry to the British Museum is the once-in-a-lifetime experience to rule them all. Meticulously stitched by hand by talented women, the embroidery has never returned to English soil in over 900 years since its creation around the 1070s. Although many worried for its fragile condition, visitors lucky enough to bag the £33 ticket…
Kew Gardens is rolling out a new discounted admission scheme this autumn, offering entry for £10 every Tuesday starting 8 September 2026 and continuing through 29 December 2026…
Once a year, museums, theatres, and concert halls across Denmark open up specifically for the country's youth, and this September, K7 Week is back for another round, now bigger than ever. The initiative began in Denmark in 2020 as a way to draw young people into cultural life…
With more than two decades of experience across the art world, Anna Maja Spiess has seen the industry from almost every angle, from private and public collections and blue-chip galleries to art start-ups, cultural partnerships and arts publications…
London Sculpture Week returns for its fifth edition from 19 to 27 September 2026, bringing together some of the capital’s leading public art programmes across a series of free and ticketed events…
V&A East Museum is staying open until 10pm every Thursday throughout September, with free DJ sets, a pop-up bar and late-night access to its exhibitions and galleries….
A key engine within the Surrealist movement was the collaborative nature between artists. During the late 1930s, Paris became an epicenter for contemporary artists and writers, many of whom co-created and lived together. Two couples exemplify this spirit of collaboration: Max Ernst and Leonora Carrington…
Step up your game with this vibrant Ahwenepa Nkasa scrunchie!