With activities for young people, adults and families – including bespoke sessions for under 5s – an exciting new series of events from January to April 2024 are now available to book at the National Portrait Gallery.
Programme highlights include an in-conversation event with celebrated historical novelist, Philippa Gregory, and historian, Dan Jones; a frame conservation and gilding workshop for members; a smartphone photography session; a Lunchtime Lecture on the history of the Bluestockings in Women’s History Month; poetry performances; and a special exhibitions-inspired programme of artist talks, screenings and symposiums.
Responding to The Time is Always Now: Artists Reframe the Black Figure and Francesca Woodman and Julia Margaret Cameron: Portraits to Dream In, talks and practical workshops with artists, photographers and writers take centre stage, featuring Ekow Eshun, Niellah Arboine and Lydia Goldblatt.
2024 also sees the launch of the Gallery’s accessible events programme, with free monthly descriptive tours, British sign language tours and Sensory tours available, inviting visitors with complex support needs to experience portraiture by using sound, movement, touch and smell to bring the stories of artworks to life.
Today, the National Portrait Gallery announces its spring programme of events, including exciting talks, in-conversations and creative sessions inspired by the Collection and major exhibitions. With priority booking for Gallery members, tickets can be booked from 12 January 2024, with wider public access available from 19 January 2024.
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JANUARY 2024
Smartphone photography portrait workshop: how to capture your friends and family
Friday 12 January 2024
18.00-20.00
£70, booking essential
Many of us have hundreds of photographs of our friends and family on our smartphones, but have you ever wanted to learn how to capture your nearest and dearest as a photographer would, considering lighting, props and backdrops? Inspired by the themes of friends and family, explored in the many works that feature as part of this year’s Taylor Wessing Photo Portrait Prize, learn from professional photographer, Marysa Dowling, in this two-hour workshop specially designed to uncover the secrets that will help you take better portraits on your smartphone.
Lunchtime lecture: Conversations with the past – Hockney and the old masters with Isabel Seligman
Thursday 18 January 2024
13.00-14.00
£10, booking essential
Constantly looking to the history of art for as inspiration, as well as for subjects, styles, solutions and techniques, David Hockney’s conversations with the art of the past have been lively and ongoing. From his early subversion of Hogarth’s moralising tale in A Rake’s Progress (1961–3), to his employment of the reed pen inspired by Vincent van Gogh, this talk will examine the impact that historic artists have had on Hockney’s graphic portraits, particularly focusing on the work of Rembrandt, Ingres and Picasso.
Evening Life Drawing
Friday 19 January 2024
18.00-20.00
£20, booking essential
Led by a figurative artist, join our monthly evening life drawing class held in the Ondaatje Wing Lecture Theatre. Working with an expert tutor be inspired by classic works and fascinating stories in the Gallery’s permanent collection to hone your technical drawing skills in a range of media. All materials will be provided. Suitable for all abilities.
The geography of the face: self-portraiture in mixed media
Saturday 20 and Sunday 21 January 2024
11.00-17.00
£250, booking essential
Develop your skills in self-portraiture during this two-day workshop inspired by our exhibition David Hockney: Drawing from Life with Portrait Prize winning artist, Charlie Schaffer, whose portrait by Hockney features in the exhibition. Work in a wide range of media and refer to works in the exhibition, including portraits drawn with pen and ink, paint and the iPad. All materials will be provided, and the workshop is suitable for all abilities.
Scotland’s national poet: Celebrating Robert Burns
Thursday 25 January 2024
14.30-15.00
Free, drop-in
In celebration of Burns Night, join this free Gallery talk inspired by the life, work and legacy of poet, Robert Burns, opposite his portrait by Alexander Nasmyth.
Philippa Gregory in conversation with Dan Jones
Friday 26 January 2024
19.00-20.00
£15 on site, booking essential
Celebrated novelist, Philippa Gregory, introduces her new book, Normal Women: 900 Years of Making History, published in November 2023 by Harper Collins. Normal Women is a radical retelling of our nation’s story – not of the rise and fall of kings and the occasional queen – but of social and cultural change, powered by the determination, persistence and effectiveness of women – from 1066 to modern times. In conversation with historian, Dan Jones, hear from Philippa as she discusses her motivation in turning to nonfiction and how she approached the gargantuan task of researching and writing a book that aims to remember and celebrate the diverse achievements of countless ordinary – and too often anonymous – women over 9 centuries of British history.
Drop-in drawing
Friday 26 January 2024
18.00-20.00
Free, drop in
Led by an artist, create your own work in the Gallery and be inspired by the world’s largest collection of portraits. All materials are provided and the session is suitable for everyone – from complete beginners to accomplished artists.
Painting Workshop: Portraits of our Elders
Saturday 27 January – 28 January 2024,
11.00-17.00
£250, booking essential
Windrush: Portraits of a Pioneering Generation is a display of newly commissioned works from the Royal Collection capturing portraits of inspiring individuals from the Windrush generation. Join exhibition portraitist Shannon Bono to learn how to paint portraits of your own elders in this two-day practical workshop. Explore and discuss the portraits of the 10 sitters as a group, delving into their fascinating and inspiring back stories. Then, back in the studio, learn from Bono, an artist who centres the authentic representation of women of colour in her work, about how to create portraits in acrylic paint using carbon paper from source material such as photographs. Bono will provide technical tuition, explaining how to paint a portrait that captures personality and individual biography and provide an insight into her own process; building a relationship with the sitter and choosing a composition that celebrates them and encapsulates their identity. All materials will be provided. Suitable for all abilities. Maximum participants 15.
FEBRUARY 2024
Drop-in drawing
Friday 2 February 2024
18.00-20.00
Free, drop in
Led by an artist, create your own work in the Gallery and be inspired by the world’s largest collection of portraits. The session starts with a short introduction, but participants can drop in throughout, staying for any amount of time, whether it be 10 minutes or 2 hours. The class is suitable for everyone, from complete beginners to accomplished artists. All materials are provided, so no need to bring anything with you unless you want to work in your own sketchbook or on an iPad.
Queer Tour: LGBTQ+ History Month
Friday 16 February 2024
19.00-20.00
Free, drop in
Join Drag Artist, Timberlina, on an irreverent tour of the Gallery, focused on the extraordinary life of the Chevalier d’Eon. Thomas Stewart’s 1792 portrait of the Chevalier is the earliest painted portrait of a trans person in our Collection. Through painted and printed works, learn more about the celebrated soldier, diplomat and fencer with Timberlina, whose work explores narratives around Queer identity, environmentalism, social history and community spirit.
Family Day: Picture This
Tuesday 13 February 2024
11.00-16.00
Free, drop-in
Discover the power of a picture this half-term with a day of creative workshops exploring portrait photography. Pose, style, capture and create your own pictures, inspired by the Taylor Wessing Photo Portrait Prize.
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Wednesday 14 – Friday 16 February 2024
11.00-16.00
Free, booking essential
Aged 14-18 and interested in photography? Join us for a three-day creative photography project, taking place this half term. Inspired by our annual Taylor Wessing Photo Portrait Prize, you’ll work with artist, Oliver McKenzie, to curate and prepare photographs for your own public exhibition, Zine and digital display.
Drop-in drawing
Friday 16 February 2024
18.00-20.00
Free, drop in
Led by an artist, create your own work in the Gallery and be inspired by the world’s largest collection of portraits. The session starts with a short introduction, but participants can drop in throughout, staying for any amount of time, whether it be 10 minutes or 2 hours. The class is suitable for everyone, from complete beginners to accomplished artists. All materials are provided, so no need to bring anything with you unless you want to work in your own sketchbook or on an iPad.
Descriptive Tour: The Collection
Tuesday 20 February 2024
14.30-16.00
Free, booking essential
Join our free monthly audio described tours for visitors who are blind or partially sighted. Explore the stories behind featured artworks in the Collection with our Gallery Educators before heading to our Learning Centre for art-making and creative activities over tea and coffee. Meet in the Gallery’s Entrance Hall, accessed via Ross Place.
Little Explorers
Wednesday 21 February 2024
11.00-12.00
Free, booking essential
From Tudors for Tots to exhibition-inspired sessions, our Little Explorers programme – specifically designed for those aged 5 and under – invites families into the Gallery to play and learn amongst the world’s largest collection of portraits. Join us in the Gallery for sensory storytelling, songs and dress-up, followed by a playful workshop in our Learning Centre.
Members’ event – Curator’s introduction to the Collection
Thursday 22 February 2024
13.00-14.00
£15 on site, £8 online livestream, booking essential
During this Members only event, explore our contemporary collection with an NPG curator as they introduce the relaunched National Portrait Gallery, sharing behind-the-scenes insights into how the new contemporary displays were created and continue to be ever-changing.
In conversation with Hassan Hajjaj and Rose Issa
Friday 23 February 2024
19.00-20.00
£15 on site, £8 online livestream, booking essential
Join curator, writer and publisher, Rose Issa, in conversation with the In Focus Photographer for the Taylor Wessing Photo Portrait Prize, Hassan Hajjaj. In this special in-conversation, the pair will discuss the importance of embedding Moroccan traditions into UK culture and the London art scene, from the 1980s to today. Hear more about photography and the arts, as Hassan shares more about his early career, his personal link to the people he photographs, and his strong link to the creative arts and the music scenes.
BSL Tour: The Collection
Friday 23 February 2024
19.30-20.30
Free, booking essential
Join our free monthly BSL tours for D/deaf and hard of hearing visitors to take a journey through the Collection and discover stories associated with featured artworks. This informal, social experience – where ideas and discussion are encouraged – is also open to BSL students. Meet in the Gallery’s Entrance Hall, accessed via Ross Place.
In-conversation – Past and presence: the histories and legacies of London’s Black lesbian community
Saturday 24 February 2024
19.00-20.00
£15 on site, booking essential
Meditating on The Time Is Always Now: Artists Reframe the Black Figure and the artwork on display which explores one of the three central themes – ‘Kinship and Connection’ – this event will bring together historian and journalist, Paula Akpan, and author and mindfulness teacher, Valerie Mason John, to discuss the past realities of London’s Black, Queer community and to celebrate the present possibilities (and realities) of kinship in that community today.
MARCH 2024
Drop-in drawing
Friday 1 March
18.00-20.00
Free, drop in
Led by an artist, create your own work in the Gallery and be inspired by the world’s largest collection of portraits. The session starts with a short introduction, but participants can drop in throughout, staying for any amount of time, whether it be 10 minutes or 2 hours. The class is suitable for everyone, from complete beginners to accomplished artists. All materials are provided, so no need to bring anything with you unless you want to work in your own sketchbook or on an iPad.
Weekend Workshop – Piecing together our histories: Making collage portraits with archival materials
Saturday 2 March 2024
11.00-17.00
£150 on site, booking essential
Empowering attendees to tell a new kind of historical story, this workshop will use archival and other artistic materials to inform the creation of a collage, created by participants with support from artist Sharon Walters. Responding to the lack of, and too often violent, representation of people of African and Asian descent in Western art, participants will use their collage to represent an important historical figure of their choosing, using the available archive materials to intimately understand those who have shaped Britain in significant ways.
Lunchtime Lecture – The Bluestockings: The First Women’s Movement
Thursday 7 March 2024
13.00-14.00
£10 on site, booking essential
In this Lunchtime Lecture, author Susannah Gibson introduces her new book The Bluestockings: The First Women’s Movement. In Britain in the 1750s, women had no power and no rights – all money and property belonged to their fathers or husbands. A brave group, known as the Blue Stockings Society, risked everything to think and live as they wished, despite the sneers of contemporaries who argued that books ‘frazzled female brains and damaged their wombs’. In reference to portraits in the Collection, this talk celebrates the lives and achievements of the Bluestockings – Elizabeth Montagu, who hosted a series of glittering salons in her London drawing room; Hester Thrale, who took key writers under her wing; Ann Yearsley, who fought back when her snobbish patron refused to hand over her earnings because she was working class; and Catherine MaCauley, who wrote a sensational eight volume history of England. In this revelatory book, Gibson explores the lives and legacies of these women who went on to inspire writers and thinkers from Mary Wollstonecraft to Virginia Woolf, paving the way for the feminist waves that would follow.
‘Our Aliveness’: Nightlife Photography
Friday 8 March 2024
17.30-18.30 and 19.00-20.00
Free, booking essential
To celebrate the opening of The Time is Always Now: Artists Reframe the Black Figure, join photographer, Eddie Otchere, as he leads two drop-in evening classes empowering attendees to take exciting, intimate portraits of friends. Responding to themes explored in the exhibition, this evening session will celebrate the concept of ‘Blackness’ as a way to foster kinship and community.
‘Our Aliveness’: Damsel Elysium
Friday 8 March 2024
17.30-20.00
Free, drop in
To celebrate the opening of The Time is Always Now: Artists Reframe the Black Figure, join composer and multi-instrumentalist, Damsel Elysium, for a live performance in the galleries. Responding to themes explored in the exhibition, this evening session will celebrate the concept of ‘Blackness’ as a way to foster kinship and community.
‘Our Aliveness’: Screening of ‘Black Poirot’ and discussion with the director
Friday 8 March 2024
17.30-20.00
£10 on site, booking essential
To celebrate the opening of The Time is Always Now: Artists Reframe the Black Figure, join artist and director, Rosa Johan Uddo, for a screening of Black Poirot, described by Johan Uddo as ‘a 20-minute ride on the Orientalised-Other Express’. The film will be followed by an in-conversation with the director. Responding to themes explored in the exhibition, this evening session will celebrate the concept of ‘Blackness’ as a way to foster kinship and community.
Weekend Workshop – Using portrait photography to explore identity
Saturday 9 March 2024
11.00-17.00
£125 on site, booking essential
Inspired by the exhibition, The Time is Always Now: Artists Reframe the Black Figure, this captivating workshop will teach you effective and useful lessons on how to stage and light your photographs, as well as how to communicate with an audience using props and accessories. With the tools provided, you will have the chance to enhance your knowledge by learning technical details about camera settings and models that will improve your photographs in new and inventive ways.
Drop-in drawing
Friday 15 March 2024
18.00-20.00
Free, drop in
Led by an artist, create your own work in the Gallery and be inspired by the world’s largest collection of portraits. The session starts with a short introduction, but participants can drop in throughout, staying for any amount of time, whether it be 10 minutes or 2 hours. The class is suitable for everyone, from complete beginners to accomplished artists. All materials are provided, so no need to bring anything with you unless you want to work in your own sketchbook or on an iPad.
Little Explorers
Wednesday 20 March 2024
11.00-12.00
Free, booking essential
From Tudors for Tots to exhibition-inspired sessions, our Little Explorers programme – specifically designed for those aged 5 and under – invites families into the Gallery to play and learn amongst the world’s largest collection of portraits. Join us in the Gallery for sensory storytelling, songs and dress-up, followed by a playful workshop in our Learning Centre.
Magda Keaney in conversation
Friday 22 March 2024
19.00-20.00
£15 on site, £8 online livestream, booking essential
Join Magda Keaney, curator of Francesca Woodman and Julia Margaret Cameron: Portraits to Dream In, as she explores the work of these two leading photographers, working 100 years apart, in conversation with a contemporary artist. Together, Magda and the artist will discuss how themes explored by Francesca Woodman and Julia Margaret Cameron resonate with the contemporary artist’s own work, including masculinity, femininity and vulnerability, appearance and identity, self-portraiture, and constructed worlds within everyday experiences.
Members’ event – Evening life drawing
Friday 22 March 2024
18.00-20.00
£50 on site, booking essential
Led by a figurative artist, join our member’s only life drawing class. Working with an expert tutor, be inspired by the classic works and fascinating stories told through the Gallery’s Collection to hone your technical drawing skills in a range of media.
Poetry performance
Saturday 23 March 2024
14.00-14.30
Free, drop in
Immerse yourself in magical realism and the notion of a dream space with a unique poetry experience inspired by upcoming exhibition, Francesca Woodman and Julia Margaret Cameron: Portraits to Dream In.
Digital photography workshop: BLUR
Saturday 23 March 2024
11.00-17.00
£125 on site, booking essential
Drawing on Francesca Woodman and Julia Margaret Cameron’s use of movement, soft-focus imagery and creative imperfections throughout their work, this workshop will focus on experimenting and innovating through the medium of photography. In this one-day digital photography workshop, led by contemporary photographer, Axel Hoedt, participants will learn techniques to transform imagery by purposefully allowing works to appear out of focus, incorporating movement into images and experimenting with double exposures and imperfections.
Descriptive Tour: The Time is Always Now
Tuesday 26 March 2024
14.30-16.00
Free, booking essential
Join our free monthly audio described tours for visitors who are blind or partially sighted. Explore the contemporary works that feature in our upcoming exhibition The Time is Always Now: Artists Reframe the Black Figure before heading to our Learning Centre for art-making and creative activities over tea and coffee with our Gallery Educators. Meet in the Gallery’s Entrance Hall, accessed via Ross Place.
Youth Late
Thursday 28 March 2024
19.00-21.30
Free, booking essential
Curated and hosted by our Young Producers, join us as we open into the evening, exclusively for 18 to 25 year olds. Taking place over two floors, expect live music from guest DJs, performances, workshops, artist talks, alternative tours of the Collection and more, in response to our major spring exhibition, The Time is Always Now: Artists Reframe the Black Figure, which is also free to enter on the night. Join hundreds of other young creatives to connect, experience and make art together.
APRIL 2024
Spring Family Festival
Thursdays 4 and 11 and Friday 5 and 12 April 2024
11.00-16.00
Free, drop-in
Jump into spring with creative activities for all the family, inspired by nature and the season. Explore colours, patterns, styles and textures, and take a closer look at portraits from across the centuries. From badge making and storytelling, to drawing and crafts, there will be lots to make and do.
Drop-in drawing
Friday 5 April 2024
18.00-20.00
Free, drop in
Led by an artist, create your own work in the Gallery and be inspired by the world’s largest collection of portraits. The session starts with a short introduction, but participants can drop in throughout, staying for any amount of time, whether it be 10 minutes or 2 hours. The class is suitable for everyone, from complete beginners to accomplished artists. All materials are provided, so no need to bring anything with you unless you want to work in your own sketchbook or on an iPad.
In-conversation – Trespassing: Art and Black belonging in a colonial landscape
Friday 5 April 2024
19.00-20.00
£15 on site, £8 online livestream, booking essential
Writer, editor and journalist, Niellah Arboine, whose work explores the complexities of Black belonging in nature, will facilitate a conversation that considers the role of artistic practice and expression to create and assert a new kind of belonging in Britain’s colonial landscape. This new kind of belonging captures the essence of The Time Is Always Now: Artists Reframe the Black Figure and its emphasis on ‘Our Aliveness’.
PORTfolio workshop
Saturday 6 April 2024
11.00-16.00
Free, booking essential
Young people aged 16 to 21 are invited to sharpen their portraiture skills through drawing and painting workshops. Taking inspiration from the Gallery’s Collection, as well as drawing from life, this day has been developed with artists to ensure whatever you make can be taken home to add to your portfolios.
PORTfolio reviews
Sunday 7 April 2024
14.00-17.30
Free, booking essential
Aged between 16 and 21 and want some advice, feedback and a conversation about your artwork with an inspiring group of artists, curators and artist educators? Join this speed-portfolio review session that will help support your ideas and projects. Participants will have a chance to speak to a number professionals in the industry, matched to their areas of interest and work in advance.
‘Photography is a place for the viewer to dream in’: What can photography do?
Thursday 11 April 2024
13.00-14.00
£10 on site, booking essential
Directly influenced by the central theme of the Gallery’s upcoming exhibition Francesca Woodman and Julia Margaret Cameron: Portraits to Dream In, this lecture will look at the ways in which photography is used to transport a viewer beyond reality and into a dream space. Where can photography take us? What can photography do? And how does photography offer an alternative to every-day life?
Digital photography workshop: gesture, pose, staging and props.
Saturday 13 April 2024
11.00-17.00
£125 on site, boking essential
In this one-day workshop led by contemporary photographer, Lydia Goldblatt, participants will use digital photography to consider pose and gesture in their own work, discovering how to stage their portraits and use objects to create performative and playful imagery. Lydia Goldblatt’s works creatively fuse the approaches of both documentary and constructed photography. She was awarded in the Taylor Wessing Portrait Prize, 2020, for her portrait ‘Eden’, from the series Fugue.
Little Explorers
Wednesday 17 April 2024
11.00-12.00
Free, booking essential
From Tudors for Tots to exhibition-inspired sessions, our Little Explorers programme – specifically designed for those aged 5 and under – invites families into the Gallery to play and learn amongst the world’s largest collection of portraits. Join us in the Gallery for sensory storytelling, songs and dress-up, followed by a playful workshop in our Learning Centre.
Members’ event – Frame Conservation studio tour and gilding workshop
Friday 19 April 2024
18.00-20.00
£80 on site, booking essential
Join the Gallery’s Senior Conservation Manager, Stuart Ager, for an intimate evening talk and workshop revealing the processes behind frame conservation and the application of gold-leaf. Stuart will offer his unique insight as a conservator and show how he has worked directly with many beautiful historic frames in our Collection to give them a new lease of life. The event will include an exclusive behind-the-scenes tour of the Gallery’s frame conservation studio.
Drop-in drawing
Friday 19 April 2024
18.00-20.00
Free, drop in
Led by an artist, create your own work in the Gallery and be inspired by the world’s largest collection of portraits. The session starts with a short introduction, but participants can drop in throughout, staying for any amount of time, whether it be 10 minutes or 2 hours. The class is suitable for everyone, from complete beginners to accomplished artists. All materials are provided, so no need to bring anything with you unless you want to work in your own sketchbook or on an iPad.
Weekend Workshop – Creating realistic portraits using ballpoint pen
Saturday 20 and Sunday 21 April 2024
11.00-17.00
£250 on site, booking essential
During this two-day workshop, participants will be instructed by artist Habib Hajallie to create their own ballpoint pen portraits of historical figures of African descent. Representing a sitter of their choice, this workshop will give participants the direction and confidence to create a realistic ballpoint pen portrait, using source materials including photographs, prints and etchings from our Collection.
Sensory Tour: The Collection
Monday 22 April 2024
12.00-12.45
Free, booking essential
Our sensory tours invite visitors with complex support needs and their carers to experience the Collection in imaginative ways. Gallery Educators use sound, movement, touch and smell to bring the stories behind the artworks to life. Meet in the Gallery’s Entrance Hall, accessed via Ross Place.
Descriptive Tour: The Collection
Tuesday 23 April 2024
14.30-16.00
Free, book essential
Join our free monthly audio described tours for visitors who are blind or partially sighted. Explore featured artworks in the Collection with our Gallery Educators before heading to our Learning Centre for art-making and creative activities over tea and coffee. Meet in the Gallery’s Entrance Hall, accessed via Ross Place.
Lecture: Women’s representation and the female gaze
Thursday 25 April 2024
13.00-14.00
£10 on site, booking essential
Held to coincide with the upcoming exhibition Francesca Woodman and Julia Margaret Cameron: Portraits to Dream in, join us as we explore the representation of women working in photography throughout history and contemporary arts. The lecture will address how women have often been positioned in relation their bodies and appearance, in a way male artists and creatives seldom are. Join academic, Professor Patrizia Di Bello, as they explore photography through the female gaze and aim to redefine what it means to be a woman working in the arts today.
BSL Tour: The Collection
Friday 26 April 2024
19.30-20.30
Free, booking essential
Join our free monthly BSL tours for D/deaf and hard of hearing visitors to take a journey through the Collection and discover stories associated with featured artworks. This informal, social experience – where ideas and discussion are encouraged – is also open to BSL students. Meet in the Gallery’s Entrance Hall, accessed via Ross Place.
Evening life drawing
Friday 26 April 2024
18.00-20.00
£20 on site, booking essential
Led by a figurative artist, join our monthly evening life drawing class held in the Ondaatje Wing Lecture Theatre. Working with an expert tutor, be inspired by classic works and fascinating stories in the Gallery’s Collection to hone your technical drawing skills in a range of media.
Get loud: A Dominoes Night at the National Portrait Gallery
Friday 12 April 2024
18.00-20.00
Free, drop in
Our upcoming exhibition The Time Is Always Now: Artists Reframe the Black Figure uses figurative artwork to celebrate the complexities and joys of Black life. We want to celebrate the kinship and connection fostered by the game of dominoes amongst people of African descent living in the Caribbean and Britain. Join us for a pop-up dominoes tournament in our gallery space after hours. Whether you’re a seasoned professional or new to the game, we invite you to join a game or two and enjoy a playlist of curated music – let’s get loud!
Symposium – The Poetry of Being: Interrogating the relationship between art and ‘Our Aliveness’
Saturday 27 and Sunday 28 April 2024
10.00-18.00
Weekend Ticket inclusive of exhibition entry: £80/£64 Concessions / £48 Students
Day Ticket Saturday inclusive of exhibition entry: £50/£40 Concessions / £30 Students
Day Ticket Sunday inclusive of exhibition entry: £50/£40 Concessions / £30 Students
Providing space for all thinkers to come together, The Poetry of Being will acknowledge the oppressive nature of race whilst contemplating the infinite possibilities of Blackness. Put simply, this weekend-long symposium will consider the Black figure as a lens for understanding the complexities and joys of Black life through a mixture of lectures, in-conversations, panels and performances, opening with a keynote delivered by writer, former Director of the Institute of Contemporary Arts and the curator of The Time is Always Now: Artists Reframe the Black Figure, Ekow Eshun. Whether you join for one day or two, this symposium will raise important questions that respond to The Time is Always Now: Artists Reframe the Black Figure and inform our own research about the Gallery’s relationship with imperialist history.
