First Thursdays – Late-Night Culture in London
Already most London museums are open to the public for free, giving them an edge over many museums of other nations. But the accessibility aspect has another factor: late openings. The First Thursdays is a collection of museums, largely based around Tower Hamlets and Hackney in East London, which open until 9pm on the first Thursday of every month.
Among the museums participating are a nice mix of well-knowns, super-cools and small-but-interestings. There are over 100 galleries involved, so you can make an evening of art-hopping or just mosey to see a nearby one after dinner. Here’s a rundown of the places you can visit late, and what they’re currently showing.
Barbican Art Gallery
The Barbican Art Gallery is one of the big ones – it hosts interesting and varied art exhibitions and continually runs a series of talks on them, which though not free tend to complement the exhibitions well. Running until various dates in September, they currently have a series on animation, its history and variety happening. Otherwise there is the exhibition of Japanese architect Junya Ishigami, a series of architectural, minimalist art pieces held for free at the Barbican Art Gallery’s The Curve.
Hales Gallery
To be found in the Tea Building in East London, Hales has been around since ’92 and focuses on the contemporary work of emerging young British artists. This is therefore a great place to go to get an idea of where recent British art is really going. This is definitely one for the open-minded art lovers – there is nothing conventional about this gallery.
V&A Museum of Childhood
You’re probably familiar with the extraordinary V&A; well, this is its baby. The Museum of Childhood is a fantastic museum, and one the kids will love too. It holds the largest collection of childhood items in the UK from the Victorian era (complete with creepy dolls) onwards. It is currently running a retrospective exhibition on the work of the much-loved children’s author Judith Kerr, who wrote the best-seller The Tiger Who Came To Tea.
Pure Evil Gallery
Moving on to a polar opposite gallery, also participating the First Thursdays arrangement is Pure Evil. The work that you’ll find here is largely in the form of prints of slightly Banksy-esque images. Part graphics, part cartoon, part photographs, the prints conjure up surreal and often quite twisted images involving macabre takes on society and media. If you’re into that kind of thing, you can often buy t-shirts with the prints on them.
The Drawing Room
And back to the normal world, the Drawing Room is devoted to the art of contemporary drawing. The question of artist and subject is quite varied, and September will see the work of a group of Latin American artists come to the gallery.
The dates for 2012 are as follows:
February 2nd 2012
March 1st 2012
April 5th 2012
For more information and a full list of the galleries involved, check out www.firstthursdays.co.uk