TIMETABLE OF EVENTS
SEPTEMBER – DECEMBER 2012

SATURDAY 8^TH SEPTEMBER – THE NATIONAL GALLERY

v  HOW TO GET THERE:
-   Tube: Charing Cross, Piccadilly Circus, Leicester Square.
-   Bus: 3, 6, 9, 11, 12, 13, 15, 23, 24, 29, 87, 88, 91, 139, 159, 176, 453.

v  MEETING PLACE: Espresso Bar. If you go in through the main portico entrance (Trafalgar Square), it is straight in front, towards the back.

v  MEETING TIME: 11.00am – 11.30am.

The National Gallery is home to the national collection of Western European painting from the 13^th to the 19^th Centuries. Apologies for starting with the obvious, but I have purposefully chosen the National as our first visit for the following three reasons:

1. Thought we'd start simple.

2. There is a free exhibition running in the Sainsbury Wing entitled Metamorphosis: Titian 2012. This exhibition is in collaboration with The Royal Ballet, and, as part of the Cultural Olympiad's London 2012 Festival, features work by contemporary artists that 'draws on the powerful stories of change found in Titian's masterpieces, revealing how these spectacular paintings continue to inspire living artists'. This is for those of you who are ultra cultural and bored of the gallery's permanent collection.

3. Between 1.00pm-1.30pm in Room 45, there is a free lunch-time talk on the famous Sunflowers by Vincent Van Gogh.

http://www.nationalgallery.org.uk/

SATURDAY 6^TH OCTOBER – SUPERHUMAN, WELLCOME COLLECTION

v  HOW TO GET THERE:
-   Tube: Euston Station, St. Pancras, King’s Cross.
-   Bus: 10, 18, 24, 27, 29, 30, 59, 68, 73, 88, 91, 134, 168, 205, 253, 390.

v  MEETING PLACE: The Café. There’s only one.

v  MEETING TIME: 11.00am – 11.30am.

Heading to the other end of the spectrum, October’s visit is to the Wellcome Collection. The Wellcome Trust is the world’s largest independent charitable foundation funding research into human and animal health, and its collection explores the connections between medicine, life and art in the past, present and future.

The free exhibition Superhuman ‘takes a broad and playful look at our obsession with being the best we can be’. Other than informing you of the ancient Egyptian prosthetic toe from 600BC, and the Victorian dildo, the website does a much better job of describing the exhibition than I can. Oh, and if we’re lucky, I can try and get us onto a free tour as well.

 http://www.wellcomecollection.org/whats-on/exhibitions/superhuman.aspx

SATURDAY 3^RD NOVEMBER – THE TOWER OF LONDON

v  HOW TO GET THERE:
-   Tube: Tower Hill.
-   Bus: 15, 42, 78, 100.

v  MEETING PLACE: Outside the front of Tower Hill tube station.

v  MEETING TIME: 10.00am – 10.30am.

I present you with one of the most popular tourist destinations in the world so prepare yourselves for extortionate numbers of people and extortionate prices for tickets. This is the only fee paying event of the autumn schedule, with adult prices coming in at (she winces) £20.90 on the day or £18.00 in advance. Concession prices are available online. Let’s face it though, The Tower of London isn’t going to get cheaper and 20 quid isn’t bad to explore the Tower, see the Crown Jewels, have a guided tour and talk from a Yeoman Warder (aka Beefeater) and witness live historical re-enactments as well as entry to exhibitions and more.

http://www.hrp.org.uk/TowerOfLondon/

SUNDAY 2ND DECEMBER – WHITECHAPEL GALLERY

v  HOW TO GET THERE:
-   Tube: Aldgate East.
-   Bus: 25, 205.

v  MEETING PLACE: The Whitechapel Gallery Café. On the mezzanine level.

v  MEETING TIME: 10.30am.

Revamped in 2009, Whitechapel Art Gallery is a contemporary institution of art. With no permanent collection, this winter sees an exhibition dedicated to the influential 1960’s magazine: Aspen. Contributed to by figures such as Peter Blake, William S. Burroughs, Ossie Clark, John Cage, Marcel Duchamp, David Hockney, Lou Reed, Andy Warhol, John Lennon and Yoko Ono, Aspen was the first magazine to be issued in a box, acting as a time capsule for the period.

As well as this, there will be exhibitions from the following:

- Mel Bochner, one of the founding figures of conceptual art, combining colour and language in his work.
- Giuseppe Penone, an Italian artist who explores our relationship with nature.
- The Collection Sandretto Re Rebaudengo displaying the work of Maurizio Cattelan, often known as the art world’s joker (memorable works include a sculpture of Pope John Paul II struck down by a meteorite, staging an exhibition of a ‘back soon’ sign on the door of an empty gallery, and reporting a robbery of an ‘invisible exhibition’ to Italian police).

http://www.whitechapelgallery.org/

OTHER DATES FOR THE DIARY

v  Open House Weekend, London – 22^nd & 23^rd September 2012.

 - The one weekend a year during which buildings considered to be of architectural significance open their doors for free public tours.

v  Advent Service, Westminster Abbey – Sunday 2nd December 2012, 4pm.

- Better to see the Abbey in motion than pay £16 to get in no? So thought we could enjoy a bit of London Christmas spirit and then go out for drinks/dinner afterwards for a CULTURE VULTURES Christmas send off.