Cultural Wednesday Wishes
Eat Earth, Sleep in an Abbey & Opera Under a Ship
Hello
Welcome to Wednesday Wishes.
This week Edible Earth at Somerset House, 100 years of the Arab Hall at Leighton House, the Wallpaper Queen at Pitzhanger Manor and Keith Haring at Moco Museum. Along the way I have been reading Hooked by Asako Yuzuki
Stay in an hotel, in UNESCO listed Abbey, with a Michelin starred restaurant and access after hours … how could I resist. Not only did I not resist, I planned a whole summer holiday round it. Read all about our stay at the Hôtel de Fontevraud L’Ermitage in the Loire Valley.
Have you visited The Photographers’ Gallery, tucked away just off London’s Oxford Street? It plays host to an array of excellent photographic exhibitions and has a has good cafe too. Next week you will find Magnum Print Sale at The Photographers’ Gallery. From March 23–29, you can buy over 100 signed or estate-stamped, museum quality 6x6” prints, available online for one week only, starting at £110. You see the prints both in the flesh in the gallery or browse online.
To Athens now, for Jeff Koons: ‘Venus’ Lespugue at the Museum of Cycladic Art. Jeff Koons has created an orange balloon version of the 28,000 year old figure of Venus found in Lespugue in France. The striking figure is shown next to reproductions of 10 Upper Paleolithic era Venus figures. Each too fragile to travel.
📆 Diary dates
Every time I visit the Cutty Sark I am bowled over by the space beneath the ship. The copper clad vessel seems to float above you. Now imagine listened to Opera in that space. In May you will be able to do just that. The Monteverdi Choir and English Baroque Soloists are putting on a new production of Purcell’s Dido & Aeneas on Tuesday 21 May. Tickets on sale now.
Female spies: Fact or Fiction? is the alluring title of a talk at the Frontline Club next Monday 23 March. Ava Glass and Daria Santini will both be holding forth on facts and fiction that they have come across in their work as an academics and novelists. Tickets cost £15 and need to be booked in advance.
2026 only just seems to have got going but the Tate has just unveiled its plans for 2027. Tate Modern starts with Monet in February. David Hockney will feature twice: a Turbine Hall installation at Tate Modern and major exhibition at Tate Britain to mark his 90th birthday. Ink will take a deep dive into Chinese calligraphy, while Edvard Munch and the Tudors will headline at Tate Britain. Chila Kumari Singh Burman will light up Tate Liverpool on its reopening. Oh and there will be Gainsborough too at Tate Britain.
For longer-range plans, here are handy links to round-ups of the best exhibitions in London , beyond London and across Europe to help with making plans.
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Happy Culturing
