Surprise meWeird and wonderful
Most of what we listed was a room, some paintings and a glass of something warm. And then there was the rest of it.
The cabinet of curiosities
Dog Show
Contemporary art chosen by 14 dogs, for dogs and humans. Believed, the listing says, to be the first exhibition of its kind.
With what happened next
The London Slime Festival
The UK’s biggest slime event, in a boxing hall in Bethnal Green. We listed it. We regret nothing.
With what happened next
Inspiration Series | Ai-Da, The World's First Ultra Realistic Robot Artist
A robot artist interviewed on stage in December 2019, with free vodka cocktails. It felt like a novelty at the time.
With video and what happened next
Mourning and Melancholia: Death Drawing with Art Macabre
Death drawing at Sigmund Freud’s house. Of course.
Algorave
An art weekend opened with DJs live-coding the music in front of you, at the Museum of Brands.
Families Create: Let it Go! Kids’ Karaoke
Children’s karaoke in one of London’s more serious private collections.
City of London Walking Tour: Heroism & Villainy (with Magic)
A City walking tour. With magic. It ran more than once.
Paint Jam's Pet Rock Experiment
Paint a pet rock, then paint its environment, while a DJ plays rock. At a secret venue.
Hanky Panky Cocktail Class: Wednesday Late Workshop
A cocktail class at Two Temple Place, on Valentine’s Day.
With what happened next
Londinium: Trowels at Dawn - Talk by renowned archaeologists Peter Marsden and Max Hebditch
The best title an archaeology talk has ever had.
Hack it: build a bee hotel
Build a hotel. For bees.
The Melodramatic Elephant in the Haunted Castle
We had no idea what this was. We have since found out.
With video and what happened next
Cats 3, dogs 3
For a site with a cat for a mascot, we were scrupulously fair.
The rave moved into the gallery
Somewhere around 2018, thirty years after acid house, the art world decided rave was heritage.
Life drawing, but
There were dozens of ordinary life drawing classes. These are the others. (70 listings mention life drawing in all.)
- NeonNeon Naked – Life Drawing Class
- TarotTarot Card Life Drawing: Evoke Archetypes II
- With wineDrink&Draw - Life Drawing
- Neon, plus belly dancingTHE 2019 BIG DRAW FESTIVAL: Neon naked life drawing & belly dancing
- HarlequinApril Fools’ Harlequin Life Drawing Event | Witches, Scamps and Things
- Still life, with coffeeStill Life Drawing with Coffee
What the scene was talking about
How often each word turned up, per 1,000 listings that year, so a quiet year and a busy one compare fairly. 2020 is a smaller sample (467 listings) and a very strange year.
Climate
Immersive
Wellbeing
Queer
Decolonise
Suffrage
Funding
Who got name-dropped
Listings that mention each artist, whether they were in the show or just in the press release for comparison. Picasso was in very few of these rooms.
- Picasso24
- Grayson Perry18
- Frida Kahlo12
- Tracey Emin10
- Yinka Shonibare10
- Banksy9
- Cornelia Parker9
- David Hockney8
- Damien Hirst8
- David Shrigley8
- Gavin Turk8
- Antony Gormley7