This February the Institute’s interns will explore East London’s Jazz scene and help the homeless by drinking coffee. Break your routine by checking these recommendations out!
Annika’s pick: Café Art – social enterprise
For the fellow coffee addicts out there – how about an alternative to your Starbucks coffee? Help the homeless by enjoying your dose of caffeine at a café that displays and sells art made by homeless people in London. All the art hanging on the walls is for sale and the income goes mainly back to the artists. There are several cafés all around the city to choose from. Or if you’re too busy to sit down for a while, grab your cup from one of the Change Please carts, which is a concept for training rough sleepers to become baristas.
https://www.cafeart.org.uk/art-in-cafes
https://www.changeplease.org/press/
All the locations are listed on the website. One of them is located at Borough Market: Maria’s Market Café, Stoney Street, London SE1 9AA (closest tube London Bridge)
Eeva’s pick: Kew Gardens Orchid Festival
I don’t often venture to the south side of the river Thames. If I do, there needs to be a good reason for it. Kew Gardens’ Orchid festival is just that. Kew Gardens is a world-leading botanic garden and now in February, the Gardens’ 25th annual orchid festival will focus on celebrating the impressive biodiversity of Indonesia with an array of vibrant orchid displays. There’s plenty of additional events where visitors can enjoy Indonesian music and cuisine and expert talks. Just a warning, the vivid colours and beautiful displays will make you wish for spring even more than you already do!
Kew Gardens’ Orchid Festival
https://www.kew.org/kew-gardens/whats-on/kew-orchid-festival
8 February –8 March 2020, 10:00 am – 4:15 pm
£12.50 online, £13.50 at the gate, book your time slot for Orchids when you buy your general ticket
Kew, Richmond, London, TW9 3AE
Sara’s pick: The Dalston Jazz Jam
There’s something about the energy and intimacy in a jazz concert that I really, really enjoy. The rhythm, the beat, the ambience. Everything. Therefore, I’d recommend heading to East London for the midweek concept The Dalston Jazz Jam at the speakeasy-bar Ruby’s. Tuesdays and Wednesdays are led by jazz trios and quartets such as Paper Moon, The Marco Punzi Trio and The Bounce Trio. Thursdays features Ruby’s own Jazz Quartet led by bassist Theo Malka-Wishart together joined by special guest hosts aka “Rude Intruders”.
Ruby’s Bar & Lounge, 76 Stoke Newington Road, Hackney Downs, London N16 7XB
Tuesday – Thursday from 8:30 p.m. till late. Free entry. Advance booking is recommended. Note that Ruby’s charge a live music fee on drink tabs and table service bills of £2/person.
http://www.rubysdalston.com/whats-on/wednesdays-at-rubys/
Rosaliina’s pick: Bloomberg New Contemporaries
Bloomberg New Contemporaries returns to the South London Gallery showcasing works by 45 emerging artists from art programmes around the UK. The exhibition offers an insight into today’s creative practices showcasing young visionaries working in a breadth of media. Series of proposals and experiments are made in painting, moving image, photography but also in paper and textile. Politics with humor, stills from an unmade film, elements of video games, as well as childhood memories and iconographies of the internet are some of the thematic threads running through the show.
Bloomberg New Contemporaries, South London Gallery
Main Gallery 65-67 Peckham Road, London SE5 8UH
Fire Station 82 Peckham Road, London SE15 5LQ
Until 23rd February. Free admission.
https://www.newcontemporaries.org.uk/exhibitions-and-events/exhibitions/bnc19-south-london-gallery
Photo: Jimmy Baikovicius
