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EDUCATORS AND PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT OPPORTUNITIES
Lakside Arts
Tue 27 Jan – Fri 24 Apr 2026
Workshops, performances, and professional development opportunities designed for students, educators, and creative professionals.
Find out what opportunities are coming up here
EDITION26
BACKLIT Gallery
Exhibition Launch (booking required):
- Date: Friday 17 April, 18:00 – 20:00
- RSVP: Click here to RSVP on Eventbrite
Exhibition Continues:
- Dates: 18 April – 09 May
- Days: Thursday, Friday, Saturday
- Times: 12:00 – 16:00
SPRINGTIME DRAG FOR PALESTINE
We Make Our Own Way, Sneinton Market Avenues
Saturday 11th April 2026, 6pm
Young Musicians for Palestine Drag is back for a Spring/Easter themed night of incredible independent drag, games, prizes, crafts and baked goods! This event is at We make our way in Sneinton market. There is no bar, so remember to bring your own drinks! There are some shops nearby to help you get everything you need for a great night.
We will be joined by the fabulous:
– GUNK
– The Edekai
– Salazar Sparks
– Clutter Malarkey
– Cisero
– Purrsona
Every penny raised will be sent to the Sameer Project to help them deliver lifesaving emergency aid to people in the Gaza strip.
Tickets are limited so grab them before they sell out!
EXPERIENCE HONG KONG
New Art Exchnage
10 APR AT 6:30 PM – 11:00 PM
Enjoy an evening celebrating Hong Kong’s culture and community.
Discover much-loved drinks and enjoy a taste of Hong Kong flavours, explore traditional clothing, and immerse yourself in activities that highlight the spirit of Hong Kong, including the crowd-favourite karaoke to round off the night.
From Old Bean Grows Bak Choy
A moving solo theatre performance about tracing roots and finding home. Book your spot for the performance here.
Come along, bring a friend – everyone is welcome.
Dala Nasser: Cemetery of Martyrs
Nottingham Contemporary
Sat 7 Feb – Sun 10 May
We are thrilled to be presenting the first solo exhibition in a major cultural institution in the UK by Dala Nasser (b.1990, Lebanon). The exhibition will feature a large-scale sculptural and sonic installation that invites audiences into a collective space of mourning and remembrance.
By using the process of frottage (the technique of taking a rubbing from an uneven surface), Nasser will transform the gallery space into a symbolic graveyard, creating a collection of charcoal rubbings collected from the graves of seminal artists, writers, poets, filmmakers, historians and journalists from across Lebanon, Egypt, Jordan and England. Representing cultural figures from the mid nineteenth century (specifically the Nahda, Arab Renaissance) to the present day, the work honours those who fought for independence and freedom in times of political dominance and occupation and whose art, writing, and intellectual contributions have shaped the notion of true sovereignty in Western Asia. Cyanotypes will stand in as visual representations of the figures whose graves are unreachable or unknown, and will accompany the grave rubbings alongside black mourning fabrics. These mixed fabrics will hang from a wooden skeletal structure traversing two galleries, creating a canopy of graves that visitors can experience from underneath. An accompanying audio installation featuring field recordings the artist collected across 8 cemeteries in Lebanon permeates the installation, connecting this fictional site with real graveyards.
Cemetery of Martyrs will create a collective space to gather and hold the voices and legacies of figures who were steadfast in their commitment to freedom; a graveyard to mourn, learn, and reaffirm the power of culture and humanity to connect us to histories of resistance and renewal.
Shahana Rajani: Lines That World a River لکیروں سے دریا تھامنا
Nottingham Contemporary
Sat 7 Feb – Sun 10 May
We are excited to be sharing the first European solo exhibition by multi-disciplinary artist Shahana Rajani (b.1987, Pakistan) with contributions from Ustad Abdul Aziz, Abdul Sattar and Aziza Ahmad.
In Arabic the word for universe, ‘alam’, and the word for knowledge, ‘ilm’, share their origin in the word, ‘alamah’, meaning ‘a mark’. To make a mark, to draw a line, is a way of knowing the world. As the world is changed, and continues to be changed through human intervention and the resultant effects on our environment and climate, marks also become a point at which we can tether ourselves to each other, our communities and our sacred spaces.
The body of work in this exhibition centres practices and lineages of drawing and painting through which coastal communities in Pakistan remain connected to sacred ecologies of rivers and sea amidst the violence and erasure of infrastructure and the climate emergency. Situated across the Indus Delta – where infrastructure is causing rivers to disappear, and the sea is disappearing land – Rajani’s works collectively explore community-based practices of drawing river-maps and painting sea-murals as ways of maintaining sacred relation to disappearing worlds. Unlike the colonial approach of drawing lines to divide and enclose, drawing here is a ritual that protects, animates and enlivens endangered worlds.
For fisher communities, the meeting of the river and sea is a sacred union giving birth to all life and land. As rivers are barraged, mined and ravaged, elders explain that the sea is coming forward in search of its beloved, the river. In the midst of this ongoing catastrophe, new practices of visual expression and devotion emerge, through which communities return the river to the sea, land to water, and art to the promise of survival. These expansive visual practices draw on older Islamic traditions of drawing talismans and charms for protection, remembrance and recovery. While conservative revisionings of Islam have sought to erase the centrality of image-making, the works presented explore how these mystical practices have persisted, transformed and survived, and are now being mobilised by coastal communities. By foregrounding this sacred lineage, the exhibition centres drawing as a vital method which allows for passage, encounter and relation in a world rendered increasingly unstable.
Drop-in Gardening Sessions
Primary
Friday, April 17, 202612:00 PM -Friday, July 31, 20262:00 PM
Free weekly gardening sessions are back every Friday!
Join us for gardening activities and relax in a friendly, informal social space. Learn more about growing vegetables, fruit, flowers and dye plants and gardening in urban areas.
All ages welcome, children must be accompanied by an adult.
Refreshments provided.
12:30 Talks
Nottingham Contemporary
Tue 17 Feb – Sun 10 May, Tuesdays, Thursdays, Saturdays & Sundays, 12.30pm
12.30 Talks are short personal responses to our current exhibitions given by our knowledgeable team of gallery assistants. They last 15-20 minutes and vary in topic from day to day. Some gallery assistants offer brief introductions to the exhibition, others talk with passion on a favourite artwork, artist or theme.
Tue 7 April
Dala Nasser: Art at the intersection of history, myth and memory
with Simon Withers
Thu 9 April
Kahlil Gibran, the grave and Nottingham
with Millie Quick
Sat 11 April
A link in the chain: tradition in the paintings of Ustad Abdul Aziz and Abdul Sattar
with Karen Lunt
Sun 12 April
Undying stories: Remembering, resistance and the art of Dala Nasser
with Lachlan Hui
Tue 14 April
Dala Nasser: Art at the intersection of history, myth and memory
with Simon Withers
Thu 16 April
TBC
Sat 18 April
A link in the chain: tradition in the paintings of Ustad Abdul Aziz and Abdul Sattar
with Karen Lunt
Sun 19 April
Kahlil Gibran, the grave and Nottingham
with Millie Quick
New Art Exchange: IN PLACE OF OUR YARD: FOUNDATIONS
New Art Exchange
21 FEB – 2 MAY
Our Yard: Foundations is a mixed-reality experience that explores the ongoing celebration of the positive impact of immigration on the UK, told through the lens of Sound System Culture, finding joy in defiance, in community, and in music – from community halls to pirate radio buzzing through living-room walls.
This exhibition focuses on the early migration of individuals from the Caribbean in the 1960s and how they forged their paths and left their mark through sound, style, and community during the 1970s, 1980s, and to this day.
The exhibition uses newly commissioned work, archival footage, personal testimonies and a stirring soundtrack to recreate a momentous era for Caribbean communities in the UK – and particularly in Nottingham. It takes us back to a time when communities carved out new space in society, soundtracked their resistance against oppression, and stood up to the usual rhetoric– not in silence but in celebration.
Brought to you by Our Yard, a project from Mimm, a Nottingham-based creative studio and collective rooted in Caribbean heritage, music, and culture, this project highlights the stories and spaces that have shaped generations.
Foundations is a tribute to the power of collective memory as a force against racism and erasure. For anyone who’s ever felt unheard – and turned the volume up anyway, whether you lived it, or it’s the first time you’re hearing it – this is your invitation in. A story of resistance through rhythm, told in a way that feels close, urgent, and alive. Come for the bass. Stay for the truth.
Food & Home Fair
Nottingham Contemporary
Fri 17 Apr 5pm-8pm
Sat 18 Apr 10am-5pm
Sun 19 Apr 11am-4pm
We are excited return for a second year of the Food and Home Fair at Contemporary this Spring.
Our Food & Home Fair will showcase over 40 stalls across the weekend 17-19 Apr, with a celebratory launch evening on Fri 17 Apr. This fair will celebrate and showcase artisan food and drink specialists as well as a variety of independent makers and designers working across homeware: ceramics, glassware, candles, textiles, floristry, soaps and more.
THE FREQUENCY WE CARRY: CARIBBEAN WOMEN SHAPING BRITISH CULTURE
11 APR AT 11:30 AM – 4:00 PM
New Art Exchange
The Frequency We Carry is a live community archive experience exploring the impact and legacy of Caribbean women in the UK.
Schedule / What to Expect:
11:30 – 12:30 | Live Behind Closed Doors Community Radio
Step into the Our Yard living room-style pop-up and enjoy an intergenerational music experience, hosted by Jackie P (Kemet FM) + Rewyld (Ziro Ziro). Curated sounds, storytelling, and shared cultural moments explore Caribbean music, memory, and legacy.
12:50 – 2:00 | Behind Closed Doors Time Capsule: Living Archive
A community-led space to reflect, share, and be heard. Record your own story and add your voice to a growing archive of Caribbean women’s experiences, part of an evolving cultural record rooted in Nottingham and beyond.
2:30 – 3:30 | In Conversation: Tash LC & Cherelle Fulton (Behind Closed Doors)
An intimate discussion exploring Tash LC’s creative journey, sound, identity, and the influence of Caribbean women across music, fashion, and culture. Includes audience Q&A and reflections on the pioneers who laid the foundations.
3:30 – 4:00 | Closing Sound Selection
Wind down with curated music to close the day and carry the energy forward.
Beltane Pagan Market
Sneinton Market Avenues, NG1 1DS
Saturday 25th April
They’ll have live music and performances by the Nottingham Shakespeare Company as part of the market, as well as dance, mummers, and more! The Nottingham Pagan Markets are free for the public, with open gates, and they take place in Sneinton Market Avenues and on the big Sneinton Market square next to the Victoria Leasure Centre and Bustlers. Sneinton Market is full of unique, vibrant independant businesses and studios, including a microbrewery, a pizza restaurant, a bean-to-bar chocolate maker, an award-winning baker who uses locally milled flour, and a vegan deli.
When These Trees Blossom
Primary
WHEN: Sunday 12th April
WHERE: Christ Church Gardens, Ilkeston Road, NG7 3FZ
Every year when the cherry trees blossom in Christ Church Gardens we meet under the trees and Future Machine appears.
This year we are keeping it simple… blossoms, Future Machine, tea, coffee and cake.
Blossom cake, teas, coffee and juice will be provided.
Bring your own picnic!
When the Future Comes
When the Future Comes is a series of artist’s interventions each witnessed by a mysterious and mystical device – the Future Machine. Newly formed rituals and gatherings are emerging as the Future Machine appears in Oxfordshire, Nottingham, Cumbria, Somerset and London every year – until 2050 the year that scientists predict will be a watershed for more extreme climate and environmental change.
Screen to Studio: Lucy Bronwen Davies
An online conversation with artist Lucy Davies, exploring the ideas, processes, and themes behind their work featured in EDITION26
Join us for Studio to Screen, an online conversation with exhibiting artist Lucy Davies, exploring the ideas, processes, and themes behind their work featured in EDITION26.
The discussion will be hosted by Marta Marsicka, Artist Development Coordinator at BACKLIT Gallery, and offers an opportunity to hear directly from Lucy Davies about their work and practice.
Lucy Bronwen Davies is an ecological artist and creative facilitator. Her practise investigates natural materials foraged from local and significant rural environments. She’s fascinated in manipulating the natural form to break down at a macro or molecular level to regenerate into new possibilities. Lucy’s work aims to remind her audience of the personal and environmental benefits of reconnecting to the natural world using local and Celtic folklore and their forgotten narratives, inviting her audience to confront their own sense of belonging. Currently, Lucy works as a freelance facilitator, producer and content curator across schools, arts organisations, community spaces and events in Nottinghamshire.
This event forms part of the public programme for EDITION26.
EDITION26 brings together BACKLIT artist members presenting two works from different moments in their practice.
BREAKIN’ CONVENTION PERFORMANCE
Victoria Centre, Nottingham
Sunday 19th April 2026, 12-6pm
🚨 NOTTINGHAM, GET READY! 🚨 We are bringing the world-class energy of Breakin’ Convention straight to the heart of the city! 🔥
Before the main event hits the Royal Concert Hall on 15th and 16th May 2026, we’re transforming the Victoria Centre hosting a pop up event in the South Square (outside Boots)!
Here is what is going down:
💥 Live Showcases: Performances from some of Nottingham’s top dance crews.
🎧 Dance Battles: 1v1 Open Style Battle fuelled by a live DJ.
👟 Have-A-Go: Want to learn some moves? Jump in on our interactive workshops—perfect for all ages!
Come celebrate Nottingham’s incredible local talent and get a taste of the internationally renowned festival right on your doorstep.
Shared Plates
Saturday 25 April 2026
New Art Exchange, Nottingham
12:00 – 19:00
A new festival celebrating food, art and community is coming to Nottingham next Saturday.
Shared Plates is a one-day event at the New Art Exchange in Hyson Green, bringing together local restaurants, artists and communities to explore the stories, cultures and connections that shape one of the city’s most diverse neighbourhoods.
Free and open to all, the festival invites visitors to experience Hyson Green through food, photography and creative activity. With more than 70 languages spoken across the area, Shared Plates offers a platform to celebrate the richness of cultures that define the neighbourhood today.
A Festival Rooted in Community
Shared Plates is built on the idea that food and art are universal languages. By bringing people together around shared meals and shared creative experiences, the festival creates space for connection, conversation and cultural exchange.
From 4pm visitors can enjoy a local menu of free food from ten independent restaurants, each offering a taste of their heritage and culinary traditions. Alongside this, a programme of workshops, talks and live activities will invite audiences to engage with Hyson Green in new and meaningful ways.
GOBS Collective Artist Gathering
When: Saturday 30 May 2026, 10:00 21:00
Where: New Art Exchange, 41 Gregory Boulevard, Nottingham, England, NG7 6BE
Poetry writing and performance, nature connection, yoga and mini-zine making. Part of Green Hustle Festival, supported by Apples and Snakes and Nottingham UNESCO City of Literature.
Join GOBS Collective for a full day of workshops, creative exploration and performance at New Art Exchange as part of Green Hustle Festival.
This relaxed artist gathering invites you to slow down, connect with others and explore creativity through poetry, nature, music, performance and making. Throughout the day there will be opportunities to share ideas and develop new creative work before closing with an evening showcase, where workshop attendees will be invited to perform alongside GOBS Collective’s Cara Thompson, Bridie Squires, Leanne Moden and Davina Songbird.
Sessions are open to all levels – whether you are an experienced artist, an emerging writer or simply curious to try something creative.
Artist Talk: Dala Nasser
Nottingham Contemporary
Sat 2 May, 1pm–2.30pm
We are thrilled to be presenting Cemetery of Martyrs the first solo exhibition in a major cultural institution in the UK by Dala Nasser (b.1990, Lebanon). The exhibition features a large-scale sculptural and sonic installation that invites audiences into a collective space of mourning and remembrance.
Join Dala Nasser for an Artist Talk and audience Q&A to learn more about her work on display at Nottingham Contemporary.
By using the process of frottage (the technique of taking a rubbing from an uneven surface), Nasser has transformed the gallery space into a symbolic graveyard, creating a collection of charcoal rubbings collected from the graves of seminal artists, writers, poets, filmmakers, historians and journalists from across Lebanon, Egypt, Jordan and England. Representing cultural figures from the mid nineteenth century (specifically the Nahda, Arab Renaissance) to the present day, the work honours those who fought for independence and freedom in times of political dominance and occupation and whose art, writing, and intellectual contributions have shaped the notion of true sovereignty in Western Asia.
Food for Thought Festival
5 FEB- 25 April, 2026
New Art Exchange
Roll up your sleeves with the Nottz Garden Project! From February to April, the Food For Thought Festival sows the seeds of culture, creativity, and community, leading to the Community Garden Reveal where Hyson Green blooms in every sense!
Let’s Grow Together in Hyson Green! The Nottz Garden Project is reclaiming neglected spaces with and for the community, transforming them into vibrant hubs for food, creativity, and connection. From seedling to full bloom, the Food For Thought Festival, leads to a joyful Community Garden Reveal at Boulevard Garden, celebrating growth, creativity, and community. New Art Exchange serves as a launchpad to gather, explore, and connect with a garden co-created by the community.
While the festival wraps up at the end of April, it marks not the final chapter but the first page of a garden that belongs to everyone, a place where Hyson Green grows more than plants; it nurtures friendships, memories, and shared dreams. Visitors can discover bold artworks, learn through workshops and panels, share food from local groups, and connect across cultures through stories, film, and photography. Grow ideas. Share food. Build community. Be there for Food For Thought and watch Hyson Green bloom again!
METRONOME NOTTINGHAM
Just the Tonic has been producing comedy shows in Nottingham for over 25 years. We have now found a new home in Metronome. Described by many comedians as one of the best comedy venues in the country. With Just the Tonic’s notorious reputation for the best comedy line ups in the country… you can be sure you are getting one of the best nights in town…
We bring you four different acts at every Standard Saturday show including some of the best up & coming comperes and headliners from the UK & abroad. We open from 8pm so you can have a pre show chat and grab some drinks from the bar. Our show starts at 9pm, so you get your laughs in then make further plans for the night. Or catch the Early shoes from 6pm.
Green Hustle Festival
30th May 2026
Market Square, Nottingham
Green Hustle is back, bringing thousands of people together in Nottingham’s Old Market Square on Saturday, 30 May, for a day of free summer fun. Under this year’s theme, Growing Together, we’ll celebrate everything that connects us—from nature and food to music and shared creativity.
WE ALL LIVE HERE
New Art Exchange
21 FEB – 18 APR
We All Live Here presents a series of photographs made by young people living in Mansfield, all of whom arrived in the UK as refugees and are now learning to use photography as a tool for storytelling.
Over the course of the project, the photographers turned their cameras towards their everyday worlds: the streets they walk, the places they spend time, the details that catch their attention, the moments that feel ordinary and important at the same time. Rather than focusing on where they have come from, the group chose to speak about presence, perspective, and their experience of living here, now.
The exhibition invites us to look at familiar places through new eyes and to consider how many different stories can exist within the same shared spaces. What emerges is not a single narrative, but a collection of personal viewpoints that are thoughtful, curious, playful, and quietly powerful.
We All Live Here is about belonging not as a finished state, but as something that is built, noticed, and lived every day. It is also about authorship: young people claiming the right to look, to frame, and to say, “this is my view.”
A special thanks to Maun Refuge and their collaboration on this project.
ANDY WARHOL: POP ICON
Lakeside Arts
Sat 24 Jan – Sun 19 Apr 2026
Andy Warhol (1928-1987) was an American Pop artist who reimagined what art could be at a time of great social, political and technological change.
This survey of works from across his career includes early drawings, painted screenprints and photographic series featuring Warhol’s collaborations with artists, friends, filmmakers and celebrities. Images of Marilyn Monroe, Liz Taylor, and Warhol himself feature alongside icons of American consumerism, as well as symbols of the artist’s fascination with mortality.
The exhibition includes rarely seen early drawings and illustrations from the 1950s; paintings from the 1980s never exhibited in his lifetime; and lesser-known ‘stitched photographs’ which were the focus of his last exhibition before his death.
Preview | Queer Texture
Primary
Friday, April 24, 2026, 5:00 PM 9:00 PM
Join us for the preview of Queer Texture, a new exhibition unfolding weaving as a queer, relational, and multisensory practice. Experience newly commissioned works by Raisa Kabir, Amina Seid Tahir, and Adam Seid Tahir, shown alongside tapestries by Qualeasha Wood.
The evening includes the UK premiere of a new live performance by artist siblings Adam Seid Tahir & Amina Seid Tahir, first shown at Botkyrka Konsthall (Sweden).
Free food will be available for the first 50 arrivals, and the bar will be open all evening.
Quiet Time (5–6pm)
A calmer start to the evening with reduced noise, a scent-free environment, and face masks encouraged. Non-alcoholic drinks will be served during this hour.
JUST US DANCE THEATRE: CREATIVE CAREERS TALK
Wed 15 Apr 2026, 1-2pm
Djanogly Theatre, Lakeside Arts
As part of a residency at Lakeside Arts, Joseph Toonga, Just Us Dance Theatre’s Artistic Director, will deliver a Creative Careers talk to discuss the wonders and the challenges of a career in the creative industries, what it looks like to work as a freelancer, and will share some tips on how to navigate a career in the creative sector.
This is an opportunity for freelance creatives and students, to find out more about the practicalities of a career in the arts. There will be insights on how to build employability, what to look out for in the early stages of a freelance career, and how to create and build a network around you.
You will not only have the chance of listening directly from the wealth of experience Joseph Toonga brings to the table, but also ask him questions about his journey and career.
GREENSLEEVES HIFI TAKEOVER
New Art Exchange
2 APR AT 8:00 PM – 11:30 PM
Celebrating the legacy of Greensleeves Records, the iconic UK reggae and dancehall label that helped bring artists like Barrington Levy, Yellowman and Dr. Alimantado to global audiences.
Expect a journey through classic riddims, rare cuts and timeless anthems as Greensleeves HiFi takes over the space, honouring one of the most influential imprints in Sound System history.
This event is part of the ‘Our Yard: Foundation’ seasonal programme curated by Our Yard with the support of New Art Exchange.
JUST US DANCE THEATRE: OPEN TECHNICAL REHEARSAL
Thu 16 Apr 2026, 3.30pm
Djanogly Theatre, Lakeside Arts
As part of the company’s residency at Lakeside Arts, Just Us Dance Theatre are inviting students and Artists who are studying or interested in performing arts to observe a technical rehearsal at Lakeside Arts during the production week of a new show, ‘A Night of Hip Hop Theatre’ performed by the 2026 Just Us Apprenticeship Company.
You will have the opportunity to be in the theatre, observing the artists and technical team as they prepare for the premiére performance. This opportunity will provide a unique insight into how a premiere is created, from the perspective of both the artists performing and the technical side of getting a show ready for performance.
This will be followed by a Q&A session, where you will meet Just Us Dance Theatre’s Artistic Director Joseph Toonga and have the opportunity to ask questions.