It's officially autumn in London when Culture Crawl retreats indoors and the weekend stretches ahead full of things to see and do in enclosed spaces. That's no bad thing: the crawl is very cool this week...
Saturday 23 September
Design Mart continues at the Design Museum. Seven specially-selected product and furniture designers who have graduated within the last five years are featured as new and exciting names to know in this annual survey of British design - check them out to say you saw them first. Design Mart at the Design Museum, daily from 10.00am, entry is £7.00. For more information, go to the Design Museum website here.
Sunday 24 September
The Big Draw is the annual October nation-wide event to encourage more people to draw, organised by the Campaign for Drawing. While there are many, many fun events lined up for October, the launch event this Sunday at Somerset House is a big draw (did you see what we did there? See?) The launch event titled Amazing Space starts at 11.00am with Quentin Blake and a team of architects, artists, designers, cartoonists and illustrators (including Posy Simmonds, Lord Norman Foster and Gerald Scarfe) offering a day of talks, demonstrations and lots and lots of drawings. A great start to a great annual event. Amazing Space at Somerset House, from 11.00am. All events are free but some are ticketed - turn up early to ensure you get in to the talks. More information available here.
As well as being overrun by artists, both budding and well-known, expect London to be overrun by gorrilas too. A charity running event organised by The Gorilla Organization will see several hundred people running 7km in full gorilla suits around a City of London route in The Great Gorilla Run. They'll be doing it for several reasons , in particular to raise money and awareness for The Gorilla Organization but also to dash past Tate Modern, the Globe, City Hall and Tower Bridge dressed head to toe in fake fur and a big gorilla mask. The Run starts at 10.30am with registration taking place from 8.30am at London Underwriting Centre off Mincing Lane in the City of London. The Great Gorilla Run in City of London, various locations, from 10.30am. For more information on the route and how to take part, go to the website here.
If you're not interested in either gorillas or drawing (or indeed, drawing gorillas... or gorilla drawings... or... We'll stop there) and feel like finding out what is good about Hackney, there is Stokefest. This day-long festival in Clissold Park starts at 12noon and goes on until 7.00pm, and there will be live music, food, drink, sound systems, visual art, performances and workshops. Stokefest at Clissold Park, from 12noon, entry is free. For more information, go to the website here.
