In a nutshell… East London’s creative commune comes to V&A. 

I’d never been to a Friday Late before, so was keen to check it out and that’s exactly what we did on Friday after work.

We got off the tube at South Kensington and made the short walk over the Victoria and Albert Museum. The museum is a joy to behold and is in fact the world’s largest museum of decorative arts and design.

The Friday Late queue ran right around the block - surely this was a good sign. After a 10 minute wait in the rain, we headed inside. It was heaving with a youthful influx of east London creatives, bottles of Becks in hand, pouring over colourful contemporary art installations, and chatting animatedly amidst the V&A’s permanent collections.

I’ve not been to Hackney Wick. Shoreditch, Brick Lane and Dalston: yes. But I definitely got a flavour for what it might be like: heavy drum and bass and dubstep tunes, pulsating hipsters, talented creatives and more live/work spaces than you can shake a stick at. Home to the nextgen of Britain’s creative industries.

There were some interesting pieces, beautiful streetart, off-the-wall video works and shoes that had teeth for soles. However, one of the best things about the exhibition, for me, was being able to watch an Illustrator at work, practising his craft, surrounded by spellbound onlookers. It is perhaps one of the things that I get most pleasure out of. There is something about the mix of live music and art that seems like a marriage made in heaven.

A little more information about Friday Lates…

“Friday Lates began in 1999, establishing the much-copied format for London cultural centres evening events. The programme celebrates all aspects of contemporary visual culture and design in society. It brings our audiences face-to-face with leading and emerging practitioners, re-framing the Museum experience in the process. Friday Lates are reinvented monthly, and we look at encouraging audiences to interact with the V&As collections in new ways.

The programme is held on the last Friday of the month, and is a curated evening event of workshops, talks, installations, performances and music which focus on a particular theme each month. We attract anywhere between 3,000 – 6,000 visitors per month.”

www.vam.ac.uk

www.hackneywicked.co.uk

www.stourspace.co.uk/event/pen-pushers-va-hackney-wick-takeover

Photography © Lucie Kerley