National Gallery Friday Lates

The National Gallery is staying open after hours this November with a series of life drawing workshops, poetry readings, lectures and panels (some free, some paid) inspired by its exhibitions. Poet and writer Obsidian Nick Makoha is bringing along a group of poets to perform responses to paintings in the gallery’s collection, and Early Masterworks Life Drawing Club will be leading a free drawing session inspired by the Wright of Derby: From the Shadows exhibition (Friday November 21). The gallery’s 2025 artist in residence Ming Wong will also stop by to discuss his wide portfolio of work, which spans film, performance, painting and installation, and draws on the history of cinema, pop culture and speculative fiction to explore the politics of representation (Friday November 28).