The Jubilee Arts Festival: Sotheby's Opens Up For a Fortnight of Celebration

The Jubilee Arts Festival: Sotheby's Opens Up For a Fortnight of Celebration

By Arsalan Mohammad | Jun 1, 2022
Sotheby’s invites everyone to celebrate The Queen’s Platinum Jubilee with an exciting programme of talks, performances and exhibitions featuring royal and noble tiaras and portraits of Britain's seven regnant queens.
Sotheby’s invites everyone to celebrate The Queen’s Platinum Jubilee with an exciting programme of talks, performances and exhibitions featuring royal and noble tiaras and portraits of Britain's seven regnant queens.

T his June, Sotheby’s opens its doors for the Jubilee Arts Festival – a free month-long celebration of creativity to mark Elizabeth II’s 70 years on the throne. Running until 15 June, it features daily talks and interactive events with leading cultural figures, performers and Sotheby’s specialists in conversation with guests from across the arts, broadcasting and academia.

With artworks and jewellery loaned from some of the nation's greatest private collections, Sotheby’s New Bond Street building is being effectively transformed into a pop-up museum of creative achievement across not only these seven decades of the monarch’s reign, but all the way back to the Tudors.

In Celebration of Her Majesty The Queen: Dame Joanna Lumley DBE and broadcaster Robert Hardman discuss the life and work of Britain’s longest reigning monarch at Sotheby's 30 May 2022

Our full programme of events, performances and exhibitions can be found here, spanning Bridget Riley to Banksy, Oluwole Omofemi to the Fantasia Orchestra, Paddington Bear to Pauline Boty. All are free, subject to booking, and promise to open up new perspectives on our shared cultural heritage and traditions.

The exhibits speak of our island’s rich cultural tapestry. From over 40 exquisite tiaras, presented to stunning effect, to a collection of Jamie Reid's artwork for the Sex Pistols, the Armada portrait of Queen Elizabeth I and William Shakespeare’s first folio, to Andy Warhol's portrait of Elizabeth II – the Jubilee Arts Festival includes some of the most precious moments of our collective cultural history.

Explore the Jubilee Arts Festival's Highlights
Launch Slideshow

Discover the Jubilee Arts Festival

  • The Queen (2022), Oluwole Omofemi © Courtesy of the Artist
    Thursday 2 June, 1:00 PM
    Artist Talk: A Commonwealth Queen: Oluwole Omofemi in conversation with Helen Rosslyn, Art Editor at Tatler
    A discussion on Oluwole Omofemi’s portrait of the Queen as featured on Tatler’s Jubilee edition cover, which captures both the Head of the Commonwealth and a pensive individual. The depiction references an archival photograph, captured ahead of the official visit to Nigeria in 1956, and introduces national symbols to lay claim to the figurehead as relevant and relatable.

    Book here
  • Fantasia Orchestra. Image Courtesy Fantasia Orchestra.
    Friday 3 June, 1:00 PM
    Fantasia Quartet Recital
    Join some of the principal players of Fantasia Orchestra for a lunchtime programme of celebratory chamber music

    Book here
  • Saturday 4 June, 2:00 PM
    A Reading with Michael Morpugo
    Join Michael Morpugo as he reads his new book, There Once Is A Queen, illustrated by Michael Foreman, telling the story of Queen Elizabeth II’s life beginning with planting an oak tree with her father as a child.

    Book here
  • Charlie Mackesy, The Boy, The Mole, The Fox and the Horse (Book Cover Sketch)
    Saturday 4 June, 12:00–4:00 PM
    Charlie Mackesy Drawing Station
    The illustrations of artist and author Charlie Mackesy are celebrated for distilling life’s fundamental truths and pleasures. To accompany a selling exhibition of original works depicting characters from his bestselling book The Boy, the Mole, the Fox and the Horse, children can express their creativity with colouring sheets created by Mackesy.

    Drop by anytime between 12:00–4:00 PM

    View Exhibition
  • Andy Warhol, 1984
    Credit: Courtesy The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Art
    Licensed by Artists Rights Society (ARS) New York.
    Monday 6 June, 6:00 PM
    Feeding the Eye: Michael Chow on a Lifetime of Collecting and Creating
    To coincide with ‘One Breath’ – a solo exhibition of recent works at Sotheby’s Dubai – Michael Chow joins Sotheby’s Tom Eddison in conversation on art world friendships, beginning in 1960s London, and his return after a 50-year break to painting.

    Book here
  • Monday 6 & Monday 13 June, 12:00 PM, 1:00 PM & 2:00 PM
    Escaping the Canvas: RADA Immersive Performances
    Art, and its makers and subjects, will come to life with a collection of stories and readings performed by graduates of the prestigious Royal Academy of Dramatic Art.

    6 June
    12:00 PM:  Book here
    1:00 PM:  Book here
    2:00 PM:  Book here

    13 June
    12:00 PM:  Book here
    1:00 PM:  Book here
    2:00 PM:  Book here
  • © David Dawson. All rights reserved 2022 / Bridgeman Images
    Thursday 9 June, 1:00 PM
    Sitting and Hanging: Working with Great British Artists
    Martin Gayford and Caroline Campbell, Director of Collections & Research at the National Gallery, in discussion on the nation’s great artists, using Lucian Freud’s Centenary and his magnificent portrait of Her Majesty The Queen, on loan to the much anticipated Freud exhibition at National Gallery this autumn, as a starting point to celebrate the Jubilee and British creativity.

    Book here
  • Wednesday 8 June, 3:00 PM
    Expert Talk: British Art in the 1960s with John Dunbar, founder of Indica Gallery, and Sotheby’s Frances Christie
    The legendary gallery was at the centre of the 1960s art scene, exhibiting the likes of Liliane Lijn, Boyle Family and Yoko Ono – who famously met John Lennon there in 1966.

    Book here
  • Friday 10 June, 7:00 PM (sign in at 6:45 PM)
    Poetry Workshop with Theresa Lola
    We will be writing Ode poems in this workshop. An Ode is a poem that praises, glorifies, or celebrates a person, place, experience, or thing. Whether big or small, significant, random, quirky, past or present there are things we want to appreciate. Join us to write a dedicated poem and learn techniques for using words to create striking images and memorable messages.

    Book here
  • Pauline Boty, With Love to Jean-Paul Belmondo. Estimate: £500,000–800,000.
    Monday 13 June, 1:00 PM
    Pauline Boty, Pop Artist and Woman
    Join Dr Sue Tate and Sotheby's Frances Christie to learn about the only female Pop artist, who’s important 1962 painting With Love to Jean Paul Belmondo has recently re-emerged for sale.

    Book here

    View Lot
  • Friday 10 June, 6:30–9:30 PM | Friday Night Late
    Join us after hours to connect with the best of British creativity in an evening of workshops and performances including a workshop with poet Teresa Lola.

    Book here
  • Image Courtesy kannehmasons.com
    Sunday 12 June, 12:00 PM | Musical performance by the Olympia Quartet with Jeneba Kanneh-Mason
    Formed of second year undergraduates at the Royal College of Music, the group will play Mozart's Piano Quartet No. 2 in E-flat major, K. 493, and Strauss’ Piano Quartet in C minor, Op. 13. The Olympia quartet comprises Jeneba Kanneh-Mason (piano), Isabella Todes (violin), Joseph Lowe (viola) and Berniya Hamie (cello).

    Book here
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Battle of the Queens: Elizabeth I vs Victoria with Intelligence Squared

Queen Elizabeth I and Queen Victoria both put their stamp on an era, but who was the greater monarch? Watch our debate, featuring Daisy Goodwin, writer of ITV's series Victoria, and Kate Maltby, scholar of Elizabethan literature. Queen Elizabeth I is brought to life by Greta Scacchi and Queen Victoria by Kate O’Flynn. The debate was chaired by historian Anthony Seldon.

Jubilee Arts Festival

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