Autumn Lates: draw out your creativity with the finest the Brighton & Hove arts scene has to offer

After four highly successful years, White Night is taking a break in 2012 whilst co-ordinators make plans to develop its second phase. This October – and during the first weekend in November – several of the city’s arts organisations are opening in the evening, or extending their opening hours, as part of a new initiative. They will all offer activities created especially for this programme.

These range from Brighton Photo Biennial talks and late openings to DRAW’s extravaganza at The Old Market and Brighton Early Music Festival’s tenth anniversary celebration, as well as the Lantern Fayre on The Level, participatory events at Brighton Museum and Brighton Youth Centre, cabaret at the Marlborough Theatre and gardening soirées in Warleigh Road.

The Marlborough Theatre kick starts its programme with Tales From The Spotted Dog. Audiences will be treated to performances and readings inspired by Bethan Roberts’s My Policeman, the novel for Brighton & Hove City Reads 2012, plus drinks, music and a dash of daring, in a lovingly created facsimile of Brighton’s famous ‘50s haunt of gay clientele, The Spotted Dog (2 October, www.drinkinbrighton.co.uk/marlborough).

The Lantern Fayre, a community arts festival on The Level, will welcome visitors and audiences up to 10pm. Enjoy a Market Bazaar, live entertainment, world cinema, creative workshops, interactive art, community games, food and drink. Same Sky will present The Sky Dome!, an innovative new show combining digital arts, shadow performances, light sequences, and a specially composed audio score in a futuristic story (Saturday 6 and Sunday 7 October, www.thelanternfayre.co.uk).

To celebrate its fifth edition, Brighton Photo Biennial (BPB12) has organised a series of evening talks, discussions, screenings and events on its theme, ‘Agents of Change: Photography and the Politics of Space’. Activism and Alternative Media, with speakers including members of the Squatters’ Network of Brighton, will consider the possibilities and limitations of films, zines, newspapers and art exhibitions as political tools (11 October). The Jarman Award Shortlist 2012, celebrating the work of innovative UK artist filmmakers, which includes BPB12 commissioned artists Jon Thomson & Alison Craighead, will be screened at the Duke of York’s (15 October). At Artists and Occupy, BPB12 artists Richard Rowland and Ed Thompson will discuss their very different responses to Occupy (17 October). Photographer Julian Germain will talk about his 17 year project with street children from Belo Horizonte, Brazil, featured in the BPB12 exhibition at Fabrica (22 October). There will be late night openings at all the Brighton Photo Biennial venues, and a guided tour. (2 November, www.bpb.org.uk/2012/).

Fashion will take over Brighton Museum in Fashionably Late. This event will include entry to the major exhibition Biba & Beyond: Barbara Hulanicki; fashion-themed pop hits and fashion inspired cocktails. Visitors will also be able to make their own perspex jewellery inspired by vintage prints from the museum’s Fashion & Style Collection. (11 October, www.brighton-hove-rpml.org.uk/museums/brightonmuseum/pages/home).

For Autumn Lates, Brighton Early Music Festival will present five brilliant young ensembles performing live music through the night at St Bartholomew’s Church (27 October, www.bremf.org.uk). This extravaganza will include baroque ensembles and period instruments, to explore some of the most inventive European music of the 17th and 18th centuries, from Spanish-inspired music and dance to composers enjoyed at the Court of Versailles. Audience members may come and go as they please.

Brighton Youth Centre will present OCCUPY, an event for all ages that will take over space and will feature live music, exhibitions, installations, workshops, skateboarding, toy hacking, robot relays and much more (27 October, www.brightonyouthcentre.org.uk).

The Garden House, where people can come together to learn about gardening, has organised three evenings. There will be talks by Ed Ikin, head gardener at Nymans (5 October); Julian Treyer-Evans, a leading garden designer (12 October); and an event, with supper, on the influence of gardens on artists and their work (19 October, www.gardenhousebrighton.co.uk).
Jake Spicer, the doyen of life drawing in the city, and DRAW, will present a highly inventive drawing class, open until midnight; a magnificent installation of a dozen models, accompanied by a full band. All abilities are welcome (3 November, www.draw-brighton.co.uk).

The events in Autumn Lates are staged by the individual participating organisations and are coordinated by Brighton & Hove City Council in partnership with the Arts & Creative Industries Commission, Brighton & Hove. For further details on the full programme, please visit: www.brighton-hove.gov.uk/AutumnLates or www.visitbrighton.com