Tell us about the Barbican?

A world-class arts and learning organisation, the Barbicanpushes the boundaries of all major art forms including dance, film, music, theatre and visual arts. Its creative learning programme further underpins everything it does. Over 1.5 million people pass through the Barbican’s doors annually, hundreds of artists and performers are featured, and more than 300 staff work onsite. The architecturally renowned centre opened in 1982 and comprises the Barbican Hall, the Barbican Theatre, The Pit, Cinemas One, Two and Three, Barbican Art Gallery, a second gallery The Curve, foyers and public spaces, a library, Lakeside Terrace, a glasshouse conservatory, conference facilities and three restaurants. The City of London Corporation is the founder and principal funder of the Barbican Centre.

The Barbican is home to Resident Orchestra, London Symphony Orchestra; Associate Orchestra, BBC Symphony Orchestra; Associate Ensembles the Academy of Ancient Music and Britten Sinfonia, and Associate Producer Serious. Our Artistic Associates include Boy Blue Entertainment, Cheek by Jowl, Deborah Warner and Michael Clark Company. International Associates are Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra of Amsterdam, New York Philharmonic, Los Angeles Philharmonic, Gewandhaus Orchestra Leipzig and Jazz at Lincoln Center.
The City of London Corporation is the owner, founder and principal funder of the Barbican Centre.

What’s on?

General What’s on http://www.barbican.org.uk/film/whats-on.asp

For Theatre & Dance http://www.barbican.org.uk/theatre

For Art & Exhibitions http://www.barbican.org.uk/artgallery

For Film http://www.barbican.org.uk/film

For Learning http://www.barbican.org.uk/education

For Music http://www.barbican.org.uk/music

What can we shop?

http://shop.barbican.org.uk/ Art, Books, Childrens, Design, Architecture, Fashion, Beauty, Ron Arad, RSC, Stations to Station, Stefi Orazi, Stephen Shore, Tatty Devine, The Curve, Tome Pigeon and more. The Barbican shop is a great place to buy gifts.

Tell us about the History of the Barbican?

A Grade II listed building, the Barbican is Europe’s largest multi-arts and conference venue and one of London’s best examples of Brutalist architecture.

It was developed from designs by architects Chamberlin, Powell and Bon as part of a utopian vision to transform an area of London left devastated by bombing during the Second World War. The Centre took over a decade to build, with the final cost totalling £156 million (it would cost an astonishing £500 million to build today).

The Barbican was opened by The Queen in 1982, who declared it ‘one of the modern wonders of the world’ with the building seen as a landmark in terms of its scale, cohesion and ambition. Its stunning spaces and unique location at the heart of the Barbican Estate have made it an internationally recognised venue, set within an urban landscape acknowledged as one of the most significant architectural achievements of the 20th century.

Tell us about Food & Drink at The Barbican?

There’s a venue for every occasion. We are delighted to welcome some scintillating new cafes and restaurants to the Barbican.
Run by Benugo, Barbican Kitchen features a hand built wood fired oven serving organic pizza, and offers a ‘kids eat free’ option for families. On level 1, Bonfire invites you to enjoy the ultimate easy treat, chicken and burgers alongside craft beers and classic milkshakes

We look forward to welcoming you to the Barbican soon.

Is the Barbican a hirable venue?

Hire the Barbican Hall
The Barbican Hall (capacity 1949) is available to hire for performances.

The Barbican’s foyers are only available for performances booked alongside the Hall – for instance for a foyer pre-concert performance. We do not currently operate a separate foyer performance programme.

Date allocation
The Barbican Hall has a very busy programme, with over 270 concerts per year, alongside regular hires for events including business conferences and graduations.

We operate a priority booking system with our resident orchestra and associate promoters given priority for Hall bookings. We have a policy of allocating any additional rental dates for the Hall approximately 12 months in advance of an event, subject to availability.

Not all events will be suitable for the Hall in terms of profile or size, and because there are generally very few dates available to hire in the Hall, we are selective in the projects that we can accommodate.

Registering interest in hiring
You can register your interest in hire of the Hall at any time. An outline of the project should be submitted in writing or email indicating your preferred dates or time period. Please include as much information about the project as possible, including artists, repertoire, the number of performers involved and who will be the promoter. Please also let us know of any technical requirements, to ensure that what you are planning is feasible within the time available

What’s at The Barbican?

Our architecturally renowned building opened in 1982; venues at the Barbican include:

The Hall
The concert Hall seats up to 1943 people and regularly welcomes internationally renowned musicians in both classical and contemporary music.

Theatre
Hosting outstanding theatre and dance companies from across the globe, our main theatre has a capacity of 1156 and is divided over four levels.

The Pit
The Pit is the Barbican’s 164 seat studio theatre; it is a flexible space that regular champions emerging companies and artists.

Cinemas 1, 2 and 3
The Barbican’s three cinemas include the recently refurbished 280 seat Cinema 1 and our two 153 seat screens in the Barbican’s new cinema building on Beech Street (opened in autumn 2012).

Art Gallery
Our Art Gallery presents major exhibitions by leading international figures, from architects to Turner-prize-winning artists.

The Curve
The Curve is an exhibition space at the heart of the Centre where we present new and recently produced work by contemporary artists through a programme of temporary exhibitions.

Conservatory
Our spectacular Conservatory is a hidden tropical oasis in the heart of the City and is home to exotic fish and over 2,000 species of tropical plants and trees.

The Barbican Centre also includes large foyers and public spaces, a library, the Lakeside Terrace, conference facilities and three restaurants.

Tell us about your Previous Exhibitions?

The Barbican has a long history of presenting outstanding architecture and design exhibitions and experiences, from regular architecture tours of our iconic building to presenting exhibitions from leading international figures from the worlds of architecture and design.

Architecture exhibitions at the Centre have included major retrospectives of the work of Rem Koolhaus in OMA/Progress (2011-12), Le Courbusier in the Art of Architecture (2009), Alvar Aalto in Through the Eyes of Shigeru Ban (2007) and Daniel Libeskind in Space of Encounter(2005).

Previous architecture and design exhibitions also include:

the recent Pop Art Design (2013-14) exhibition which threw light on the relationship between Pop Art and design
the biggest Bauhaus exhibition in the UK in over 40 years (2012)
a retrospective of designer, architect and artist Ron Arad (2010)
a focus on surrealism’s influence on architecture in The Surreal House (2010)
an exploration of fifty years of radical ideas in architecture in Future City

(2006)

Constructing Worlds

The Barbican continues its commitment to showcasing ground-breaking architecture this Autumn with the Constructing Worlds season. At the heart of the season is the Constructing Worlds: Photography and Architecture in the Modern Age exhibition which brings together eighteen exceptional photographers from the 1930s to the present day who have changed the way we view architecture and think about the world we live in.

The season also includes a new commission in The Curve by the internationally acclaimed artistWalead Beshty; a dedicated film strand City Visions, focusing on the energy and complexity of global city living, and a brand new film commission and residency by Ile Bêka and Louise Lemoine, and the first of a changing series of displays devoted to the history and life of the Barbican.

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Barbican Centre – City of London

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