Featured Events in Brighton and Hove in May, 2025 (February Updated)

3-session botanical illustration course led by professional botanical art tutor, Leigh Ann Gale, and suitable for beginners and improvers. Leigh Ann is a professional botanical artist plus a brilliant tutor with over twenty years’ experience, and an encouraging and supportive approach to teaching students of all abilities. Using specimens either from the garden or supplied by Leigh Ann, you will learn the fundamental skills required for successful botanical illustration. Areas of study will include accurate observational study, the effect of light and shade on plant structures, adding details such as surface textures and veins on leaves, drawing and painting techniques, colour mixing and matching, composition, and basic botany. The course will be taught through a series of step-by-step exercises with plenty of help from Leigh Ann and may include some homework to be completed for the following session. You will need to provide your own drawing and painting equipment for the course which we will inform you about when booking your place. Leigh Ann has exhibited extensively around the world. Her paintings are held in private collections including the Hunt Institute for Botanical Documentation, Pittsburgh, The Royal Archives and Sydney Botanic Gardens. She is the author of three books about botanical illustration and her methods, published by The Crowood Press. Cost: £225, to include tea/coffee and cake! Date: Wednesdays 7, 14 and 21 May / 1.30pm – 4.30pm Information Source: The Garden House, Brighton | eventbrite

The end of the 19th Century was an era of technological wonder. Alongside electricity, the telephone and recorded sound, three vision technologies became very popular - photography, the magic lantern and film. Brighton & Hove emerged as a centre for all of these marvels. The sea-going electric car made its way through the sea, photographic studios lined King’s Road, a film studio was erected in Hove and lantern and film shows were screened in the theatres, music halls and on the piers. This talk introduces these wonders and looks at those first films to be made and seen in Brighton from 1895.Dr Frank Gray is an early film historian, a curator of film exhibitions for Brighton & Hove Museums, the co-founder of Cinecity (the Brighton Film Festival) and the retired Director of Screen Archive South East at the University of Brighton. It collects, preserves and shares films made in Brighton & Hove and the region and its collection can be viewed at: screenarchive.brighton.ac.ukFrame still from James Williamson’s ‘A Big Swallow’, Hove, 1901 (image credit: BFI/SASE) Information Source: West Pier Trust | eventbrite