Grand Opening: Exhibition 'Lands of Uncertain Shape' and Open Studios

BACKLIT is opening its newly developed ground floor on Friday 6 November, with the evening running from 6pm to 9pm. It's a bit of a milestone for the place: BACKLIT is an artist-run gallery, archive and learning hub in Nottingham, and it's the largest artist studio hub in the East Midlands. The redevelopment adds a new gallery, a public archive, a dedicated learning space, a quiet room and the Kanvas café-bar, with accessible toilets now on every floor. The whole thing was shaped by consultation with local communities and partners, including All In Leicester and the Nottingham Disabled Peoples Movement.

The first exhibition to open the new space is Lands of Uncertain Shape, bringing together the imagined worlds of two BACKLIT members, Xin Chen and T'kya Xavier. Chen draws on memories of growing up in China and living across cultures; Xavier works with found and recycled fabrics to explore queerness, mental health and belonging. The show includes new commissions supported by FABRIC, which continues the legacy of Rendezvous in supporting queer people in the arts in Nottingham.

There's more to the night than the exhibition. The youth collective Pending will be running a drop-in workshop, and from 6pm to 8pm the studios are open, so you can see where the artists actually work. If you're coming for the studios, you'll want to arrive early, as they close an hour before the rest of the evening wraps up.

Entry is free, and the whole thing runs from 6pm to 9pm on Friday 6 November at BACKLIT, Alfred House, Ashley Street, NG3 1JG.