5 Things to do this Spring

 1. Diaghilev Festival – English National Opera
English National Opera 

Experience a series of revivals/re-stagings of the original versions of major ballets from the impresario Sergei Diaghilev, including; The Firebird, Scheherazade, L’Apres-midi d’un Faune and Le Pavillion d’Armide.

 2. The Cult of Beauty: The Aesthetic Movement 1860-1900 at the V&A
V&A London

‘Fashion is what one wears oneself. What is unfashionable is what other people wear.’

…so wrote Oscar Wilde, a quote which perhaps best embodies the sentiment of an extraordinary 19th Century artistic movement which sought to escape the ugliness and materialism of the Victorian era by creating a new kind of art and beauty and promoted the idea of 'art for art's sake'.

'Best Works of Aubrey Beardsley' - Dover Publications

3. Dirt – The filthy reality of everyday life - The Welcome Collection
The Welcome Collection, London 

A new major exhibition opens at the Welcome Collection with a closer look at something that is very familiar but which we are often reluctant to confront.

The exhibition brings together around 200 artefacts spanning visual art, documentary photography, cultural ephemera, scientific artefacts, film and literature, uncovering a rich history of disgust and delight in the grimy truths and dirty secrets of our past.

4. Jane Austen's TV locations – National Trust
The National Trust 

If you are a fan of Jane Austin you might want to experience the various National Trust locations around Britain that have been used for adaptations of Austin’s Novels.

 Jane Austin's Days out - The National Trust

5. Joan Miró – Tate Modern – from April 14th 
 Tate Modern

The Tate's big summer exhibition shows for the first time in 50 years a retrospective by the great Spanish surrealist.