Basking in the aftermath of 30 glorious days of fashion and art, you’d be forgiven for thinking that September topped the culture calendar with its abounding offering of immersive, innovative and exciting happenings that kept us suitably occupied.

Well, never have we been more happy about our folly – because, much to our joy, there’s plenty more where that came from this month! With the return of the acclaimed Frieze London fair and its gargantuan display of contemporary art and culture, and artist Yayoi Kusama – the so-called ‘Queen of the polka dots’ – plus pop-ups aplenty from Instagram and Project Periodand art from Somerset House Studios resident, Hannah Perry, October comes hot on September’s heels as a solid cultural contender!

Instagram’s First Pop-Up
Those clever folk at Instagram are up to all kinds of tricks these days; only recently, we saw it launch a shopping feature to keep up with our ‘see now, buy now’ culture, and now it’s branching into brand new territory with its very first physical Pop-Up Shop. Running exclusively for two days, the space allows you to get up close and personal with six UK-based brands, including womenswear brands Rixo and Never Fully Dressed. Now that’s worth a LIKE or two.

The Instagram Pop-Up runs from 5 - 6October, 2018 at 9-11 Shorts Gardens, Seven Dials, Covent Garden, WC2H 9AT. Main image Rixo AW18 Studio 54 lookbook by Jessie Lilly Adams.


Image courtesy of Period Project.

Period Project
“This is our period, to take a stand, to make period poverty a priority”, reads the manifesto for Project Period, a movement that exists to raise awareness for the growing problem of 'period poverty’ – when women are ill-equipped with proper sanitary products and access to hygiene – that runs rife from the UK to Africa. To drill the message home and raise funds to support a sanitary pads production hub in rural Kenya, female artists, creatives, musicians, women’s health specialists and those leading the fight on period poverty are joining forces over a week-long pop-up shop, and inviting the public to take their ‘period promise’ and commit to joining the fight. 

The Project Period Pop-Up Shop runs from 25 - 30 September, 2018 at Boxpark, Shoreditch.


Yayoi Kusama, photo credit Justin Tallis/AFP/Getty Images.


Yayoi Kusama: The Really Big Deal 
If the name of Japanese artist Yayoi Kusama isn’t instantly recognisable to you, then her artworks – including her Infinity Mirror Rooms dubbed 'for the Instagram age' (thanks to the masses of selfies they generated) – most probably will be. And, guess what? As Kusama approaches her 90th birthday, a new work ‘THE REALLY BIG DEAL’ is set to take over Victoria Miro Gallery. Start queuing, with cameras at the ready… 

The exhibition runs from 3 October to 21 December, 2018 at Victoria Miro Gallery, 16 Wharf Road, Hoxton, N1 7RW.


Galerie Perrotin, Frieze London 2017, photo by Mark Blower.

Frieze London
For art aficionados, it’s the most wonderful time of the year… International annual art fair Frieze London is back, exhibiting galleries across the board that represent contemporary, living art talent from the emerging to the iconic. Whether you’re a collector, gallerist, artist yourself, or purely in the market for a cultural day out, Frieze is the richest pot of inspiration.

Frieze London runs from 4 - 7 October, 2018 at Regent’s Park.


Liquid Language © Hannah Perry and Somerset House.

Hannah Perry: Gush
Through immersive film, large-scale dynamic sculpture and sounds, experience Somerset House Studios resident Hannah Perry’s personal, yet universal, exploration into the experience of loss. Her first solo exhibition in the UK since 2015, and the first time that Perry has addressed the suicide of her artistic collaborator, Pete Morrow, via her work, the exhibition is a candid examination into mental and emotional health in our hyper-connected, plugged-in world.

Hannah Perry: Gush runs from 3 October to 4 November, 2018 at Somerset House, Strand, WC2R 1LA.

In case you missed it, discover Caroline Issa's recommendation for a journey into childlike wonder.