BACKLIT Grand Opening
Join us on Friday 6 November 2026 at 6pm to celebrate the opening of BACKLIT’s newly developed ground floor.
Discover more at BACKLIT: a new gallery, archive and learning spaces, quiet room and Kanvas café-bar. Celebrate with us from 6pm.There's more at BACKLITJoin us on Friday 6 November 2026, from 6–9pm, to celebrate the opening of BACKLIT’s newly developed ground floor.
We’re launching Kanvas café-bar, alongside a new gallery, public archive, dedicated learning space, and quiet space.Our new café-bar isn't the only thing on our great menu.
We're serving: The preview event of a brand-new exhibition, Lands of Uncertain Shape, which brings together the imagined worlds of BACKLIT Members Xin Chen and T’kya XavierA drop-in workshop led by our youth collective, PendingAnd our artists will open their studio doors for you to visit from 6–8pm.
Meet friends in the café, explore the new spaces and discover what’s being made in the largest artist studio hub in the East Midlands. Shaped by consultation with local communities, artists and All In Leicester and Nottingham Disabled Peoples Movement, the redevelopment also includes new accessible toilets on all floors.
See Lands of Uncertain Shape
Step into the imagined worlds of Xin Chen and T’kya Xavier in Lands of Uncertain Shape, the first exhibition in our new ground-floor gallery.
Across ceramics, painting, collage, textiles, film and performance, memories, dreams and personal experiences take shape through colour, materials and storytelling.
Chen draws on memories of growing up in China and living across cultures, while Xavier uses found and recycled fabrics to explore queerness, mental health and belonging.
Imagination, humour and play connect their approaches.
The exhibition includes new commissions supported by FABRIC, continuing the legacy of Rendezvous in supporting queer people in the arts in Nottingham.
Explore Open Studios, 6-8 PM
Go behind the studio doors to meet artists, discover work in progress and hear about their practices. Participating studios across the lower ground, first and second floors will be open from 6–8pm.
Participating artists and organisations:
Mansi Khamkar. Leomi Sadler. Imarni Boyer-Nugent. Sian Watson Taylor. Carole Hawthorne. Chaos Magic. Abigail Hutchinson-Dodd. Márcia Porto. Lily Ford. Carole Hawthorne. Sonia Tyrna. Laura Quick. Nottingham Black Archive and Panya Banjoko. Neelum Aftab. Usha Mahenthiralingam. Joe Joyce. Lois Gardner Sabet. Pádraig Condron. Shadia Houssein. Helen Bartholomew. Natalie Chung. Klara Szafranska. Hannah Taylor. Ian Cutmore.
You can also discover more about Chaos Magic, Nottingham Black Archive and Neelum Aftab on our Substack.
Plan your visit
- Friday 6 November 2026
- Grand Opening: 6–9pm
- Open Studios: 6–8pm
BACKLIT, Alfred House, Ashley Street, Nottingham, NG3 1JG
Full accessibility information will be shared ahead of the event, if you have any questions in the meantime, please email [email protected].
We’d love to welcome you.
There’s more at BACKLIT. RSVP now and join us to celebrate.