Somerset House announces 25th anniversary events

Somerset House's ice rink is a popular London winter experience

Somerset House - famous for its winter ice rink and summer concerts and screenings - has announced a series of events to mark the 25th anniversary in its current guise as a "home to cultural innovators".

The Step Inside 25 initiative will see the entire building open to the public, while the Talent 25 initiative will select five "innovative game-changers" from the Somerset House community who will have their work championed and receive a bursary.

Artists, makers and creative businesses use the complex's workshops and studios.

The building previously housed the Inland Revenue, has been a Royal Navy headquarters, and was the one-time home of Queen Elizabeth I.

This image of Fly Agaric by experimental art collective Marshmallow Laser Feast is part of the new exhibition SOIL: The World at Our Feet

The launch of the 1966 census was promoted by short-skirted female employees climbing ladders

The King and Queen's first (public) kiss was at a reception at Somerset House

The director of Somerset House, Jonathan Reekie, said the programme had been curated to demonstrate "the artistic innovation and cross-disciplinary creativity that defines who we are today".

Spanish filmmaker Pedro Almodovar, baroness and former children's TV presenter Floella Benjamin, and electronic music's Alison Goldfrapp all credited Somerset House with influencing their artistic careers.

Almodovar described the "magnificent courtyard" where films are screened "under the stars, come rain or shine," as some of his most memorable cinematic experiences.

"These screenings reminded me of the ones in the village square open-air cinema of my childhood and these are moments I will always cherish and treasure."

Baroness Benjamin, who was involved in a 2019 exhibition celebrating black creative pioneers, called the organisation a "creativity nirvana".

And Goldfrapp said her time there "facilitated a huge change" in her work.

A young visitor views As Above, So Below by Semantica (Jemma Foster and Camilla French) and Juan Cortes