Press room

The Barbican today announced the extension of its temporary closure period, with all events now postponed or cancelled until 30 June 2020.

Sir Nicholas Kenyon, Managing Director, Barbican said:
“Cancelling and postponing events at this scale really isn’t in our nature. However, having reviewed the current Government advice and looking at how long social distancing measures are likely to be in place, we feel we’re very unlikely to be open until at least the end of June. We therefore felt the best approach was to inform audiences, as well as the artists and organisations we work with, as soon as we could. We’ll continue to keep reviewing the closure date over the coming weeks.”

"To close our building was a poignant moment for us all. We’ll be back as soon as we can and are already looking forward to the moment we can reopen our doors. Until then, we’re continuing to focus on our digital offer, as we look to bring the best of the Barbican to audiences online.”

Everyone who has booked a ticket for a Barbican event during this period is eligible for a full refund, with information on how to claim this published here. Due to the number of events being cancelled and tickets being refunded, the box office is initially prioritising processing refunds for events before 1 May, with ticket bookers for events after this date being contacted about refunds shortly.

The Barbican is encouraging audiences to donate to the organisation to enable it to keep investing in the artists and organisations it works with. It’s also asking audiences to consider donating to its Resident and Associate companies to support them through these difficult times.

The Barbican is also promoting its archive of high-quality digital content, which is available for everyone to read, watch or listen to for free. This includes the Barbican Sessions, which capture musicians playing around its iconic spaces; the Nothing Concrete podcast, which explores music, cinema, visual art, theatre, architecture and everything in between; and long read articles and videos to enjoy, all inspired by the Centre’s international arts programme.

A curated mix of digital content from across the art forms will be regularly shared, featuring artists from across the Barbican’s programme. Audiences can follow this on a daily basis via Barbican social channels or sign up to its mailing list via the Barbican website to receive a weekly round-up. This digital content can all be accessed here: barbican.org.uk/read-watch-listen