Adelaide Salon to stage contemporary art gala at Brighton's Royal Pavilion

The Adelaide Salon, a new arts organization founded in 2024 by Pascal Dowers and Paulina Anzorge, is staging a ticketed gala at Brighton's Royal Pavilion on 30 May 2026, featuring live art, performance, music, and fashion across the palace's 10,000 sq. ft ground floor. The event includes a 5m x 5m tapestry by Stanley Donwood and Thom Yorke, works by Delaine Le Bas, Helen Beard, Phil Tyler, and others, plus performances referencing colonial history. The salon emerged after the 2023 closure of Brighton University's Centre for Contemporary Art (CCA) and loss of Arts Council funding at Fabrica gallery. It has already taken over the Founders Room at Brighton Dome with exhibition Act O (until 25 May), part of Brighton Festival, featuring performances by Andy Ash and Nina Garstang, Isobel Smith, Aisling Zambon, and Darvish. The salon, inspired by 17th–19th century Parisian salons, aims to build a cultural ecosystem in Brighton and plans a permanent contemporary art space to rival Turner Contemporary, Towner Eastbourne, and Hastings Contemporary. Dowers and Anzorge self-fund the organization, which hosted earlier events at their Adelaide Crescent home during 2024's Artists Open Houses festival.