On the agenda: Richard Hambleton; Encounters Short Film Festival; Fred Butler; The Tasting Sessions’ A Fluid State; Natural History Museum's Dino Snores

(Richard Hambleton)

Art

After a quiet two decades, the godfather of street art, Richard Hambleton, returned to the public scene with a splash last year with a hugely successful exhibition in New York. On Friday, he’s coming to London for his first major UK exhibition, with 38 works, half of which have never been seen before. Twice featured on the cover of Life, he is most famous for his Shadowman series and his “crime scenes” of the 1980s, when he painted “chalk” outlines around volunteer victims, then splashed red paint on the outline. His recent exhibit in Moscow drew the city’s biggest ever art crowd – so expect a packed gallery. To 3 December, The Dairy, 7 Wakefield Street, London WC1

Robert Epstein

Film

Anyone who watched last summer’s bloatbusters will know you can’t measure a film’s depth by its running time – and certainly not in Bristol this week, where the Encounters Short Film Festival will show 200 flicks no longer than 30 minutes each. (Most can also be streamed from the festival website.) Highlights include John Hurt’s moving film about dementia, Love at First Sight, and I-Do-Air, a bitter-sweet short about a girl overcoming her fear of water. Tuesday to Sunday, tel: 0117 929 9188, encounters-festival.org.uk

Adam Jacques

Fashion

Accessories designer Fred Butler’s phone must be ringing off the hook since Beyoncé wore her telephone headdress in that Gaga video. The Brighton graduate’s kooky jewellery has featured everywhere from MTV to the most obscure fashion mags, and her Cut Out and Keepsake range for the V&A means it’s easy to get the look. One packet contains a necklace, hair clip and clip-on earrings plus everything you need to put it together. So get cutting and colouring! Do remember to ask for help from a responsible adult. £15, vandashop.com

Harriet Walker

Food

Heston Blumenthal isn’t the only one getting alchemistic with his gastronomy: The Tasting Sessions’ London food-and-drink festival A Fluid State, which runs for four days from 2 December, will integrate surreal art installations with five foodie themes, offering, for example, raw food in the “Garden of Eden”, a Mad Men-inspired cocktail bar and sweet-and-sour-pork candy floss in the “Fantasy Island” zone. thetastingsessions.com

AJ

Kids

The Natural History Museum has been running its monthly Dino Snores events for a year now – late-night tours of the exhibits, film screenings and a sleepover around the giant diplodocus in the main hall for animal-loving children. So how to improve it? By throwing in a plaster fossil-making workshop, a live show featuring an owl and a meerkat, and a pair of free tickets to give away to New Review readers for the sold-out 11 December event. For a chance to win, send an email to newreview @independent.co.uk with your name and address, confirming that your child is over eight. Tickets now available for 15 January and 18 February sleepovers, nhm.ac.uk

AJ

Books

2009 was the year of the literary blog; 2010, the literary salon. It had to happen, then: a literary salon blog (litogalon?) “for the thinking Londoner”, samuelpeeps.com. Compiled by Joy Lo Dico, it comprises bookish news, reviews, upcoming “talks of the town” and, oh yes, “tittle tattle”, with Lo Dico going to the best London lectures so you don’t have to; log on quick for the gossip from Sebastian Faulks and Bettany Hughes’ latest events.

Katy Guest