Institute Of Contemporary Arts

This is my favorite place in London. It’s a small little museum, but puts on brilliant exhibitions that highlight what is happening in contemporary art. I also loved the bookstore as it has hard to find reads in cultural and critical theory. The café is also nice.

A really swell and not nearly enough visited by tourists or art enthusiasts. Every time I come here I stay longer than expected and see something I never expected.
That being said, if you have a pram, you’re going to be hugely inconvenienced. In order to see the rooms upstairs you have to take the tiniest lift in all the world (including doll houses) that is in the kitchen. It was actually humorous.
I’ve seen everything here from rock movies, to concerts, to video installations, to really cool paintings. A mish mash of contemporary art.

Cool contemporary art & cinema, a lot of events worth checking out. I love their bookstore, great selection.
You get to see the exhibitions for a day membership with the ritualistic price of £1.

A wonderful place to celebrate contemporary art! It has a fantastic movie theater and top-​notch bookstore. Be warned, the workers are not the friendliest.

On my particular day of visit not much was on display, sadly, save two installations themed around life and consumerism and a collection of Arab pop culture prints.
Can’t say I’m incredibly impressed yet but I’m keen to give it another go.

The ICA is definitely a venue worth checking out during your time in London. I saw Lena Dunham’s «Tiny Furniture» with my sister there, and the theatre had maybe 20 seats tops. Very cool experience, keep an eye on the upcoming events!

Cool stuff, unassuming exterior/​interior, great bookstore, interesting, challenging collections and whatnot.
Also, somewhat secretly, a decent place to pop in and work. Ssssh.

The ICA is one of those places that can make you feel fat and old, so cool it hurts. The bar is great and I believe that you can get a discount if you have a membership.
The only reason I do not visit the ICA more often is usually the programme. I love art cinema but it tends to be a little too arty even for me. Another reason is that they’re closed on Monday and Tuesday which is a drag when these are days your available.
The actual screens are small and cosy, with comfy seats.

The Institute of Contemporary Arts is a very cool space comprised of cinema, gallery, bookstore and café bar (the latter reviewed elsewhere on Unilocal).
I’m best acquainted with the cinema, which has over the last two years had the uncanny knack of picking films that end up being my favourite of the year. Last year it was the extraordinary, thought-​provoking documentary about the huge inter-​millennial challenges posed by storing nuclear waste in Finland, «Into Eternity.» This year it’s been the haunting, superbly composed story of US soliders fighting in Afghanistan, «Restrepo».
Other highlights offered by the cinema are Q&A with top directors and actors: recently, Vincent Cassel was in town promoting «Our Day Will Come», and I’m still lamenting my letting slip tickets to a Q&A with Kathryn Bigelow for the UK première of her then unknown film, «The Hurt Locker».
A comparatively hidden but usefully central arts gem.

The ICA is truly a place to embrace an international and contextualised programme of work across a variety of art forms.
My favourite is the ICA bookstore: tiny space, yet with a magnetic collection. I picked up Robinson’s the Element and Manguel’s Library at Night. Whether books, movies or magazines, they offer just a few selective titles with distinction and/​or depth.
One may also pick up a copy of Roland, the magazine of the ICA’s visual art programme. The recent issue features a guide to Billy Childish, Unknowable but Certain. The artist, musician and writer is the major sole exhibition at the Gallery on both levels, an anti-​hero and a creative archetype with intensity.
Film is another fundamental part of the institute. Not only is there a theatre at the institute, the ICA Films, the film distribution company, theatrically releases the best of world cinema in the UK. It has developed a strong reputation for acquiring provocative and individualistic films. Recent films include Favela Rising, A Man Without A Past, Turtles Can Fly, Sophie Scholl and Candy.
Funny or not, the bar & café is my 1^st encounter of ICA. I used to go on Fri mornings for my Tuttle Club meetings, very vibrant group of social media advocates. The sunlight makes the whole place glowing. Yet, at night, it turns to a totally different animal, loud music and the pink lighting seems almost inappropriate on the Mall.

Highly recommended, especially if you become a member, which allows you to attend free previews with one guest, gives you a discount at the bar, and the occasional invite to special events.
This is also the place to go to find the perfect present for a cinema-​loving friend — the gift shop has a range of hard to find cult films on DVD.

Great coffe place which turns alive after 5pm. before it’s my perfect spot for working in town with free wifi, a bit of good offbeat music (old blues playing today!).

I echo the sentiment of the last reviewer — I really should go to the ICA more often. Just over a year ago I decided I would force myself to go there more often by becoming a member, but still didn’t make very good use of the place. Boo to me!
What’s not to like? Brilliant comfy little cinema screens showing interesting arty independent films all the time (with all tickets £5 on Mondays), lovely bar, nice food (if a bit expensive), regular talks from brilliant people, one of the best gift shops in townand only minutes away from where my local bus drops me in to town. Perhaps I should start my membership up again and make a proper effort this year!

The ICA is my public gallery of choice these days, not least because a good friend and trustee lets me hold art meets there it’s also a place of unprecedented diversity in terms of cultural experiences. They do concerts (The Mars Volta were playing when I went last week) design-​driven workshops and have a cinema — the ideal place to go for an eclectic collection of independent movies — as well as the usual art exhibitions.
I can spend hours at their bar sometimes as it’s always well stocked (with friendly, interesting strangers, as well as Belgian beer) and is rarely empty. And if you are looking for the unbelievable rare art magazines that even the Tate doesn’t stock, then their library is the place to go.
They’ve recently got rid of day membership, so the £1 hurdle that might have stopped a few of you coming is no longer there. So what are you waiting for?

The ICA is a great contemporary Arts institution who is never afraid of breaking the rules and doing something different. They offer different courses, gigs, a gallery, a book shop and lots more.
If you are planning to visit the gallery you can be warned to expect the unexpected. The ICA likes to represent artists who deal with performance art amongst others and who generally do not tend to follow the norm. One of the shows I saw here by Tino Seghal involved a gallery filled with kids. Yes, real live school kids prancing about and making you join in their games. Interesting to say the least!
The ICA also has a nice, but pricey bar which also serves food. It has a good reputation and is often full of fellow art lovers.

A refreshingly vibrant place in a totally anomalous neighbourhood, The ICA (Institute of Contemporary Arts) was founded many moons ago by a group of anarchists frustrated with the retrograde institutions they found in London. Ironically, The ICA has grown into an institution itself, far from its scrappy beginnings, and light on anarchy.
Two cinemas typically feature a full programme of first-​run international independent art cinema, culled by programmers from film festivals the world over. As these films are almost never shown in London (or the UK, for that matter) otherwise, The ICA has been extremely helpful in the past in bringing films overlooked by London’s official cinema culture to an audience, and has consequently played a part in developing many careers. Although they occasionally screen older films their mandate is to present the contemporary, thus you are unlikely to catch classics here unless they are presented in new prints or in new versions. The ICA also has its own DVD line performing an important distribution function for independent film in the UK.
The gallery space changes over regularly, again with an emphasis on presenting genre-​bending and innovative works by artists who not only already have an international reputation, but artists who they think deserve one, with plenty of multidisciplinary works and experiments in form and presentation to keep the art students and aesthetes coming back for more.
The ICA is also really devoted to presenting a wide variety of musical acts, again, focusing on the contemporary, those on the up-​and-​up. The space is intimate and the sound is immaculate. Low ticket prices don’t hurt, and are made lower by purchasing an annual membership (as is everything else, including drinks and food).
It invites complaints but is ultimately above them. Inevitably, the truly cutting-​edge will complain of its institutional qualities (see above), whilst sipping a Pernod on the inside balcony of the café before heading in to see a live art show. Cinephiles will complain about some middlebrow selections on the screens whilst ignoring the absence of these films anywhere else in town. Not everyone can be pleased all of the time, and no one who seriously cares about contemporary art can afford to ignore The ICA.

I love the ICA, when I’m having a ‘treat’ day (you know those days when you should be working, but you want to spoil yourself eating 1000 calories a slice cake and wandering your favourite places) i tend to go here.
The ICA does pretty much what it says on the tin; it’s a platform for all art mediums — film, music, performance, visual arts, literature, poetry — all the good stuff basically.
I saw an amazing sound installation here in October by Roberto Cuoghi. It was entitled, uillakku. I’ll refer to the ICA official website to explain this exhibition:
To create uillakku, Cuoghi spent two years immersed in the language and rituals of the Assyrians. The soundtrack he composed draws on this research and is enriched by his imagination. The work employs a huge range of musical instruments, many of which were recreated especially for the piece. Of equal importance to uillakku is its vocal aspect: a vast chorus which Cuoghi created by multiplying and mutating his own voice into an extraordinarily potent, cacophonous assault.
It was absolutely mind blowing. This is typical of what the ICA offers. It also has an absolutely amazing bookshop, stocking a huge array of specialist art books, theory books, world cinema and magazines.
There’s also a bar, and lots of comfy seating for you to lounge around with a beer and pose. You do tend to get a few tossers sitting on their Mac’s, giving you evil eyes for not being ‘cultured’ enough. But this is not reason enough to not visit. It’s also opposite a beautiful patch of grass, take a picnic in the summer, eat it on the green and then wander the ICA — you’ll be grinning from ear to ear!

The ICA is a really odd venue, good for gigs and performances. A sort of mish mash of the arts. There is always a art on display and it is also a nice place to go and have some tea– the Darjeeling tea there is really good, I once ended up having three pots. The food is quite good, sort of worth having if you are already there.
The atmosphere is chilled out and the location is really great! Just down the road from the queenie. I saw the Mystery Jets here ages ago and I remember the singer saying ‘If we all shout really loudly now, maybe we can wake up the queen’ and we all shouted really, really loud.

The ICA holds some fond memories for me, i first encountered the white washed walled venue around 2 years ago when the first and currenlty the only 100% Grime club night was held. Just imagine Tempa T (Slew Dem crew) mcing around walls with art on them, amazing right?
Since i have been there the first time i have visited the ICA (Institute Of Contempary Art) many a time for magazine launch parties and live poet shows which have been a really good experience.
If your looking for a venue where you can brap, be all artsy and get cheap drinks all in one this is highly recommended, so if you see flyers with this venue on it, get there, nice atmosphere!

Not sure what to make of the new membership policy. I suppose there aren’t enough arty people around to fill the bar at all times. It generally appears to try and become a little less avant garde and more accessible to a larger base.
Still, as a member you receive a 10% discount at the bar, which is always a good thing.
I love coming here during the day and was pleasantly surprised by some delicous mini cupcakes on Saturday afternoon. A very welcome break after a long walk.
I think they must have changed their caterers, but the food has always been very good (used to regularly come for lunch when I worked in the area).
It’s a great music venue as well as gallery.

das ica zeigt interessante, zeitgenössiche kunst (daher auch der name!) und hat den sehr angenehmen nebeneffekt, dass es eine angeschlossene bar hat, wo man sehr entspannt sitzen kann… coole musik, nette leute, und wenig touristen.