LONDON.- Nasser Azam, Ben Lewis, Julia Peyton-Jones and Julian Stallabrass are just some of the art world luminaries who will be speaking at a new one-week festival this October called Inside Out.

Organised by the London Centre for Arts and Cultural Exchange (LCACE), an initiative which promotes better links between the capital’s higher education institutions and its cultural sector, Inside Out will showcase the exciting, unexpected and sometimes unsung contribution to the arts made by Universities such as Goldsmiths, University of London, University of the Arts and The Courtauld Institute.

Inside Out will feature a diverse range of music, film, literature, theatre and visual arts events throughout the week. The visual arts strand will bring together high-profile artists as well as academics, photographers and critics, theorists and art students to create a packed programme of events for the general public, including debates and workshops at some of London’s leading cultural venues.

The festival will open with a hard-hitting debate at Kings Place chaired by Michael Portillo asking Art: What’s it good for? with panellists including artist Nasser Azam, Serpentine Gallery Director Julia Peyton-Jones, art critic Ben Lewis and philosopher A.C Grayling.

Festival goers and visual arts enthusiasts will also be able to:

- find out about how value is created in the contemporary art world in an exciting debate with Julian Stallabrass as the respondent

- study the cultural politics in China’s tumultuous processes of modernity in a two-day conference at The Courtauld Institute of Art

- explore the concept of video portraiture with award-winning filmmaker Gideon Koppel and Theodore Zeldin

- experience a visual symphony of destruction at the Guildhall School of Music & Drama

- see a thought provoking photography exhibition by photo-journalists working on the front lines of the Arab-Israeli conflict

- visit the first exhibition to explore paintings of post-war London building sites by Frank Auerbach

- find out about different ways in which artists are working in universities and take part in a Big Draw event led by postgraduates at Goldsmiths, University of London.

Sally Taylor, Director of LCACE, said: “London’s Universities continue to drive both the understanding of history of art and London’s vibrant contemporary art scene. Inside Out gives the general public the opportunity to engage first hand with some of these key institutions and ideas”.

Ben Lewis said: “Art is a way of 'talking' about the world without words. It's different from language - you can 'say' things with art that you can't say with words. It is a way of raising issues, exploring ambiguities, expressing dilemmas. It's a great way of drawing attention to big philosophical issues. Inside Out will be a fantastic way to promote these ideas to the public”.