• The first exhibition to exclusively explore Cecil Beaton’s pioneering work in fashion photography opens today at the National Portrait Gallery. Cecil Beaton’s Fashionable World features portraits of some of the 20th century’s most iconic figures including celebrities, Marilyn Monroe, Audrey Hepburn, Elizabeth Taylor and Marlon Brando as well as royalty including Queen Elizabeth II and Princess Margaret and artists such as Lucian Freud, Francis Bacon and Salvador Dali. Curated by Vogue contributing editor Robin Muir, the display charts his meteoric rise and legacy and celebrates his signature artistic style which married “Edwardian stage glamour with the elegance of a new age”. As well as photographs, the 250 items displayed include letters, sketches, and costumes – the latter including the costumes and sets he created for the musical My Fair Lady, performed on stage, and then later on screen. The exhibition runs until 11th January. Admission charge applies. For more, see www.npg.org.uk/whatson/exhibitions/2025/cecil-beaton/.

• Diwali on the Square – London’s annual celebration of the Festival of Lights – takes place in Trafalgar Square this Sunday. The free, family event runs from 2pm to 8pm and will feature 200 dancers from Hindu, Sikh and Jain communities performing a mix of modern and classical dance. There will also be diya lighting, a retelling of the Diwali story by Aaya Anand Chaaya Anand, Bollywood Bhangra, and activities such as turban tying, yoga and meditation, henna decorations, puppet shows and dance workshops. Vegan and vegetarian food will be available at market stalls serving traditional and fusion cuisine. For more, head to www.london.gov.uk/events/diwali-square-2025.

• Piano legend and TV personality Winifred Atwell has been honoured with an English Heritage Blue Plaque at her former Mayfair home. Atwell, the first black artist to achieve a UK number one single, with the medley Let’s Have Another Party in 1954, lived at the home at 18 Bourdon Street with her husband and manager Lew Levisohn during the 1950s and the 1960s. It was in this property that she kept her famous Steinway concert grand piano and a deliberately out-of-tune upright piano that become a signature in her honky-tonk performances. For more, see www.english-heritage.org.uk/visit/blue-plaques/

• The works of artists such as Edvard Munch and Mamma Andersson are at the centre of a new exhibition at the British Museum showcasing Nordic works of art on paper. Nordic noir: works on paper from Edvard Munch to Mamma Andersson is the culmination of a five year programme to build the museum’s collection of post-war Nordic art and among the highlights on show are two of Munch’s woodcut prints. Other artists featured in the exhibition include Olafur Eliasson, John Savio, Vanessa Baird, Yuichiro Sato, Fatima Moallim, and John Kørner. Key themes explored in the exhibition include nature and the need to preserve the natural world, the worlds of Norse myth, inner struggles with mental health, post-war angst, the threat of the Cold War, feminism and the rights of the Indigenous Sami people. Runs until 22nd March. Admission to display in Room 90 is free. For more, see www.britishmuseum.org/exhibitions/nordic-noir-works-paper-edvard-munch-mamma-andersson.

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