Museums and Galleries:

The British Museum
China Landscape - China Landscape represents a unique partnership between the British Museum and the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, celebrating a shared vision to strengthen cultural understanding and support biodiversity conservation across the world. Located in the British Museum's forecourt, the landscape features elements of a traditional Chinese scholar's garden and explores the medicinal benefits, economic properties, artistic influences and cultural traditions of plants and shrubs from western China. Until 27 October 2008

The American Scene: Prints from Hopper to Pollock - The American Scene features around 150 outstanding prints by 74 leading modern American artists, including George Bellows, Edward Hopper, Grant Wood, Josef Albers, Alexander Calder, Louise Bourgeois and Jackson Pollock. The exhibition begins with John Sloan's Ashcan School etchings of everyday urban experience in the 1900s and concludes with Jackson Pollock and the triumph of abstract expressionism in the 1950s.
Until 7 September

Reflecting on Modern Art: Photobooks from the post-war period - The display focuses on three recently acquired photobooks by leading Japanese photographers of the post-war period: Tomatsu Shomei (born 1930), Hosoe Eikoh (born 1933) and Homma Takashi (born 1962).

The Natural History Museum
Darwin´s canopy: proposals for a new permanent artwork - To celebrate Charles Darwin's two hundredth anniversary in 2009, the Museum will commission a new work of art for the ceiling of a gallery (previously Plant Power) behind its Central Hall. Ten shortlisted artists, including former Turner Prize-winners Mark Wallinger and Rachel Whiteread, have spent three months researching ideas for a permanent artwork inspired by Charles Darwin's ideas and their relevance today. Visitors are able to see the models, paintings and drawings for all 10 proposals on display in this exhibition.
Until 14 September

The Story of The Supremes from the Mary Wilson Collection - The performance costumes of The Supremes, one of the most successful groups of all time, are on display at the V&A this summer. On show are over fifty outfits that chart the changing image of the group, from their dresses in the early days as The Primettes, to the glamorous Hollywood designs worn at the height of their fame.
Until 19 October

The Tate Modern
Cy Twombly - Tate Modern presents a major exhibition of works by Cy Twombly, one of the most highly regarded painters working today and a foremost figure among the generation of American artists that includes Jasper Johns, Robert Rauschenberg and Andy Warhol. Twombly rose to prominence through a distinctive style characterised by scribbles and vibrantly daubed paint. This is his first solo retrospective in fifteen years, and provides an overview of his work from the 1950s to now. This exhibition provides a unique opportunity to see the full range of Twombly's long and influential career from a fresh perspective. Until 14 September

Street & Studio: an urban history on photography - Street & Studio is a magnificent exhibition of international photography. It presents a fascinating history of photographic portraiture taken on the street or in the photographer's studio, looking at the differences between these two key locations in which photographers work. Street & Studio brings out the contrast between the photos taken in the carefully orchestrated studio, and images captured in the changing and uncontrollable street, whilst highlighting the crossovers between the genres and their influence on each other. Until 31 August

Street Art - In the first commission to use the building's iconic river façade, and the first major public museum display of street art in London. Tate Modern presents the work of six internationally acclaimed artists whose work is intricately linked to the urban environment: Blu from Bologna, Italy; the artist collective Faile from New York, USA; JR from Paris, France; Nunca and Os Gêmeos, both from São Paulo, Brazil and Sixeart from Barcelona, Spain. Various events will take place during the exhibition, including an interactive evening with experimental New York artists Graffiti Research Lab, refacing Tate Modern with graffiti light projections. Until 25 August

Sign and Texture - This display brings together works made from the 1950s onwards by painters who have explored the relationship between experience and abstract mark-making. Of those included, the Australian artist Fred Williams, was most closely bound to the landscape, and explored a range of ways in which it could be abstracted through texture, colour and form. By contrast, Ernst-Wilhelm Nay, the major German abstract expressionist painter, sublimated experience in his subtle lyrical compositions. This display showcases these international artists as new additions to the Tate Collection, who enrich our understanding of a complex period. Until 19 October

Tate Britain
The lure of the East - British Orientalist Painting will explore the responses of British artists to the cultures and landscapes of the Near and Middle East between 1780 and 1930, offering vital historical and cultural perspectives on the challenging questions of the ‘Orient' and its representation in British art. It will bring together over 120 paintings, prints and drawings of bazaars, public baths, domestic interiors and religious sites, and all the major genres, themes and preoccupations of Orientalism in British art will be considered. Several exceptional and rarely seen paintings by John Frederick Lewis, Edward Lear, David Wilkie, Richard Dadd, Lord Leighton, and William Holman Hunt, will be shown, as well as significant works by many less familiar names. Until 31 August

Concerts:

Hammersmith Apollo
Scorpions – The heavy metal band from Hanover, Germany is visiting the UK, with it´s 1980s rock anthem “Rock you like a Hurricane” and their singles “No one like you” and “Still loving you”. The band has sold over 75 million albums worldwide and were ranked No.46 on VH1´s Greatest Artists of Hard Rock programme. 18 October

Tiesto - With a nomination for a Grammy Award in 2008, for his album Elements of Life, Tiesto one of the world most famous trance DJs and producers in the electronic dance music scene will be presenting in the UK. 8 August

Stevie Wonder - On Monday September 8th, 2008, Stevie Wonder starts the European leg of his "Wonder Summer's Night Tour", the first time he has toured Europe in over a decade. 11, 12 & 30 September

Wembley Stadium
Madonna - In 2008, Madonna promoted her eleventh studio album, Hard Candy, with the Hard Candy Promo Tour. It was lauded by Rolling Stone as an "impressive taste of her upcoming tour." The album debuted at number one on the UK Albums Chart, where Madonna achieved ten number one albums. Her new Madonna ´ s Sticky & Sweet Tour is the one she will be presenting. 11 September