As New York’s art world gears up for the US edition of London’s Frieze Art Fair, what better way to get in an Anglophile mood than to see the Turner Prize-winning artist Grayson Perry speak at the Metropolitan Museum tonight. In the lecture “Playing to the Gallery” (which is also the name of his new book on contemporary art based on his 2013 BBC-commissioned Reith Lectures) the cross-dressing ceramicist is due to highlight works from the museum’s encyclopaedic collection, “as he explores broader themes in relation to what defines what we see and value as art, and the modern condition of being an artist”, the Met says. “Part of my role as an artist is similar to that of a shaman or witch doctor,” Grayson says on the museum’s website. “I dress up, I tell stories, give things meaning and make them a bit more significant.” We also hope Essex’s favourite creative son will talk about his latest project in the eastern county, the gingerbread-like A House for Essex, designed by Perry in collaboration with the architects FAT, which will be available for holiday rentals soon.