It has been 20 years since Derek Jarman, the film director, stage designer, author, artist and diarist who was born in Northwood, died of an AIDS-related illness, and to mark the anniversary the Cultural Institute at King’s College London, where he was a student, is hosting an events programme and exhibition – Derek Jarman: Pandemonium.

A student of humanities at King’s, from 1960 to 1963, Jarman went on to become one of the most important creative practitioners of his generation, and a crucial voice in gay politics in Britain.

The exhibition links his studies as an undergraduate to his later artistic and intellectual interests, as well as focusing on Jarman’s life in the artistically vital warehouses at Bankside and Butler’s Wharf, and the ways his work engaged with London.

Among his most arresting work in the 1970s were his, now rarely seen, Super 8 films, and three of these will be screened continuously in the exhibition.

Also on display will be a selection of the incredibly elaborate notebooks he kept for each of his feature films and writing projects, as well as personal and privately loaned material, which contextualises his many collaborative relationships.

As well as the exhibition, theatre director Neil Bartlett, with King’s, will be holding a series of events including The Angelic Conversation, an installation in King’s College London Chapel which features a continuous, 24-hour-long screening of Jarman’s film of the same name, on January 31, what would have been his 72nd birthday.

Remembering Derek, also at the chapel, is Neil Bartlett in conversation with Simon Watney, the art historian and activist who was a close friend of Jarman’s, in which they will discuss the art of church memorials, their own memories of Jarman, and about his contributions to the art and politics of ‘queer memory’ (January 31).

Early Modern Jarman is a symposium, at the Anatomy Museum at King’s, that commemorates Jarman’s lifelong engagement with early modern drama and culture in his films, set designs, art and writing.

Jarman’s 1987 film The Last of England will be screened in March, while coach trips to Prospect Cottage, his home in Kent for the latter stages of his life, will take place in June.