This weekend a few events are being staged around the city by BCU students doing MA’s in Event Management.
First in my inbox was news of The Fresh Air Kite Workshop on Sat 21 June in Victoria Square:
The workshop will aim to teach children how to put together their very own ‘almost guaranteed to fly’ kite kit, and let them personalise their designs with their favourite colours and patterns
Which sounds fun. All proceeds will go to the British Heart Foundation.
The other event is called Streets Alive and is being run in conjunction with the Custard Factory’s Sunday Flea Market.
We will be exhibiting a number of street entertainers and performers including juggling, dancing, diablo, music and lots of others. The event will be free and there will be a number of taster sessions on different street performances which will cost from £1.
All proceeds from that one will go to the Acorns Trust.
Yeah, ok, no-one likes ‘networking’. Fine. How about going for a drink with some good people? Yes?
Ok, well there’s a few things coming up.
- On Friday there’s Likemind, hosted by James from Supercool and Lucie from Saint Caffe at the latter’s cafe on St Pauls Square. Drop in any time between 8.30am and 10am to grab a coffee and have a natter.
- On Monday 23rd there’s a meet-up of a group loosely calling themselves ‘bloggers’ at the Flapper & Firkin. Details are on the Paradise Circus blog and here’s the Facebook event. Drop in any time after 6pm.
- Last, and certainly not least, Creative Republic are hosting an informal get-together at Concrete, just under the Big Peg in the Jewellery Quarter on Thursday 26 June from 6pm. They promise
No pack drill… No speeches… And no cost
Which is as good a sales pitch as you’re likely to find. Details are on the flyer here. Please RSVP to that one so they know how many to expect.
The opening exhibit at Ikon Eastside, Island by Soi Projects, will be closing on Sunday 22 June. However, on Friday (20th) at 1.30pm the gallery are arranging for a free tour which should last about 20-30mins.
It’s well worth a look – I was a bit non-plussed when I saw Island on the launch night but as a little time passed the subtleties of the piece came out really well and I left thinking I’d seen something really quite clever. Sorry for the vagueness, but I don’t want to spoil it for anyone who does go along.
In the meantime, here’s the Fused take on the exhibit.
Oh, Ikon Eastside is at 183 Fazeley Street, Fazeley Studios, Digbeth, Birmingham, B5 5SE if that helps. Open 1pm to 5pm and admission is free.
Some great news from the peeps at 7 Inch Cinema landed on the virtual doormat today. The Flatpack Festival is the worthy recipient of funding for the next three years, securing it’s future and allowing the organisers to maybe think a little bigger.
Peter Buckingham from the UK Film Council (who are providing the funding) said of Flatpack:
Their innovative approach to screening films in churches, warehouses and shopping centres as well as cinemas and gallery spaces is a brilliant idea because it helps to attract new audiences to some great short films, animation and live film events
Flatpack 3 will take place in Feb 2009 and will launch “with a tribute to Birmingham’s pioneering film showman Waller Jeffs“.
DeafFest at Wolverhampton Light House have also received funding so well done to them too.
Last word goes to the understandably chuffed Flatpack producers:
without going all Oscar-night about it, it wouldn’t have been possible without all the filmmakers, volunteers, artists, promoters, technicians, funders, venues and enthusiastic punters who have chipped in to help us get this far. So thanks a lot, and here’s to Flatpack III in February 2009 and beyond…
Those that were wondering about Aldi’s involvement with Aerosolarabic‘s graffiti mural (mentioned here the other day) that overlooks the Aldi car park on the Stratford Road now have an answer. To quote the artist:
Aldi are not keen on the Feed the Poor mural, as it overlooks their car park, and they feel its not something Aldi wants to have their customers using their car park, wanting to see…?! The building that is painted, has nothing to do with Aldi
Apparently yesterday’s completion of the project went quite well until the police and Aldi’s regional manager showed up.
There’s a chance the mural may have to be painted over so Aerosolarabic, aka Mohammed Ali, has documented this on his blog where there are pics showing the mural’s progress.
Arts All Over The Place is a festival of arts for mental health. A month-long programme of events kicked off on 7 June and runs through until 10 July.
The festival is organised by The Creatives Network for the Arts and Health, enabled by the Social Inclusion team of Birmingham and Solihull Mental Health Trust. Events are taking place at The Spottd Dog, the Custard Factory, the airport and the Crescent Theatre, among others.
You can see the programme of events here (I’ve been kind and stuck the PDF on Scribd myself) and, er, apparently here. If you happen to have superhuman levels of perseverance.
Anyone who contributed to the recent discussion about how to present festival listings might be interested in having a quick browse through these.
An exhibition currently running at the Wolverhampton Art Gallery showcases the photography of Pogus Caesar, one of Birmingham’s most important visual artists.
The exhibition, That Beautiful Thing, features 43 photographs selected from a portfolio that runs into several thousands taken over a 20 year period both in the UK and abroad.
Putting the breadth and importance of Pogus Caesar’s work in perspective is a tricky thing – he’s well known for his photos of 1985′s Handsworth riots (the pic above being an example) but his experience, travels and areas of work are all incredibly wide. Roger Shannon does a good job of pulling it all together in this Birmingham Post article.
The exhbition runs until 12 July. In addition, on 3 July from 6-8pm at the Light House, Caesar will celebrate
20 years working in Television and Film with a screening of selected highlights from his award winning career, including work produced and directed for Central TV, BBC, Channel 4 and Carlton Television.
Throughout the screening he’ll be in conversation with Prof Shannon. Entrance is free.
Graffiti artist Mohammed Ali started work on this mural in the car park of Aldi on the Stratford Road, Sparkhill today and will be back down there at about 12pm tomorrow to finish it off.
This is a message for all the traffic that mounts along this busy road, as well as all the buses. Not very artistic, but rather a big bold message for everyone to ponder on….
Ali also goes under the Aerosolarabic name and fuses graffiti art with Islamic calligraphy. He’s worked throughout the UK and abroad, with trips to Montreal and Melbourne booked later this year. He also blogs here (where the above image is taken from).
We’ve reached the halfway point of the Midlands’ street sounds/art festival but there’s plenty left to come in Birmingham:
There are a few more workshops running too, and events over in Derby, Nottingham and Leicester to boot. See the what’s on page on the BASS Festival website for more.
I feel a bit daft for not mentioning this earlier because it finishes tomorrow (Sunday 15 June).
Behind Closed Doors were given an area of rough ground just behind the Custard Factory and on it they’ve installed a couple of shipping containers and (in my prosaic language) done something arty. In their (more betterer) words The Secret Garden is:
Reflecting on the regeneration of the surrounding industrial landscape, the familiar and iconic image of the shipping container has been transformed into an art object as a strategy for an encounter exploring function, transformation and fictional narrative.
Behind Closed Doors have been documenting the whole thing on their website, which features a few time-lapse videos and some of Pete Ashton’s photos.
They’re wrapping things up with a closing BBQ at 4pm and promise sun, sounds and sausages. If you go down you’re encouraged to take a bottle.
Suzie Webb has gone independent after working for some time in commercial interactive design (which I think broadly means website design). Her about page has a pretty impressive list of clients, work, recognition and the like and she describes herself thusly:
I’m a design practitioner as well as a director, I make identity, animation, illustration, ï¬lm, sculpture, painting and drawing fused with technology to realise the original vision.
What’s more she has a blog called Handclaps, Drawing and Freakish Boasts – a fine name indeed. The pic above is taken from that blog and is of the diorama she used to make her website’s homepage.
June’s Out Of Hours, the creative sector socialising shindig at the Light House in Wolverhampton, features a look at the work of Sarah Ray, a Birmingham-based illustrator who’ll be introducing her exhibition Good Day.
Among many other things she’s been featured by 4Talent magazine (as per the pic) who will also be there to talk “about how illustration helps shape their visual identity”.
A backdrop will be provided by VJs Cinecull. That’s on Monday 16 June, 7-9pm and entry is free.
Planning has started for this year’s Gigbeth festival taking place 6-8 November 2008 and coinciding, as ever, with Music Live at the NEC and the Gigbeth Conference.
The website has been launched and, although it’s too early to expect much information to be up there for punters, if you want to perform or volunteer at Gigbeth then the contact details are there for you.
For now, and pleasingly for me, the site has launched the Gigbeth blog to which CiB’s very own Frankie Ward will be contributing over the summer and as the festival comes together. Go and say hi if you’ve got a sec.
Starting this Sunday, 15 June, and continuing every third Sunday over the summer, Brindley Place is hosting an arts market.
A number of local, up and coming artists will be displaying pieces of work at the event. These include Alice Gow, Antony Bridge of Pochade, Ken Hurd and Christopher Collier.
They’re keen to grow this event and are looking for artists who want to exhibit their work, so get in touch if that applies to you – details are on the Brindleyplace website.
