ISIS Waterside Regeneration are inviting arts, cultural and social enterprise agencies on a site tour of Warwick Bar, at the heart of Eastside cultural quarter on Thursday 24 February, at 12 – 2pm and 4 – 6pm (arriving at 12pm or 4pm).
Visitors will be given the opportunity to express interest and early stage ideas for use of the buildings and spaces, including temporary events, installations or performances from one day to monthly lets.
There remains a commitment to retain Warwick Bar as a distinctive quarter, currently home to Grand Union, the area provides links to Birmingham’s cultural community through a varied mix of on-site activity.
Light refreshments will also be available, with owners and agents on hand to discuss ideas and approaches to sustaining activity in the Eastside area.
RSVP to admin@sueball.co.uk, and meet for the tour at 122 Fazeley Street, B5 5RS.
The project is being documented over on the Post-Industrial Revolution blog, introducing the artists involved and the research they’ve been doing. They also have a few events coming up in association with the final exhibition;
Artists’ Talk
Thursday 17 February 2011, 6.30 – 8pm
Eastside Projects, 86 Heath Mill Lane, Digbeth, Birmingham, B9 4AR
For further information visit http://www.extraspecialpeople.org
Preview
Friday 18 February 2011, 6-9pm
The Lombard Method, 68a Lombard Street, Digbeth, Birmingham, B12 0QR
Admission free
Exhibition
Saturday 19 – Sunday 27 February 2011
Open Thursday – Sunday from 11am -6pm
The Lombard Method, 68a Lombard Street, Digbeth, Birmingham, B12 0QR
Admission free
Parent & Children Workshop
Sunday 27 February 2011, 11am-12.30pm*
The Lombard Method, 68a Lombard Street, Digbeth, Birmingham, B12 0QR
For more information, also check out their website.
Project Pigeon currently reside in Boxxed‘s backyard in Digbeth. Working with pigeons and people, they aim to bring about social change, and so are currently working on a community pigeon loft.
Traditionally, pigeon lofts are designed to reflect the culture in which they’re located, and so in keeping with this they’re after the designs and ideas of local residents in order to build a loft that reflects all the different cultures in Digbeth and Highgate.
They’ll be holding Community Consultation Days throughout February on the following dates for people wanting to get involved;
On 27 November, Birmingham Printmakers are opening their studio doors from 10am – 4pm. They’ll be selling original prints, cards, books and gift wrapping.
Or it does according to someone at the new Fallen Angel Bakery in Harborne if the experience of Paul at Ricemedia is anything to go by:
Fazeley Studios might host some fine digital media companies, Ikon Eastside and our own fair office but there’s still some work to be done apparently. That or the guy’s a numpty.
Birmingham Settlement are holding a charity fashion show together with South Birmingham College, which is happening on 12 November at the Digbeth campus.
The show will feature reworked clothing by the fashion students, taken from Birmingham Settlement’s charity shops, along with around 80 designer outfits and including D&G, Moschino, Gucci and Jimmy Choo, all of which will be auctioned off at the end of the night. Entertainment will also be provided by performing arts students half way through the evening.
The Museum of Windows exhibition opens at Bordesley Centre of Contemporary Art, Digbeth, on Fri 10 September, with an Artists Talk at 18.30 – 20.30.
Taking the form of an instalation, the exhibition takes vacant or dilapidated factories and warehouses in Digbeth, and proposes their hypothetical redevelopment as art galleries.
The proposed designs combine aspects of white cube galleries with the existing structures of local buildings, whilst also replacing one or more of the outer walls with glass facades. Were they to be built, these structures would transform previously abandoned spaces into sites of artistic appreciation and their transparent facades would allow visitors to view the surrounding industrial landscapes.
The exhibition will run across the weekend of 11 & 12 September, open each day from 10am – 5pm.
If you’ve been about Digbeth today and yesterday, you may have noticed a few of these more interesting looking billboards. 48 Sheet is an experimental art installation is the latest project by EC-arts, which runs until 14 September, using advertising billboards as blank canvasses for the five participating artists.
I Am Camera is a collective showcase of work put together by a group of emerging and established artists who are currently rooted within Birmingham.
The exhibition will showcase the work of these artists who all come from a wide range of visual media professions including Fine Art, Documentary, Landscape, Fashion and Commercial roles.
I Am Camera is happy to be bringing this event to the heart of Birmingham between the 10th & 19th of June. There will most certainly be something for everyone to feast their eyes upon so why not pop by say hello and enjoy the work on show?
It’s nearly the end of term, and you know what that means… showcases! Birmingham City University are already on the case with Exhibit This by its final year Media and Communication students. And the plan is…
…to display their creative work to industry professionals and the general public while celebrating their achievements throughout their degree.
As you can see from the flyer, you can expect work from a range of media disciplines, from photography to web and new media, so if you want to check out some new talent in the field, it might be worth a poke around.
Exhibit This is at The Bond in Digbeth on 7th and 8th June, between 6pm and 8.30pm.
A couple of music-related things came out over the weekend both adding up to paint a less than rosy picture of Birmingham’s current live music scene.
The Interactive Cultures team at BCU have launched MusicAsCulture.org – a place to discuss the idea that ‘music is not just commerce’. It’s not an exclusively local thing, but it launches with a Birmingham-focussed campaign dealing with the noise issues at The Rainbow in Digbeth. The campaign is being headed up by UB40 and is called Live, Loud and Local:
Here in Birmingham, as with many places elsewhere, heritage music venues are in danger of closure or losing their live music licence because of issues of noise. Areas that were once not residential now have tenants, and the clash between apartment dwellers and local music venues has demanded a response at a policy level
UB40 will be playing a one-off gig at The Rainbow on 3 November to raise money for a new roof on the building in an attempt to reduce outside noise. I don’t know where you can get tickets from yet, but then nor do the folks on the UB40 forum.
Meanwhile, Fused interviewed Johnny Foreigner who aren’t afraid of sticking the boot in. They’re working on a documentary about how Birmingham’s music scene “suffers as a result when compared to other major cities”, which they see as a result of neglect by the council. Their advice for the city:
Drop the ego like Liverpool or nurture the homegrown stuff like Leeds and see the results in five years time when there are famous and forward looking bands not ashamed to say where they’re from
An outdoor dance spectacular that’s part of Birmingham Town Hall‘s 175th birthday celebrations. They’re hoping for up to have had up to 12,000 people take part. It’s being performed on Friday 9 October at 8pm and Saturday 10 October at 3pm and 8pm – and you can learn the steps half an hour before each performance.
Tonight, at the Library Theatre, our new poet laureate, announced yesterday as Adrian Johnson (ACE West Mids Literature Officer), will be performing for the first time in his official capacity.
Nicky Getgood, on Digbeth is Good, has linked to a fair amount of interesting stuff happening:
Eastside Studio are holding an Open Studio on Saturday afternoon from midday to 5pm to ‘celebrate the completion of carving the ‘Rugby Writers’ commission’
Also on Saturday, VIVID are taking part in The Big Draw with a variety of artists getting visitors to interact with their work
UPDATE – Oops, cheers to Nicky Getgood for pointing out the next one is on Sunday 18 October:
On Sunday Nikki Pugh is doing a GPS-assisted walk around “the perimeter of the regeneration area taking great care to stop, investigate, prod, document, tell stories about and explore things along the way”
Also, see the comments for more free stuff this weekend.
Many apologies for the lack of posts the last week, with this and that happening I haven’t been able to bring you as many posts as I would have like to, normal blogging service shall be restored from herein.
One great thing I missed out on last Friday was the launch of Fazeley Studios in Digbeth. I have gathered together photos, reviews and anecdotes for the pleasure of both you and I to enjoy. As far as I can tell the night was filled with live music, art, a fashion show and lots of booze.
Developed by Lucan Gray, son of Custard Factory owner Bennie Gray, Fazeley Studios, in Digbeth, is a 1.25 acre collection of magnificent but previously derelict listed buildings fronting Fazeley Street which have been restored to form 44 studio offices for creative and digital businesses.
“They [digital industries] are great success stories for the city at an extremely challenging time, so it is important that we can provide them with the kind of space and support that they need in order to grow.”
“The Studios are beautiful and it is starting to become a hub for creativity, which in our minds is a about time. The people behind Fazeley Studios have obviously recognised that creative people don’t always want to work in damp and dirty places such as the Custard Factory and clients want to visit clean and well-presented studios. Long live this new era of creativity in Brum.”
A little while back Fullrange Films gave Nicky Getgood a Flip camera on the condition that she use it to document Digbeth, as is generally her wont on Digbeth is Good.
Ads On Walls round-up
Another quality, well-attended Animation Forum West Mids event – here’s the list of screenings and contact details for everyone involved
The Book for Birmingham
“To celebrate the National Year of Reading, we want to capture the city’s reading choices and ultimately find the The Book for Birmingham… You can nominate a book any time up to 17 August 2008″ Voting begins on 1 September. Winner to be announced during October’s Birmingham Book Festival
St Patrick’s Day Festival – update
Spaghetti Gazetti report on July’s public meeting discussing feedback from the 2008 Festival & Parade.
