Created in Birmingham

Birmingham Contemporary Art Forum will be hosting a silent auction of over thirty artworks from the 6 – 24 June 2011 for The Event’s third bi-annual visual art festival due to be held in Birmingham this Autumn. The bidding will close on the 24 June 2011 in Digbeth’s Bond Company, where the works will be available for viewing and final bids may be placed between 7 – 9pm.

Here’s a random smattering of what’s up for auction but you can see the whole lot here:

Victoria Jenkins

Sally Payen from a ‘series of case studies’

Juneau Projects – Emotional Modernism

Viv Sole – Barchan

On 26 March, Home of Metal are hosting their forth and final open day at The Public, “Think Antiques Roadshow for metal fans”.

Metal fans of all ages are being invited to share their memorabilia and stories with the digital archive , further cementing West Midlands as the birthplace of Metal.

Home of Metal celebrates the music that was created in the West Midlands, its legacy and influence across the world and how the social history of the region was a fundamental ingredient in providing the backdrop against which Heavy Metal was created, defined and reshaped over the past decades.

They’ll have activities going on throughout the day, hosted by Kerrang! Radio DJ Johnny Doom who’ll be talking to former ‘Raw Power’ presenter, Ozzfest compere and all round Metal expert Krusher (he’s the jolly looking chap below).

Artist duo Juneau Project, will also be on hand with family activities including creating your own D.I.Y guitar, plus rock photographer Steve Gerrard will be dishing out advice during his photography masterclass.

The masterclass is limited to 15 places – to guarantee a spot on the day, call The Public on 0121 533 7161.

Excuse the preponderance of Digbeth, but:

• Goldie does Diggers « As One Arts
  ‘Diggers’?
• compliment sandwich
  From this bio on their Twitter account, compliment sandwich is the “Podcast by the people who brought you juneau projects (Ben Sadler & Phil Duckworth)”
• Digbeth is Good » For What?
  Nicky spots the link
• Digbeth is Good » An artsy What’s On for tonight
  “There’s an awful lot going on this evening, so here’s a very quick round-up”
• Tom Tebby – Chop – Drinks Reception, Opening Party. | We Are Birmingham
  New exhibition opening downstairs at We Are Birmingham. “There will be drinks reception this Saturday, 19th February, from 6.30pm onwards and we would love to see you all there”.

Art of Ideas is a group exhibition curated by Matthew Collings and Matt Price, entitled ‘The Witching Hour’, which will be taking place in the Birmingham Museum & Art Gallery’s Waterhall Gallery from 11 – 14 November.

The four day exhibition will explore darkness and the uncanny, featuring photography, painting, sculpture, printmaking, film and animation, from over 20 artists based in or hailing from the West Midlands.

The Art of Ideas publication is designed to encourage more people to start collecting contemporary art in the city and region. With its supernatural theme, The Witching Hour exhibition offers an opportunity for people who are interested in collecting art – whether individuals, businesses or arts institutions – to see and acquire works by leading and emerging artists from the West Midlands.

- Matt Price

Exhibiting artists include both internationally renowned names along with emerging talent, including: Hurvin Anderson, Richard Billingham, Graham Chorlton, Faye Claridge, Ravi Deepres, Tessa Farmer, Brian Griffin, Roger Hiorns, Harminder Singh Judge, Chris Keenan, Idris Khan, Karin Kihlberg / Reuben Henry, David Miller, Sally Payen, Juneau Projects, Ged Quinn, David Rowan, Liz Rowe, George Shaw, Toby de Silva, Gillian Wearing and Stuart Whipps.

ARC takes place on the last Wednesday of the month, showcasing work selected by guest curators. This months ARC is on 25 August, 6-8PM at The Vaults (Jewellery Quarter), and has been curated by Laura Coult.

an exhibition of artist’s moving image, performance, and sculpture exploring the ways in which we experience sound as light, movement, noise, and colour.

Artists include: Linda Bagnall, Benedict Drew, Laurence Hunt, Juneau Projects, Ben Russell, Alexander Small, Joe Snape.

• Musicians Wanted
  Any musicians out there want to help with a 3-day project at the Shard End youth centre? It’s with Headliners who do journalism projects for young uns and they’re offering some free publicity
• Buy Art from the Underground – Fused Magazine
  Nice to have Fused back and blogging. They’ve spotted that Simon & Tom Bloor and Juneau Projects were commissioned to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the roundel
• Second City Gallery looking for resident artists
  Mark Wilkinson and Sophie Handy weren’t impressed with a lack of collectively rentable, large studio/exhibition spaces so they’ve found their own. Give them a call if you’re interested in getting involved
• FREE training – Creative Launchpad
  Want to attend a course called “Business Planning for a Successful Creative Business”? You’re in luck…
• Job listing for Web Editor Internship, Flatpack Festival
  The Flatpack folk are looking for, essentially, a blogger with benefits. It’s unpaid but doing this sort of thing for Fierce is what started me on my journey to where I am now, and I’ve done ok
• Plus+ Touring the city with the Walking Tours
  I seem to remember the walking tours of Birmingham, with historian Ben Waddington as the guide, went down very well last year. Here are the plans for this year
• Clubbed nominated for the Raindance Award at the British Independent Film Awards
  Based in Cov, filmed in location in Birmingham and co-financed by Screen WM. Hurrah all round!

• Lots Of Things To See And Do In The West Midlands: October 2008
  Russ L’s ever-useful round-up with loads of stuff happening this month. I’d like to add my own Film Dash 48-hour film challenge to the list (happening 17-19 Oct short film fans!)
• Pre-Raphaelite Online Resource | TAK! Design & Art Direction. Birmingham. UK. +44 (0) 121 288 2528
  The nice folk at Tak! are “very excited to announce a new working partnership with the Birmingham Museum & Art Gallery to design & develop an online educational resource for public, students and professionals”
• Wheatley Fellowship 2008/09
  News from BIAD – Juneau Projects have been selected as the Wheatley Fellow based in the School of Art 2008/09
• Support the Castle Vale Community Awards – aCtiVe arts
  “Castle Vale will proudly celebrate the achievements of a number of its residents at the second annual Community Awards on Friday 24th October”
• It’s fun to play at the M A C E | Birmingham: It’s Not Shit
  Jon Bounds has found the Media Archive for Central England and does some delving around
• Birmingham Conservation Trust – new futures for Birmingham’s historic buildings
  “Birmingham Conservation Trust is a charity created ‘to preserve and enhance Birmingham’s threatened architectural heritage” and it has a shiny new website

• KateGoes and Writes a BBC Theme Tune
  “KateGoes are doing a theme tune for a new BBC sitcom called Coming of Age” as spotted by Dunc from the Autumn Store
• Crisp dust and car boot sales- is it art?
  BBC preview of the forthcoming Margaret Street MA show
• Light House September/October Events
  Spaghetti Gazetti have the list of what’s on over at the Light House in Wolverhampton
• Juneau Projects Live Album Launch
  Fused also report that “Juneau Projects will be launching their live album ‘I Went to the Woods’ at New Art Gallery Walsall on Thursday 28 August 2008, 6pm-8pm and admission is free”
• Help break a World Record this week
  If you have any free time this week everyone working on the Big Picture would love to see you at Thinktank to help build this huge artwork. You can turn up at any time between 10am – 4pm each day until Thursday this week (if you’d like more details see the Big Picture site)
• Sarah Ray exhibition
  Fused report that “The very talented Sarah Ray will be exhibiting her work at The Marcus Galleries from the end of this month”