Category: Film and Media

Sophia Moffa

Sophia Moffa’s practice is focused on the connections between the plant kingdom and society, commenting on contemporary issues of privilege and inequalities within society.

Sophia Moffa’s practice is focused on the connections between the plant kingdom and society, commenting on contemporary issues of privilege and inequalities within society.

She uses natural found materials which she sources within the urban green spaces, creating works that often transforms in parallel with the seasons in the city where she lives. Her work is influenced by the belief that we live in an oversaturated environment, which clouds and persistently feeds the mind. Due to this, her works are cyclical, temporary, and sustainable.

Moffa often works collaboratively with artists across different countries to build on a more collaborative art world and practice. This year she also set up “the travellers’ tree” a CIC which runs art workshops in nature for asylum seekers living in hostels across the West Midlands. Merging art, physical activities, and nature together to enable refugees to have a safe space to express themselves. She has run workshops for the Canal & River Trust, Super Slow Ways, Amal and the New Art Gallery Walsall.

Website: www.sophiamoffa.com

Twitter: https://twitter.com/s_moffa

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sophiamoffa/

E-mail: moffasophia@gmail.com

Darkroom Birmingham

Analogue photography facilities and project space. Since 2012 we’ve been running photography courses, offering use of darkroom facilities, putting on exhibitions and delivering projects.

Analogue photography facilities and project space. Since 2012 we’ve been running photography courses, offering use of darkroom facilities, putting on exhibitions and delivering projects.

Website: www.darkroombirmingham.co.uk

Twitter: @darkroombirming

Instagram: @darkroombirmingham

Facebook: @darkroommbirmingham

Address: The Old Print Works, 506-8 Moseley Road, Balsall Heath, B12 9AH

E-mail: info@darkroombirmingham.co.uk

Phone: 07779 159 217

Stage2 Youth Theatre

Stage2 is a Youth Theatre and Childrens’ Charity, with an over 30 year history and reputation for high quality shows, workshops and work experience.

Stage2 is a Youth Theatre and Childrens’ Charity, with an over 30 year history and reputation for high quality shows, workshops and work experience.

Website: www.stage2.org/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/Stage2YT

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/stage2yt/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/stage2YT

E-mail: rosa.simonet@stage2.org

General Public

General Public is the collaborative platform of artists Elizabeth Rowe and Chris Poolman. Broadly speaking, they devise large scale public art projects that incorporate elements of fiction, myth-making, local history re-invention and heritage rebooting.

General Public is the collaborative platform of artists Elizabeth Rowe and Chris Poolman. Broadly speaking, they devise large scale public art projects that incorporate elements of fiction, myth-making, local history re-invention and heritage rebooting.

Often this process involves re-working or inverting an established model or institutional structure. Their approach is interdisciplinary and collaborative: they produce artworks (writing, film, print), devise collaborative frameworks, organise events, curate / commission other artists.

Previous projects have included:

  • a re-interpretation of the biennale concept in inner-city Birmingham (Balsall Heath Biennale 2011 – 2013),
  • a science fiction themed light festival exploring the politics of regeneration (Longbridge Light Festival, 2014),
  • a community competition resulting in 4000 new coins for an inner city area of Birmingham (Handsworth Currency Competition 2014 -15)
  • an 18-month strategic touring exhibition that uses the migratory movements of hop-pickers as the conceptual basis for a tour (The Hop Project 2016-17).
  • In 2017/18, they conceived & produced The Endless Village, an apocalyptic sitcom that investigates life in an imagined post-Brexit Britain of the future. This was presented as exhibitions at Eastside Projects and Aspex Portsmouth.
  • Over the 2018 summer holidays they delivered the ‘Heathland Festival, a ‘children’s festival of ideas’ that occurred at Birmingham Community libraries.
  • During 2019/20, they were artists in residence at the University of Birmingham where they developed ‘The Pomology Project’ (a reimagining of British orchard traditions in an urban context).
  • Their current project Let Us Play explores the history of the Adventure Playground movement in Birmingham. The oral histories and archive material generated through the project will be presented in 2021 as part of a series of exhibitions, events and a publication.

Website: www.generalpublic.org.uk

Address: 69 Station Road, Kings Heath, B14 7SS

E-mail: generalpublicprojects@gmail.com

Phone: 07769 530 557

Rachel Gillies – Film | Media | Heritage

I aim to nurture curious citizens, confident in their heritage, rooted in their communities, through developing and delivering creative participatory media and heritage projects.

I aim to nurture curious citizens, confident in their heritage, rooted in their communities, through developing and delivering creative participatory media and heritage projects.

I create film, media and heritage project which tell important and personal stories, that can shape our ideas about the world and lead to positive social and political action.  At the heart of this is participatory practice, firmly rooted in using tools for collaboration and co-creation.

I work with arts organisations, youth groups, community projects, schools, charities, advocacy groups and do community-based work in the public sector across the West Midlands.  I am particularly interested in exploring projects connected to people’s heritage, community action, oral histories, social justice and urban wildlife.

In addition to my Freelance practice, I am Secretary of the People’s Heritage Co-operative and currently manage our Represent project tracing post-WW1 issues around political representation. I am also Co-ordinator of Art Works, the Local Arts Forum for Hall Green Constituency and I manage Balsall Heath Neighbourhood News Online.

I am currently developing my participatory practice and leadership as a Fellow on the Gulbenkian Foundation supported Creative Communities Fellowship – hosted by National Art Strategies based in the USA and Derby Museums in the UK.

For more details or even if you would just like to discuss my practice in more detail, please get in touch!

Website: http://www.community-film-maker.org.uk/

E-mail: rachel@community-film-maker.org.uk

Phone: 07967 093 256

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/RachelGilliesCommunityFilm

Twitter: https://twitter.com/rachelgillies