As part of the Birmingham 2022 Festival for the Commonwealth Games, Art Works are very pleased to share that we have been successful in a public vote for both Balsall Heath West and Sparkbrook & Balsall Heath East ward ‘Celebrating Communities’ funding. If you cast your vote for us then thank you!
We want to creatively explore the many and varied journeys that people have made to Balsall Heath and Sparkbrook from both near and far, celebrating the area as a place of refugee and a home to people from around the globe.
As part of developing these plans, we are on the lookout for community textile artists who can deliver participatory workshops with adults, and possibly some Key Stage 2 pupils, during June and July. We know that participants have some experience and/or interest in working with textiles, so we want to build on existing skills and support development of new skills. Any work produced will be exhibited to coincide with the Commonwealth Games.
We anticipate that we will be working with three community groups for weekly workshops over six weeks in June and July. We are open to working with an artist who can deliver workshops for all three groups, or three artists working with one group each.
Fee: £1,000 per group (6 sessions at £150 per session, plus £100 planning and liaison)
To apply: Send a CV plus a short paragraph, video or voicenote outlining your interest in the project and how you may approach the brief to hello@artworkshallgreen.co.uk by noon on Monday 16th May.
Save the date!
Art Works Gathering and AGM
The Old Print Works, Friday 8th July, 12noon-3pm
Save the date! Art Works Gathering and AGM The Old Print Works, Friday 8th July, 12noon-3pm
This July we are bringing together creative folk for an afternoon of community and connection. This is a space where artists, makers, community convenors and anyone interested in the power of participatory arts can come together to help build our creative community over a pot-luck lunch. We’ll be asking:
How might we make our neighbourhoods viable places to make and create art?
How might we engage more people in community arts and making?
How might we ensure that local artists can pursue meaningful creative careers?
In the spirit of sharing generously, all attendees are invited to prepare a short (3-4 minute) presentation on their work so we can all get a flavour of what others in our area are up to. More details on the format of the day, plus booking details, will follow soon. In the meantime, do get in touch with ideas or questions.
Art Works commissioned B’Opera to co-create a new musical production with children under five and their families at The Springfield Project in Sparkhill. It was shared in a performance at The Springfield Project in February.
Art Works commissioned B’Opera to co-create a new musical production with children under five and their families at The Springfield Project in Sparkhill.
B’Opera have co-created a new musical production, ‘Hello Bird, Hello Fish!’ with and for children and their families who are users of The Springfield Project Children’s Centre, Mini Springers and Park Road nurseries. Funded through Birmingham City Council’s ‘Next Generation’ fund, the piece was devised through a programme of participatory sessions and was showcased at The Springfield Centre on 22nd February 2022. Families were invited to this special performance to see their ideas in development.
Read more about the whole project, including the process of co-creating the work with pre-school children and their adults and exploring big ideas with little people on our ‘Hello Bird, Hello Fish!’ project page.
Relaxed, interactive and inclusive
Everyone was greeted with free-flow sensory play opportunities with members of the B’Opera team to allow children and their adults time to explore the space, meet the performers and touch some of the props. This was crucial in creating a relaxed, interactive space where everyone was welcomed and made to feel comfortable.
High quality opera in Sparkhill
The playfulness continued as B’Opera began the performance, with some children moving, singing and dancing alongside the performers. The audience was treated to a combination of classical opera, new versions of classical nursery rhymes and a lullaby in Urdu. Characters wore colourful costumes that accentuated each animal’s movements – the gracefulness of fireflies, the elegance of fish or the swooping and swishing of the lost bird.
Space to reflect
The audience was invited to gather for food and reflection following the performance, through informal conversations or adding written comments to the ‘feedback fish’. Some spoke about their own experiences of feeling excluded, through racial or faith based discrimination. Others commented on their parents’ use of lullabies to soothe them as children.
Sarah Robbins, CEO of The Springfield Project, has written a piece (opens as a PDF in a separate window), outlining the value of this project for the community she serves in Sparkhill. Thanks are due to Sarah and all of the staff at The Springfield Project for embracing and facilitating the project throughout.
Where next?
This initial sharing of ‘Hello Bird, Hello Fish!’ is hopefully the first outing for the work – B’Opera hope to develop it further and tour the piece to other children’s centres and community venues. There are plans to include performances as part of this year’s Commonwealth Games Festival programme and The Springfield Project’s Creative Families Festival.
If you are interested in learning more about ‘Hello Bird, Hello Fish!’ or would like to host a performance, contact Zoë Challenor at zoe@bopera.co.uk.
BCAT have a range of events for people looking to develop and enhance their Arts and Health practice.
For more information on ‘Introduction to Arts in Health’, ‘Creative Relaxation Techniques for SEN’ or ‘Introduction to Dance Movement Psychotherapy’ at The Buddhist Centre in Moseley, contact Dawn Durrant on dawndurrant@bcat.info or visit www.bcat.info.
Join this networking event for those exploring arts and health activities in Birmingham.
Join this networking event for those exploring arts and health activities in Birmingham.
Who is it for?
Anyone working in the health and social care sector in Birmingham looking to enhance their knowledge of arts activities which deliver social care outcomes.
Anyone working in the arts sector in Birmingham looking to enhance their social prescribing knowledge, contacts and arts & health good practice.
Join Keith Piper and Gary Stewart for an informal conversation about their experiences of attending the Moseley School of Art and other shared experiences.
About the artists
Gary Stewart is an artist concerned with social and political issues, particularly with reference to history, identity and culture, working across sound, moving image and performance. Collective practice is key to his work using experimental media practices and technologies to explore the unique spaces emerging in public spaces, art galleries and museums formed by the shifting intersections and blurred boundaries between audiences, authorship and participation.
Currently Lecturer in Fine Art (Studio Practice) at Goldsmiths, University of London, he is a founder member of interdisciplinary artist, research and performance group Dubmorphology and Artist Associate at People’s Palace Projects based in the Drama Department of Queen Mary University of London working with activists and academics on projects that address a wide range of social justice and human rights issues.
Keith Piper is a Visual Artist and Associate Professor in Fine Art at Middlesex University London.
His creative practice exists in response to specific issues, historical relationships and geographical sites, and has exhibited nationally and internationally. Piper was a founder member of the Blk Art Group in the early 1980s and during this period he established a research-driven approach prioritising thematic exploration over an attachment to any particular media. His work over the past 40 years has ranged from painting, through photography and installation to a use of digital media, video and computer-based interactivity.
Friction Arts is looking to support three aspiring young journalists to be part of an exciting community journalism project in Digbeth, capturing the voices of people telling us their We Made Birmingham stories, which will feature in digital displays across the city to celebrate the 2022 Commonwealth Games.
Friction Arts is looking to support three aspiring young journalists to be part of an exciting community journalism project in Digbeth, capturing the voices of people telling us their We Made Birmingham stories, which will feature in digital displays across the city to celebrate the 2022 Commonwealth Games.
We will support you to undertake a short five session course in community journalism training that will equip you to be part of our We Made Birmingham team – recording and sharing stories of heritage, community activism and migration from residents of the Digbeth area.
Pictures from Friction Arts 2021 How Were You? community interviews
Training
All training sessions will be held at:
BVSC Centre, 138 Digbeth, Birmingham, B5 6DR.
The first two sessions are on Tuesday 22nd and Wednesday 23rd February, and will run for three hours each, with the choice of a morning slot (10:00am – 1:00pm) or an afternoon slot (1:00pm – 4:00pm).
There will be three additional Saturday training sessions held before Easter. These five x three hour sessions will include:
theory behind conducting an excellent interview
pre-production processes
technical set up of the equipment,
camera techniques
a session led by a working journalist
The Project
During May and June, you will work at least three half days (times and days to be flexibly arranged) as part of a team of three community journalists and a professional caricaturist, using your training to capture the voices of people as they tell us their We Made Birmingham stories. These interviews will then be edited to become Augmented Reality connected to the twenty portraits as part of a touring exhibition to different sites during Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth.
Friction Arts and our commitment to you
Friction Arts is passionate about heritage, interviewing, oral histories and gathering awkward as well as historic stories. We have a long history, of over thirty years working creatively across Birmingham with experience in oral history (training, interviews, editing and distributing) across different digital formats including Augmented Reality, video, recordings, montage and animation.
Not only will we support you with training, travel and refreshment expenses, you will be part of a live community journalism project with Friction Arts, a well established community arts organisation, who will help you to evaluate the experience and then support you in potential opportunities for the future.
Friction Arts have launched a new project called ‘Stir’ and have put a callout for contributors to this new project that shares the joys and complexities of the identities of women of mixed heritage.
Friction Arts have launched a new project called ‘Stir’ and have put a callout for contributors to this new project that shares the joys and complexities of the identities of women of mixed heritage.
What is Stir?
Stir is a platform created by Friction Arts, for women of mixed heritage, to share the joys and complexities of their identities and the journeys that shaped them. As part of a wider community journalism project in Digbeth, Friction Arts is capturing the voices of people telling us their stories of heritage, community activism and migration, which will feature in Birmingham Public Library’s archive. Friction Arts will also be working in collaboration with an award winning female portrait artist to create a series of extraordinary Stir visual portraits reflecting these extraordinary women and their lives.
How will Stir work?
During March Lead Artist Sarah Kaur will lead a series of one to one interviews inviting Stir participants to share how they experience their multiple ethnicities, and how these experiences shaped their identities. These interviews will last around 1 hr and can take place in the home, or at our studio ‘The Edge’.
Stir participants will also be offered the opportunity to take part in a group Zoom meeting to share their ideas for the series of portraits that will accompany the stories – contributing thinking around themes, sets and costumes.
In early April, a small group of Stir participants will meet at our Studio at the Edge to have their portrait realised by an award winning female portrait artist, to create a series of extraordinary visual portraits sensitively reflecting the complexities of mixed heritage identity.
About Friction Arts
Friction Arts has a history of over thirty years working creatively across Birmingham with experience in oral history across different digital formats including Augmented Reality, video, recordings, montage and animation. We are passionate about heritage, interviewing, oral histories and gathering awkward as well as historic stories.
How to get involved in Stir
If you are a woman of mixed heritage with a story rooted in identity to share, we’d really love to hear from you. Please contact Sarah@FrictionArts.com by midday, 27th February 2022 to arrange an informal chat about getting involved with Stir.
The Gap Arts are looking for an emerging/early career arts administrator to join our small creative team at a really important and exciting moment in The GAP’s journey.
Application Deadline – Monday 31st January, 5pm
The Gap Arts are looking for an emerging/early career arts administrator to join our small creative team at a really important and exciting moment in The GAP’s journey.
We need an ambitious, motivated and caring individual to support our core team of artists during this transformational moment. The appointed Arts Administrator will play a crucial role in the successful delivery of our cultural programmes by ensuring the smooth running of the organisation’s daily operations. As a new role, the successful candidate will take responsibility for designing and implementing new administrative systems, working closely with the core team to identify how best to support our activities. We are also offering a package of training to further the successful candidate’s development, which will be tailored to their specific interests and needs.
This role has been created to the support the development of arts leaders who identify as being from an ethnic or cultural minority, as LGBTQI+ and/or disabled.
Ort Gallery have announced a new partnership with two emerging curators.
Ort Gallery have announced a new partnership with two emerging curators.
We are excited to announce that we have partnered with the International Curators Forum (ICF) to appoint 2 emerging curators to work with us and selected artists on a new project called ‘Emergence(y)’ during 2022. Following the turbulent year of 2020 and the ongoing covid crisis, the curators will explore the themes of Emergence, Care and/or Warmth. They will bring their own research interests and working methodology with them and they will also decide how they want to work together or what they want to create, whether that be an exhibition, an event, something online, a partnership with another gallery, or any other format of their choosing.
Orphée Kashala is a Birmingham based curator. His curatorial practice promotes care, inclusion, empathy, equality and understanding by telling stories that explore and challenge our collective perception of the human experience.
Since 2020, Orphée has taken on the role of Creative Producer at Maokwo(a Belgrade Theatre springboard organisation based in Coventry) as part of the young leadership programme for emerging young artists from migrant backgrounds. Currently, Maokwo have partnered with the Herbert Art Gallery and Museum, where Orphée is co-curating an exhibition exploring key national collections, co-organising artists’ lead workshops, developing project ideas and curatorial skills, whilst also co-creating a new provision for artists in Coventry. In September 2021, he curated his first exhibition titled “Survivor’s Guilt” for the Coventry Migrant Centre, as part of Coventry City of Culture; which was an exploration of the bittersweet memories and lived realities of African migrants living in the UK via photography, videography, installation and poetry.
Sarah Francis is a Leeds based Artist Curator who focuses on bringing under-recognised artists and narratives to the public, using empathy and warmth to build self-confidence in creatives left behind by the mainstream system. Fascinated by complex possibilities lying dormant in ‘familiar’ environments, setting a challenging dialogue between cultural identity and the inner worlds which we as artists manifest within our work. This conceptual framework draws parallels between artists from differing socio-cultural worlds, whose work follows similar lines in metaphysical realms. Francis’ interpretation of the curator is that of a caretaker of other worlds, working in collaboration as the tour guide and storyteller, bringing these converging manifestations to our physical spaces.
Francis’ artwork centres around her neurodiverse and queer identity, building her own language and worlds to explore and understand ‘how I made me’; a reference to an early body of work that investigated her inner trauma and re-articulation of her current self. Her work has been shortlisted for the Saatchi Gallery’s Art of Giving Prize, selected by Richard Billingham for Curator’s Choice Noise Young Talent 2009, and recognised in Aesthetica’s 100 Best Contemporary Artists in Europe. In addition to her work, Sarah Francis is the Founder and Director of Aire Place Studios, Leeds.
It’s a really exciting time at Curiosity at the moment, as we start creating and building partnerships across the Black Country and Birmingham, and so we’re looking for three new Kickstart trainees!
18-24 and on Universal Credit? Work with us!
It’s a really exciting time at Curiosity at the moment, as we start creating and building partnerships across the Black Country and Birmingham, and so we’re looking for three new Kickstart trainees!
We need :
💥 2x Creative Projects and Events Assistants
💥 1x Trainee Performer (with Cloud Cuckoo Land Theatre)
The roles are for 25 hours per week, and are at the National Minimum Wage. Find out more about us, Cloud Cuckoo Land and what’s on offer at our website below – and ask your job coach to refer you. The deadline for applications is the Monday24th January, so apply now!
The Play House is recruiting for a new artistic director to take the company on the exciting next step in its journey. They are seeking someone creative, ambitious and determined with a track record of directing, devising and producing education and/or community programmes/performances.
The Play House is recruiting for a new artistic director to take the company on the exciting next step in its journey. They are seeking someone creative, ambitious and determined with a track record of directing, devising and producing education and/or community programmes/performances.
The Play House Theatre in Education Company creates unique and thrilling participatory work delivered in schools and community settings with the aim of creating meaningful participation for every child. Putting young people at the centre of their work, they look to expand children’s aspirations and inspire their curiosity no matter what theme or story they are exploring.
Deadline for Applications: 12pm, Wednesday 19th January
Creating a Commonwealth-wide video celebrating the natural wonders of the Commonwealth through music & art.
Creating a Commonwealth-wide video celebrating the natural wonders of the Commonwealth through music & art.
Musicians, artists, photographers, creatives & composers – every age, ability, instrument & art form welcome!
This video will feature a new piece of music created by Commonwealth musicians, composers & creatives and illustrated by Commonwealth artists & photographers, to demonstrate the variety & wide array of incredible wild & scenic locations around the Commonwealth, celebrating & sharing the diverse environmental riches in the Commonwealth.
A contributor doesn’t have to be a performer – you could be an artist or creative illustrating the video, you could be involved in composing & creating the music, you could be a performer on the video.
Your music could be recorded natural sounds, traditional music from your country or practised performance from notated music provided by us. There are 5 ways to be involved Click on the coloured title for the application page
1) Submit recordings of Indigenous or Traditional Music from Your Commonwealth country (eg ethnic drumming or panpipe groups, Haka, traditional chanting etc) 2) Submit recordings of Sounds of the Natural Worldfrom Your Commonwealth country (eg wind through the trees, bird song, the sounds of the waves & waterfalls)
5) Performer– musicians: instruments & vocals, any instrument, any ability, any age
This will be a Commonwealth celebration of outstanding local nature around the Commonwealth, released in time for The Queen’s Platinum Jubilee weekend in June 2022
FAQ
You must be currently resident in the Commonwealth country of your nationality
Only individuals can apply, no groups
You can be a contributor in any section that you want, you don’t need to pick just one
You must have access to a smart phone or other video recording device or scanner so that you can get your submissions to us electronically
If you are under 18, a Parent or Guardian must sign the permission form for you to be able to participate
Everyone’s submissions will definitely be featured in one of the project’s videos
This is voluntary, all participants will need to sign a release/permission form for their contributions to be used
Award winning company Women & Theatre seeks a highly motivated, experienced individual to join our Artistic team.
Award winning company Women & Theatre seeks a highly motivated, experienced individual to join our Artistic team.
Part-time – 28 hours per week including some evenings and weekends
12 month fixed term contract, with the potential for extension
Salary: £25,000 (Pro Rata)
Women & Theatre is an award-winning theatre company with over 35 years’ experience of working with diverse groups to create exciting drama projects about things that matter. Working in a range of contexts across arts, health and community sectors, our work is united by core values of inclusion and empowerment, giving a voice to those who are not usually heard. We deliver drama activity including workshops, performances and participatory drama projects in a range of settings including theatres, hospitals and community centres. The company also works digitally; delivering creative workshops and projects via platforms like Zoom, and engaging with digital audiences through films and podcasts.
The Lead Artist Practitioner will support the delivery of W&T’s Artistic Vision, working alongside W&T’s core team as well as freelance artists. The role will include some project delivery during evenings and weekends.
The successful candidate will have experience of working with W&T target communities, workshop facilitation, directing, theatre making and project management.
If you have the relevant experience and are interested in working in a friendly, supportive environment, please download an application pack below.
Women & Theatre welcomes applications from all sections of the community. We are particularly interested in increasing the diversity of our team and welcome applications from people of non-white British backgrounds and disabled people who are currently under-represented in our core team.
For anyone working in the health and social care sector in Birmingham looking to enhance their knowledge of arts activities which deliver social care outcomes.
Venue: Midlands Arts Centre, MAC, Cannon Hill Park Birmingham, B12 9QH
When: 10am-4pm, Monday 28th Feb 2022
Who is it for?
Anyone working in the health and social care sector in Birmingham looking to enhance their knowledge of arts activities which deliver social care outcomes.
OPUS (Outdoor Places, Unusual Spaces) are wanting to engage with Community Connectors as part of plans to develop festival sites across Birmingham as part of the Commonwealth Games. A fee of £2,000 is available.
OPUS (Outdoor Places, Unusual Spaces) are wanting to engage with Community Connectors as part of plans to develop festival sites across Birmingham as part of the Commonwealth Games. A fee of £2,000 is available.
We’re creating front rooms to enjoy the Commonwealth Games across Birmingham. If you’d like to help make this happen, we’re looking for community-based organisations to collaborate with to develop the Birmingham 2022 Neighbourhood Festival Sites.
We have a particular interest in speaking to groups from these areas / who work in these areas:
To celebrate the upcoming 2022 Commonwealth Games in Birmingham, six Birmingham schools are working collaboratively in partnership with six schools from Trinidad and Tobago on a project that explores and celebrates the connections and links between our two Commonwealth countries.
To celebrate the upcoming 2022 Commonwealth Games in Birmingham, six Birmingham schools are working collaboratively in partnership with six schools from Trinidad and Tobago on a project that explores and celebrates the connections and links between our two Commonwealth countries.
The Birmingham cluster of schools are Billesley Primary School, Raddlebarn Primary School, Kings Heath Boys’ Secondary, St Bernard’s Catholic Primary School, Highters Heath Primary and Woodthorpe Junior an Infants School.
For our project, we are seeking to commission a printmaker or visual artist to work with a cohort of pupils from each school towards creating a fine art exhibition, and a launch event, that will celebrate Trinidad and Tobago culture. We envisage our chosen artist to be able to facilitate and focus on a different process or medium with each school, for example, textiles, lino, dry point, mono print, different painting processes, collage, or digital art techniques.
Each school will adopt one of the following themes from Trinidad and Tobago to explore and then present through visual art:
– Geography
– Language
– History
– Food
– Climate/ Biodiversity
– Music
– Culture and Carnival
– Sport
By collaborating with the artist, the pupils in each school will contribute to an exhibition that will tell a story of Trinidad and Tobago culture through visual art. The artist will liaise with all stakeholders, and together with the teachers, work towards bringing a high-quality, gallery style, final exhibition together in the summer.
Successful applicants will be accomplished in their professional practice and clearly be able to demonstrate projects within formal education. The total commission is for £5000 (to include travel) at a daily rate of £200 per day. This equates to 4 x days with each of the six schools, a half day to attend planning meetings in January (at least 1 meeting in person with all schools attending) and a further half day for the final event itself. It is anticipated that the schools will be able to supply art materials and/or order anything in that they do not have in stock.
To be considered, applicants must hold an Enhanced DBS Certificate (with barring) or be willing to undergo a new check at their own cost (approx. £50). If you are interested in applying, please email your CV, images of your professional work and work with schools (max email size 7MB) and a paragraph that clearly outlines your skills and your response the brief, to Angie Watson on a.watson@billesleyschool.co.uk by no later than 5th January 2022 at 5pm.
The Birmingham Allotment Project is an exciting new project by General Public exploring the heritage of allotments in Birmingham from the 1960s to the present day.
The Birmingham Allotment Project is an exciting new project by General Public exploring the heritage of allotments in Birmingham from the 1960s to the present day.
Working closely with Birmingham and District Allotment Confederation, allotment associations and plot-holders city-wide, the project will present an alternative social history of Birmingham via its allotment culture. Birmingham has 113 allotment sites, more than any other local authority, and this project aims to inspire, engage and encourage people to learn about allotments, their history and their place in the city today. The project includes:
A major exhibition at the Library of Birmingham from October to December 2023.
Working closely with six local schools to train young people in making oral histories.
Volunteering opportunities: training in how to make oral histories and the chance to help shape the project.
Recording memories and stories: 45 oral histories with plot holders and members of allotment associations.
Creation of a website, publication and Birmingham allotment archive.
An education pack.
A touring exhibition visiting allotment sites.
GET INVOLVED
Please get in touch if you are interested in being included in the project!
Your contributions could feature in:
A project book and website.
An exhibition at the Library of Birmingham in 2023.
Birmingham 2022 Festival, working with GRAIN Projects and Multistory, presents GENERATIONS, taking place in Birmingham and the Black Country, in celebration of the city and region’s communities during the time of the Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games.
Birmingham 2022 Festival, working with GRAIN Projects and Multistory, presents GENERATIONS, taking place in Birmingham and the Black Country, in celebration of the city and region’s communities during the time of the Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games.
The first project of its kind in Birmingham and the Black Country invites four and five generation families to take part and be photographed for exhibition during the Birmingham 2022 Festival, a six month celebration which will spotlight creativity and culture in the West Midlands as part of the Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games.
GENERATIONS celebrates families, individuals, diversity and the people of Birmingham and the West Midlands in large-scale photographic portraiture. Based on the format of the family portrait the artist will use a large format camera to work collaboratively with families of four and five generations from across the region. The photographs will be displayed largescale, will capture details and provoke questions about our life and times.
Artist Julian Germain is seeking to work with four and five generation families from across Birmingham and the Black Country. If you are interested in your family taking part and being photographed for GENERATIONS contact the team at hello@grainphotographyhub.co.uk
The group portraits present people at different stages of life; new-borns, infants, children, teens and their parents, grandparents, great-grandparents and great great-grandparents. Fundamental questions are raised that relate to us all; life, death, time and the effects of time, where do we come from and where will we go?
The project will be exhibited largescale in prominent spaces in the public realm, including on billboards, poster and exhibition sites in the region throughout the Birmingham 2022 Festival.
Running from March to September 2022 as part of the Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games, the Birmingham 2022 Festival will feature hundreds of creative commissions across the region including art, photography, dance, theatre, digital art and more. Find out more and register for the latest updates at birmingham2022.com/festival.
GENERATIONS is generously supported by Arts Council England and National Heritage Lottery Fund.
