AREA GUIDE > NEW CULTURE EDITION

For the third year in a row we have teamed up with New Art West Midlands to present a special culture edition of Area Guide.

Featuring a wealth of new graduate talent New Art WM chooses the best of the graduate shows to present 4 unique curated exhibitions of work that focuses on cross-art forms. This year the exhibitions, which start this month, will take place at Wolverhampton Art Gallery, mac birmingham, Birmingham Museum & Art Gallery and Herbert Museum & Art Gallery, Coventry.

This edition also features upcoming exhibitions, festivals and cultural events taking place from now until May.

Read the edition online here or pick up an issue at the venues mentioned above.

Fierce Festival – 7-11 October

Eight UK premieres form part of this year’s Fierce Festival which includes a signature mix of ground-breaking live art, music, dance, installation and parties.

Audiences are invited to ‘Sleep with a Curator’ at Eastside Projects; bring a sleeping bag and spend a night in the Digbeth gallery before enjoying a communal breakfast. Curator Gavin Wade will join in the sleepover, reading a selection of bedtime stories and cooking bacon pancakes in the morning.

In Happiness Forgets, performer Season Butler will re-enact the opening sequence of all seven series of 1990s TV classic The Cosby Show, which feature the Huxtable family doing a series of dance moves.

The DJ Who Gave Away Too Much Information sees the Canadian company PME-ART sharing personal stories connected to their vinyl collection during a ‘listening party’ at COW Vintage clothing store in Digbeth.

2015 marks the last year for the festival Directors Laura McDermott and Harun Morrison who are moving on to new things. “This year’s Fierce Festival will have a celebratory feel to it.” Commented Laura. “We are making our Festival Hub at BOM, a really exciting new space for art, science and technology near New Street Station.  Across the city there will be dance on a car park roof, parties in warehouses and a chance to sing karaoke to a video made by a Turner Prize winning artist.”

MUCHO BRUMCHA > 26-27 September, Centenary Sq Birmingham

Vibrant colour will sweep through Centenary Square as families are invited to join Birmingham’s very own Day of the Dead celebration as part of the city’s Birmingham Weekender on the 26th & 27th September. Performers, music and all-age workshops will be available from 11am to 6pm each day.

The Big Hoot – Until 27 September

If you’ve been in and around Birmingham’s centre and suburbs over the last few weeks then you might have noticed a few new additions to the usual cityscape. The city has become home to 89 colourful owls which are part of The Big Hoot and are helping raise money for the Children’s Hospital.

Decorated by illustrators, graffiti artists, printmakers and graphic designers visitors are being encouraged to follow the feathered trail and enjoy beautiful open spaces, inspiring buildings and Birmingham’s cultural heritage along the way. Help is on hand with the free ‘The Big Hoot’ app which you can use to keep track of the owls and unlock rewards.

Hiroshige’s Japan: 53 Stations of the Tokaido Road

Works by 19th century artist Utagawa Hiroshige, showcasing the landscape along Japan’s major highway between the cities of Edo and Kyoto, are visiting Wolverhampton Art Gallery courtesy of Oxford’s Ashmolean Museum of Art and Archaeology.

53 Stations of the Tokaido Road features travellers and Samurai warriors journeying along the famous route and offers a rare chance to see some incredible Eastern artworks.

The images, made from woodblock prints, were ground-breaking at the time due to their depiction of Japan’s striking landscapes, its quirky travellers and the variety of weather extremes people encountered along the route.

Hiroshige’s Japan: 53 Stations of the Tokaido Road
Wolverhampton Art Gallery
Until 21 November

BIRMINGHAM WEEKENDER – AREA’s top picks for 25-27 September

Birmingham’s ‘Super September’ comes to a finale with the Birmingham Weekender and a stunning gathering of performance, visual arts and street food alongside the opening of the city’s revamped train station and shopping mecca; Grand Central.

Cannon Hill Art School Summer Show, 18 July – 6 September

Cannon Hill Art School Summer Show
Sat 18 Jul – Sun 6 Sep | First Floor Gallery | Tue-Sun 11am – 6pm | Free

For one term only curator Trevor Pitt in partnership with mac birmingham set up its very own art school – the Cannon Hill Art School.

As part of their attendance students are preparing to exhibit their final projects at the inaugural Cannon Hill Art School Summer Show.

 

BIRMINGHAM WEEKENDER – Volunteers wanted

Between 25 – 27 September 2015, the city centre will come alive for an extraordinary weekend of high quality outdoor arts called Birmingham Weekender. Including independent street food traders, plenty of city fashion and style events and also the Rugby World Cup games at Villa Park, there’s never been so much going on in Birmingham!

Building on the success of 4 Squares Weekender and produced and coordinated by the same team, nearly all events will be free including our own Mucho Brumcha: Day of the Dead fiesta – a great day out for families and friends!

Robert Davies: Of Time and the Railway at mac

Robert Davies
Of Time and the Railway
Saturday 4 July – Sunday 20 September 2015
Arena Gallery
Open daily, 11am – 6pm* | Free admission

This is a film about the railway line between Birmingham and Aberystwyth. The journey, filmed from the driver’s cab of the train, has been recorded weekly over twelve months so that the changing human geography of the industrial and farming landscape is complemented by the physical changes that emerge over the seasons.   Take this film train journey – a train journey familiar to so many of us living here – and pass through the changes of both a day and a year…

Originally from Birmingham, Robert Davies is an artist living and working in Tre Taliesin, near Aberystwyth. Of Time and the Railway will be shown at selected galleries along the train route between the Midlands and Wales.

Artist Talk: Robert Davies
Tuesday 18 August, 7pm | £3 | Hexagon Theatre
Join artist Robert Davies for further insight into his film Of Time and the Railway, a piece of work that was 86 days in the making.

*Please note the Arena Gallery may be closed on occasion. Please refer to the website before you travel to avoid disappointment, or call 0121 446 3232.

Digbeth First Friday – JULY

The sun is out for Digbeth First Friday which takes place tonight (3rd July) – here’s a list of all the things the venues have going on from this afternoon through to 11pm tonight!