Birmingham’s Hidden Spaces Unlocked: June 2015

A project by Associated Architects in association with Birmingham Post and RIBA West Midlands, aiming to reveal the secrets hidden behind the façades of Birmingham. They’ve planned a busy month of talks, unique exhibitions and exclusive building tours, leading up to their flagship exhibition at Birmingham Municipal Bank from 20-28th June.

Here are a few of our highlights from their programme of events:

• Invisible Cinema – Walking tour with Ben Waddington, Still Walking, Birmingham City Centre – Tues 9th June 6pm, advance booking required
• How to bring culture to the public – with Shout About Brum and Polaroids and Polarbears, Nest Gallery, Weds 17th June 6pm, advance booking required
• Explore the magnificent Victoria Law Courts, Corporation Street, Sat 20th June 9am-1pm, no need to book for open day
• Beer tasting at Perrott’s Folly with Two Towers Brewery, advanced booking required.

For the full programme check out the full listings on their website.

Take a walking tour of Rowland Emett’s Birmingham on Saturday June 21st:

Frederick Rowland Emett (1906-1990) was a Punch cartoonist who, uniquely, turned his drawings into reality. He built a series of amazing machines in the post-war decades, the most famous of which appeared in Chitty Chitty Bang Bang. Birmingham was Emett’s hometown so this walk – led by Tim Griffiths from the Rowland Emett Society – visits some of the buildings associated with him in the city centre, finishing at the Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery where you can see many of his ingenious contraptions in action.

The event is a collaborative project between Flatpack and the Rowland Emett Society, and runs in conjunction with Marvellous Machines: The Wonderful World of Rowland Emett, currently exhibiting at Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery, until 21st September 2014.

This event also forms part of Love Architecture Festival, a programme of events taking place across June by RIBA West Midlands.

Tickets for the walk are available on the Flatpack website.

“Associated Architects is offering the public a unique opportunity to visit the Grade I listed Curzon Street Station this month, as it opens its doors to play host to an exhibition of Birmingham’s Hidden Spaces. The free exhibition, organised by the Birmingham based practice in association with the Birmingham Post, will run from Saturday 21st to Sunday 29th June 2014 as part of the Royal Institute of British Architects’ (RIBA) national ‘Love Architecture Week’.

The exhibition aims not only to show some of Birmingham’s unique, inspiring and often unusual architecture, but to tell the story of the people who have built, lived and worked in these places. The stunning selection of photography and media will reveal some of the many hidden architectural treasures of the city, which are often behind closed doors, inaccessible to the public.”

Follow @HiddenBrum on Twitter for regular updates.”

Photo by Chris Allen

The University of Wolverhampton opened its doors last weekend to friends, family and the general public to celebrate the work of their students. This has been a tradition in their building since 1969 with over 8,000 students taking part to date. The degree show is on until Saturday 14th June.

The Birmingham Institute of Art and Design Graduate shows are also on until Saturday 14th June with dates and activities varying across location and subject areas, please check the website to find out more. With the main subject areas spanning art, visual communication, fashion & textiles, 3D design, architecture and jewellery – there is a lot to go and see.

Staffordshire University’s annual Art and Design show opens Friday 13th June and will be open to everyone until Saturday 21st June. The show is a celebration of a range of work across their Art & Design courses. To find out more about ‘Show & Tell’ please visit their website.

We hope that the graduate shows for University of Worcester and Coventry University went well and wish all the Art & Design students the best of luck! We look forward to seeing your work.

 Raw Beauty: a new life for Brutalist buildings

A day school exploring the future for British Brutalist buildings, in celebration of Birmingham Library, with expert historians and critics ( Barnabus Calder, Ross Brown, Alan Clawley and Andy Foster ); Preston Bus Station and Sheffield’s Park Hill estate case studies introduced by campaigners, Urban Splash, and architects Hawkins Brown; a Brutalist guided walk (Owen Hatherley); all you need to know about concrete conservation (Catherine Croft); listing considerations (Roger Bowdler, English Heritage); and a celebration picnic at the ‘amazing spaceship of a bulding that in 30 years time our kids will be looking at photographs and saying “what happened to that”‘? – Birmingham Library.

The Brutalism Day School is being held on 28th June at the BMI. Places need to be booked through the 2oth Century Society.

Organised by: Friends of Birmingham Library in association with the C20Society WM Group and the Twentieth Century Society, London

We’re really excited to hear that Birmingham Architecture Festival is making a return this spring, after its successful first festival which was scattered across Birmingham last May. Excerpts from their PR email to us:

The festival ethos stems from the notion that no matter how long we have been inhabitants of a certain place, there is always something new to discover. We are putting on a programme of events which are designed to ‘inspire the public, creative communities, construction professionals and architects alike to engage with the city in fun, inventive and thought-provoking ways.’

We’re working together with Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery and Barber Institute of Fine Art to put on some architecturally inspired family workshops. In addition to our range of tours, workshops and exhibitions, we will also be installing some public art around the city, some with the support of Colmore Business District. We will be announcing details nearer the time!

The festival is collaborating with a number of entities within Birmingham including Staying Cool, Barber Institute of Fine Art, Sara Preisler Gallery, Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery, Birmingham Conservation Trust and many more. Not only are we enjoying collaborating with these great creative people, we also hope that making these links add strength to the festival.

The festival will take place between Friday 23rd and Monday 26th May 2014.

For more information keep your eyes on:

Birmingham Architecture Festival is happening this weekend – their launch party is in fact tonight. Here is a small selection of CiB’s highlights/recommendations, but do be sure to read up on the programme yourself to see what other activities you could be getting up to this weekend.

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KINO 10 are showing a series of short films over the weekend at Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery. They’re all building related (of course) and feature shorts that explore Brutalist architecture, Urban explorers, the invasion of New York City by Space Invaders, MACE footage of Birmingham in the 1970s, and Billboard artists, amongst others.

On Saturday, KINO 10 are showing an exclusive intimate screening of ‘one of the best documentaries of the last decade’, You’ve Been Trumped, at 6/8 Kafé at 7.45pm.

Funny, inspiring and heart-breaking, the film brings to light the appalling way Trump abused the residents of the estate, destroyed an ecosystem and broke promises he never intended to keep.

KINO 10 have some special events coming up over the next few months, so keep an eye out for them – you’ll probably hear first on their twitter.

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Still Walking have a Material World Tour on Monday at 3pm

I went on two of Ben’s walks as part of Flatpack festival and loved them both, and I absolutely recommend Still Walking events. Tickets are £5 – really good value.

Every inch of the town and city around us has been designed, shaped and has a job to do. Material World examines the urban fabric of Birmingham to tell the story of the city, its natural resources and changing building methods, and provides a fascinating insight into the movement of valuable material around the world.

Worth noting, Still Walking are having a microfestival the weekend after this one, Friday 31st May – 2nd June.

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Pinhole Camera workshop with Matt & Pete’s Photoschool

It runs from 9.30am 5.30pm and costs £40.00. For that you get to make a camera out of a shoebox and take 10 photos which we’ll develop on-site at the Old Joint Stock theatre by Birmingham Cathedral. The photos will then be exhibited at 6/8 Kafe on Monday.

You can win a place on this – they’ve had a cancellation and the person doesn’t want a refund, so they’re giving their ticket away.

To enter, email the answer to this question to info@photo-school.co.uk  by 6pm today (Friday.)

Pinhole cameras derive from the Camera Obscura.

Where is the largest Camera Obscura in the world located?

Take a look at Matt & Pete’s Photoschool website to see what other courses they run.

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Whilst we’re here: THSH’s free interactive digital installation, Universe of Sound – The Planets starts this weekend at the Municipal Bank. They had their launch event last night (Thursday 23rd) and I’ve heard really good things about it. The team were invited along but none of us could make it – we’ll definitely be checking it out next week.

“The Birmingham Architecture Festival is a welcome addition to Birmingham’s burgeoning independent festival scene and will hopefully do for architecture what Flatpack does for film, Fierce for performing arts and Supersonic for music – shake things up and get us to appreciate the structure of our city with fresh eyes.”

Pete Ashton – Matt and Pete’s Photo School

“Birmingham Architecture Festival has created a package of events to re-awaken Birmingham’s building users, and that’s everyone. BAF’s smart move is to show that architecture is not just about ‘building buildings’, rather it’s about how people live their lives.”

Ben Waddington – Still Walking Festival

If you want this to happen and think it’s a good idea – make an investment.

You can read more about the BAF, including their aims of the festival, what to expect etc, on their kickstarter page.

A new festival makes it debut this year, celebrating the second city’s structures, with everything from the heights of the skylines to the hidden corners. The Birmingham Architecture Festival will be running from the 24th to 27th of May, with the theme ‘Take a Second Look’. This independent festival will span across the city and will take your on tours to the lesser known (and even secret) spots, as well as some of the centre’s well known favourites. All this explored through a multitude of lectures, exhibitions and workshops.

So far events include a Pinhole Camera Workshop with Matt and Pete’s Photo School, Wild Walls Tour looking at the planet and wildlife that in habits the city;s structures and a Derelict Buildings Tour. Loads more events can be found on their page, with plenty more to be announced.

Keep up to date with the latest on their Twitter and Facebook, and if you’re interested in getting involved then find out more here or go to the contact page.

Really excited about this, so we’ll be sure to update you with more information as it comes out.

It’s hard to believe that such a beautiful building has stood empty for so long; watching people exploring and soaking up the atmosphere was really great. The main foyer hosts a specifically commissioned sound piece by Elly Clarke. From here you can sit and listen to the audio which is a collection of interviews recorded with former employees of the bank. They give you an insight into the stories, history and personality of the bank.

The offices off the main foyer house four further pieces, all based on commerce, current economical issues, up-cycling objects and investment, by Tom Crawford, Caitlin Griffiths, Nicole Wilson and Library of Birmingham Archives.

One of my favourite pieces of the exhibition was The National Debt Project by Nicole Wilson. Wilson finds at least one penny a day on the streets of America and since August 2009 has sent her found change via certified mail to the Bureau of the Public Debt. The exhibition is made up of a selection of her correspondences, all of which are copied to President Barack Obama, with pennys taped to them and a story of where she found her pennys that day!

Next to the offices is a small table with a stack of postcards asking visitors to draw or describe what they wish for the Municipal Bank. Some of the suggestions that caught my eye were an ice rink, a non commercial space for exhibitions, performances and events and also an Arts Bank of Birmingham.

What would you wish for the Municipal Bank?

The basement of the bank houses an installation by Ellie Harrison titled History of the Financial Crises that re-enacts the history of the crises over the last century. The frenzied moments of crisis are relived, in chronological order, using popcorn and popcorn machines. Also down in the basement you will be asked if you would like to ‘invest’ £2. This gives you a personal number that corresponds to a safety deposit box inside the vaults where you will find a limited exhibition print by one of the contributing artists. Being able to walk around the vault, look at the safety deposit boxes AND walk away with a limited exhibition print is well worth the £2 investment!

The event is curated by Charlie Levine / TROVE in associate with Aedas Presents, Birmingham Architects Association and Birmingham City Council/Library of Birmingham. It is open 12 – 5pm from Friday 15th March to Sunday 17th March and is free entry.

The aims of Thrift Radiates Happiness are

“to present high quality, accessible art in an amazing surrounding…to be a platform for future projects”

I hope this is the first of many Thrift Radiates Happiness exhibitions.