RoguePlay, founded in 2009, can most likely be found hanging from a trapeze, or silk, balancing, lifting or throwing one another, all while speaking a monologue, singing a song or playing the accordion.

Every year they like to showcase their new routines and skills from trapeze, to hoop solo and silks. With aerial acts, music and drinks the Aerialist Showcase tickets are charged at £5.00 with all proceeds going back into the theatre company with the aim of buying curtains for their new space.

To find out more about RoguePlay Theatre visit their site where you can also book tickets.

The deadline for submissions was early January and the Wild at Heart team received over 275 potential owl designs. Artists are gradually being confirmed for the project and most recently Stourbridge graffiti artist, Lee Woods has been commissioned to design an owl. Lee exploded into the world of graffiti and took on the persona Mac1 in the early 1990’s.

Lee has created a powerful, gritty inspired circular design on a 165cm tall owl statue and at the centre is an all-encompassing and incredibly powerful eye, something he describes as ‘the corridor to knowledge’.

The Big Hoot is going to be a fantastic celebration of art and I’m thrilled to be a part of it. The coming together of artists across a breadth of different disciplines is really refreshing and will create a really exciting trail for the city. Lee

You can find out more about the project here and we will keep you up to date when more artists are confirmed.

ATRESBANDES theatre company from Barcelona, begin a UK tour of their award winning show Solfatara at mac Birmingham on 9th October. They have strong links with Birmingham: creating a new piece in residence here after winning the Jury prize and the Audience prize at BE festival back in 2012.

Solfatara is a geological term for vents in volcanic terrain that emit hot, sulphurous gases. The piece explores the idea that we are also full of these phenomena, orifices that allow our insides to come to the surface. A row over puff pastry causes a young couple’s frustrations to erupt with catastrophic honesty, as a masked figure dares them to voicing their true feelings. Performed in Spanish with English surtitles, the translation takes on a subversive life of its own.

What’s not to like about that?

Tickets via the mac’s website. More about ATRESBANDES on their website.

Birmingham Literature Festival

This week Birmingham Literature Festival have released their full programme, running from 2-11 October 2014. For updates and news follow them here.

Fierce Festival

The Fierce Festival programme is also now live, running from 2-12 October 2014. They recommend joining their mailing list for updates.

Plastic Fantastic at Ikon Gallery

On Saturday 23rd August join Ikon Gallery for an hour-long 80s inspired jewellery workshop by Working Clasp. Book online or call Ikon Shop on 0121 248 0711.

The Gloaming Tales at mac birmingham

An Artist Rooms Project, The Gloaming Tales is going to be a spellbinding night of myth and legends told by storytellers around the campfire during the most magical time of day, twilight. Find out more here.

Glug Birmingham

We are on the final countdown to Glug, with less than a week to go! This week we have been sending out more flyers and beer mats, folding programmes and also released a promo video by Created in Birmingham’s Finlay Bell. It’s not too late to book tickets, visit the website to book.

Glug Birmingham: Midland Masters [PROMO] from Inkygoodness on Vimeo.

Local artists create edible flag to mark Indian Independence Day

Local artists Alexandria Robinson-Sutherland and Lexx Carby of Uneek Walls worked with ingredients at Birmingham wedding caterer and restaurant, Itihaas, to adorn the four-foot canvas. Using turmeric, basmati rice and coriander leaves the artists created the edible flag to mark Indian Independence Day.

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.

The iconic building in Bournville was originally a gift to George and Elizabeth Cadbury by employees from Cadbury factories around the world to celebrate their silver wedding anniversary.

BVT would like creative interpretations of the Rest House. It can be anything from a painting, a cake or a photograph. Watch their Craft Competition video for ideas on which craft to use!

The deadline for entries is 7th April 2014 and the winners will be announced at a centenary celebration on 12th April.

To submit your ideas visit the BVT Website to find out more.

In other Bournville related creative news:

Rowheath Drama Workshop have a free production of ‘Pressure Points’ at Rowheath Pavilion on Weds 16th & Thurs 17th April at 7.45pm, here’s the flyer:

The event will run 7.30pm – 9.00pm, Tuesday 1st April at The Library of Birmingham and tickets are £6-8 available here.

Writing West Midlands will also introduce their Literary Map of the West Midlands that highlights the talent across the region. The map was designed/illustrated by Kerry.

We commissioned the map because it’s our ambition to make sure the West Midlands is known as a writer’s region. We’re passionate about celebrating the writing of the West Midlands, both past and present.

Abigail Campbell, Acting Programmes Director

There is an incredible programme of events planned for the new season including Birmingham Independent Book Fair on April 12th at Ikon Gallery and we look forward to telling you about upcoming events for the new season.

For more information about Writing West Midlands take a look at their website, follow them on twitter or like their page on facebook.

Writing West Midlands produce the Birmingham Literature Festival, and today (March 31st) is the last day to submit your 2014 event proposals – you need to send them by 5pm. 

• mac
• Barber Institute of Fine Arts
• Ikon
• RBSA Gallery
• Eastside Projects

Hop aboard the bus as it travels around the city, all while enjoying a mince pie and glass of wine at selected galleries.

Some of the galleries taking part in Art Bus were featured in our brief CiB exhibitions round-up last week, including the launch of Trade Show at Eastside Projects, and Tim Johnson, David Tremlett, Amikan Toren and Dean Kelland exhibitions at Ikon Gallery.

Visit the galleries’ websites (linked above) to find out more information about current exhibitions for each of the venues.

The Art Bus will run from 5 – 9pm and a schedule of the bus times can be found here.

The best thing about Eye Candy Festival is that it is all free and will be featuring work by a range of creative favourites such as Jeremyville, Kristian Jones and Miss Led. I am most looking forward to the Vintage Mobile Cinema and hope to attend ‘Sign Painters the movie‘ on Friday evening as well as trying to find one of Kristian Jones 15 limited edition pieces of artwork that he will be leaving around Southside.

The full programme can be found here and the Eye Candy website is continually updated with more news and exciting announcements about the weekend.

With the launch party happening tomorrow I caught up with Michelle Turton, one of the contributors at this years Eye Candy Festival, to find out about her involvement.

Michelle, who most recently featured in ‘1000 Portraits’, is one third of the trio of illustrators who are adorning Unity House with their work this year alongside Vicky Newman who is a freelance contemporary illustrator specialising in drawing, screen printing and generally getting her fingers inky and Louise Brangwin who enjoys using a mixture of traditional printmaking techniques and line drawings alongside digital tools. Their work shares a common theme which they thought would be perfect to adorn and decorate Bromsgrove Street’s Unity House.

Having been a part of last years Eye Candy Festival through her role in the Inkygoodness Sketch event at Le Truc, Michelle knew that when Eye Candy Festival came around again that she would want to be involved.

Eye Candy provides a great opportunity for local creatives to meet up and network as well as showcase their work alongside other industry heavyweights on both a local and national scale. Out of all the commissions available we were hoping for ‘Unity House’. It’s a beautiful building and to adorn it with a series of illustrations we felt would show it a bit of love, care and attention. Having researched the venue we decided to take inspiration from the buildings former usage and have produced a series of panels telling the story of the buildings varied past from the Victorian era through to the 1980’s.

Above is a sneak preview of the work that will feature on Unity House at the weekend.

For Eye Candy Festival updates be sure to follow them on Twitter and don’t forget to check the website out for updates of what is happening when and where!

Submissions are now open for Flatpack 8 and this year a new category has been added – the medium length film (defined as between 20 – 40 minutes). Alongside this category, the films under 20 minutes category is also now open. The best film from each category will be awarded £1000 and will feature in the programme for Flatpack 8. More information about submitting your work is available on the site.

The deadline for submissions is 6pm on Friday 29th November 2013. For those not interested in submissions, look out for the programme schedule which will be announced in February 2014. Make sure to follow Flatpack on twitter for updates!