One thing I’ve been meaning to do for a while now is a survey of Birmingham’s gallery spaces, from the high-end commercial to the drafty warehouses. In the meanwhile the occasional piece of serendipity will have to suffice, such as this post on Midwest which informs me of the existence of Three White Walls, a gallery in the Mailbox run by Artlounge that’s been open for nearly a year. Here’s their philosophy statement:
Three White Walls Gallery is a free public gallery.
The space has been created as a leading national showcase for contemporary art. The gallery is a joint venture between The Mailbox and one of the UK’s foremost commercial galleries, The Artlounge.
The gallery will be an exciting and progressive art space, one that seeks to contribute to the thriving art scene within Birmingham.
The gallery will exhibit a new collection of work every six weeks, always seeking to provide you with an exhibition to challenge, provoke debate and inspire.
As we encourage our artists that exhibit to express themselves, we hope that you, the public, will engage with the gallery and express your views. It is important to the gallery that visitors feel welcome and comfortable with the space. We value your opinion and would like your feedback as we develop this space as a platform for some of the UK’s leading artistic talents.
Their next exhibition, opening today, is Open Mic which runs until the 29th Jan:
A unique photo exhibition supporting a music project with local schools… Four Birmingham Schools have been taking part in the project aimed at encouraging children to better enjoy the learning process and the school environment through writing their own songs.
Former footballer, Brian Law (QPR, Millwall, and Wolverhampton Wanderers) and grime musician/producer, Dexplicit, visited Schools at Four Dwellings, Great Barr, Hamstead Hall and Aston Manor getting pupils in years 9, 10 and 11 to write their own tracks around the themes of climate change and School/ education.
The children then took part in an ‘open mic’ session with the ten best pieces from across all four schools featuring on a mix tape and music video produced by Dexplicit, to be launched in January along with the exhibition at Three White Walls which showcases photographs taken at the ‘open mic’ sessions.
I went to a great exhibition here last year – thanks for the heads up about the new one!
Three White Walls first opened in June 2006, but in a different space in The Mailbox, reopening in their current spot last May I think it was.
Anyway … they tend to have an eclectic range of exhibitions, so it’s always worth having a look to see what’s there next. A great one last year was Stella Mitchell and Wayne Hemingway’s ‘Land of Lost Content’, a collection of retro kitschness including Spanish wicker donkeys, ancient Amstrads and whiffy old airline chairs. Mitchell and Hemingway did a brief talk about the collection beforehand which was really interesting, so if you can wangle yourself an invite, always try to get along to the Private Views!
Hmmmm, Sceptical. Please have worthwhile art here please… mailing-list please..?
Great ,about time. Birmingham should push itself to be the leading venue for photography.
There are a infinite amount of good photography galleries in London and in the North of England, but Birmingham ? .With the good work done by groups such as Rhubarb Rhubarb we are ideally placed to become the UK’s premier location for photographic galleries and exhibitions.
So well done 3 white walls (can i have my own exhibition now please!)