Lots of things to do in the CiB shop in April

The other day Chris did a brief update on some of the events coming up at the Created in Birmingham shop in the Bullring. That just scratched the surface. Here’s the rundown of what’s currently booked for the rest of month (with apologies to RussL)

Matt Moore will be building Art Detectors in our strange little room for a few weeks and using the space to display that which his machines say is worthy. Here’s a rather silly video which took me by surprise as he seemed so serious when describing it to me.

Matt’s residency (for it is a residency, in that he’ll be resident) will begin with him moving his workshop from his shed to the shop and end with a viewing of the “Gallery of Good Art” submitted by you, yes you, the public. Or it might be something else.

Around the same time we’re hoping to have an exhibition of Birmingham Royal Ballet props and costumes in our upstairs windows. They’re currently haunting the stock room before being used elsewhere so it makes sense to show them off.

Stitches and Hos are in this weekend. Here’s the poster:

The plan, I believe, is to stitch the phrase “Created in Birmingham” in foot-high letters which will be hung along a 10 metre stretch of the shop. To participate simply grab some wool and stitch a stretch which will be subsumed into the whole. DJs for the weekend include Commercially Inviable Records, Fox, Catweasel, Kings Heath Radiophonic Workshop and Heat and Light DJ’s. But it’s not just DJs and cake…

Shady Bard are doing an acoustic set on Saturday 10th from 3-5pm. Here’s them playing Supersonic in 2007:

If you’re a fan of Teh Bard we have the random detritus of their cupboards on sale – badges, CDs, tour flyers and a t-shirt. Yup, just the one.

On Saturday 17th Dave Springer from Inkwell will be running a screenprinting workshop from 11am-5pm. This will involve hands-on screen printing onto t-shirts and you can bring your own shirts. None of your vinyl or heat-transfer malarkey – this will be the real thing.

Immediately after that Rich Batsford will be playing piano for a couple of hours to see us out, specifically tracks from his album Valentine Court which, naturally, is on sale in the shop. Should be the perfect end to a busy Saturday in retail. Here’s Rich doing his thing:

On Sunday 18th Friends of the Earth are running a Swap Shop. I’m not sure exactly how this will work but I guess the idea is you bring stuff you don’t need and take stuff you do. If anyone brings shop fittings, tables and other stuff we need I’m sure the shop will donate some goodies to the pot. (Cheaper than going to IKEA, that’s for sure). More info on this as we get it but here’s a post on the FOE site to keep you going.

Tuesday 20th at 6.30 sees the first meeting of Project Brutal which aims “to create a series of events … that celebrates and captures Birmingham’s Brutal Central Library before it potentially becomes a pile of rubble.”

As we move towards the end of the month it’s getting a little sketchy. I have Blue Whale Studios organising acoustic gigs on Saturday 24th, which I’m guessing will mean people singing with guitars during the day. And then there’s Meet the Artists on Sunday 25th which is something Aaron Andrews (who works Monday – Thursday) is organising on the condition I don’t have anything to do with it. I’ll let him write something about it in his own time.

And that’s about it so far. Remember, the space is there to be used by interesting people doing interesting things. None of the above people have paid for the space. We just ask that they keep the volume reasonable, don’t get in the way of the customers and potentially bring new people into the shop. If you’d like to use the space for something, be it a meet-up or a gig, pop in and have a chat.