My friends can’t understand why I live in Birmingham. My friends live in places like London, San Francisco, New York, Hong Kong; to them, Birmingham might as well be Accrington. It’s a place they won’t think about for the rest of the month.
As a writer on the subject of contemporary art, to me Birmingham is perfectly placed in the centre of contemporary art resources that Londoners would have difficulty discovering, never mind paying attention to. West Midlanders are less than an hour and a half by train from most of the country’s leading contemporary galleries, while a comfortable distance away from the marketing hype of London. Visiting galleries and museums outside the capital is like finding bands that haven’t yet hit the mainstream.
Thankfully our own art gem, the IKON Gallery – Birmingham’s saviour for contemporary art – spoils us with international scope and creative use of venues. It’s a great home base for those of us who thrive on visual art. From here, our options further afield are as easy as starting at New Street Station.
For example, currently touring Britain, pausing at London’s Hayward Gallery for stop number two, is British Art Show 7. BAS 7 made its debut in 2010 in Nottingham, a little more than an hour from New Street Station. Spanning October, November, and December, the Nottingham programme had more exhibition space than the Hayward Gallery provides, which means the wicked-cool Londoners are likely to see a mere survey of what was shown at The Nottingham Contemporary, Nottingham Castle, and Nottingham’s New Art Exchange . If you had gone to Nottingham to see BAS7, you’d have been made aware of Haroon Mirza, who subsequently has won the Northern Art Prize and is featured in ArtReview’s March 2011 issue.
Liverpool. I know what you’re thinking; you’re not driving to Liverpool to watch your car get jacked. Luckily, transportation comes to you, thereby avoiding any contact with the more entrepreneural of the Scouse population. Only 1 hour 30 minutes by train from New Street, Liverpool Lime street itself is only 20 minutes away by foot from international contemporary art: Tate Liverpool. You’ll pass plenty of serious looking pubs and shiny shop fronts before you get there (note to self: when walking back to train, make frequent rest breaks at said points of interest). Tate Liverpool, along with FACT, Blue Coat, the Baltic Triangle and pretty much any empty building in town, showed off international artists at last year’s Liverpool Biennial. All of the venues have currently ongoing exhibits, and each has a cafe with free WiFi for your nimble, micro-blogging, twitter fingers. Also in Liverpool is the John Moores Painting Prize , announced every two years, with finalists presented at The Walker Art Gallery. The Walker is a stone’s throw away from the train station. Keith Coventry’s “Spectrum Jesus” was the winner for 2010, which had to be seen up close to be effective. The Moores Painting Prize also allows for a visitors favourite award, which is historically never the same as the jury’s prize winner.
Oxford, the city with what is the northern version of the British Museum, the Ashmolean, is about an hour by train from New Street. For contemporary art fans, Modern Art Oxford is about a 15 minute walk from the station. Like Birmingham’s IKON Gallery, the MAO changes shows more often than footballers change their team allegiances.
Sheffield: land of silverware. Where would our dinners be without it. Sheffield’s S1 Art Space is only 1 hour 15 minutes away by train, and while not as active as IKON or MAO in their programmes, there is a centre of contemporary art activity. The even number years feature the Sheffield Biennial, while opposite years fill in with S1/Salon, usually a film and video exhibition.
Closer to home, Walsall’s New Art Gallery is less than 25 minutes away. Bob and Roberta Smith, a name more tied to London these days, is currently being exhibited until 20 March. Plus, the building itself deserves respect and recognition. It’s not often a town of just 170,000 people agree to a cubist, modern design in their city planning.
And if you’re really stuck for fun, London is only an hour twenty away by Virgin Train. You’ll have to chance the lively viruses on The Underground, but you’re never far from either of the Tates, or any of the East London galleries that exhibit the more interesting international artists. The good news is that you’ll be back in Birmingham by dinner time.
For international contemporary art, being in the middle is much better than being on the ends.
—————
By David Green
From California, lives and works in Birmingham, writes for Contemporary Monkey.
Nice of you to include a picture of FACT, which I helped co found back in the day, but please, please leave the ‘car jacking’ caricatures back in the jar. They detract from the serious points you make…..
I really like this post!
You could also consider the Nottingham Contemporary.
An hour on the train and very close to the station. I lived in Notts for 4 years and i used to love escaping to his gallery.
But what about Eastside Projects, Grand Union and Vivid? All these spaces are on your doorstep and ‘spoil you with international scope and creative use of venues’ too. Ikon is great – but it’s not alone in the city any more.
Correct me if I’m wrong, and I may well be, but is this article essentially suggesting that a good reason to live in Birmingham is that you can get to other places? Which is not individual to Birmingham, most cities are an hour away from a long list of interesting art galleries aren’t they? Although there are lots of great cultural happenings in Birmingham, it’s a shame the city doesn’t do more to make itself a destination, not a junction!