Digbeth comes alive on the first Friday of each month with exhibitions, late-night openings, special events, culture in unexpected spaces, live music, street food and more.

Here’s what’s happening this evening:

• FOODlab at Vivid Projects, 7-9pm For one night only Kaye Winwood, in collaboration with chef Chris Hughes, will be creating FOODlab, a pop-up food laboratory at Vivid Projects in response to sci art exhibition Silent Signal.
• The Cobalt Blue Show at The Bond, 6-9pm A selection of work from some of the members of The Cobalt Blue Group. Featuring work from Zarina Keyani, Alexi K, Steve Evans, Jeannie Brown, Kay Bainbridge, Paul Hirst, Wayne Attwood, Stephen Earl Rogers.
• First Friday Frolics with Artists on the Edge, 8-11pm Come along to The Edge for a chilled out evening of food, drink & music. Cabaret includes Shokunin, Tin Can Choir, Seb Hau-Walker and a special skype guest.
• Performance as Publishing at Eastside Projects, 7-8.30pm, Take One / Take Two / Take Three is a broadcast project by Performance as Publishing hosted at Eastside Projects and broadcast by This is Tomorrow. This is the second of three events.
• Pop-up Performers Café at Digbeth Community Garden, 5-8pm. The Real Junk Food Project and Naked Lungs have combined to create an evening of food, words, music and drinking. Pay as you feel.
• Flatpack Festival at Digbeth First Friday, Centrala, 6pm, 7pm & 8pm rolling programme. “We’ve carefully selected some of the best shorts from this years programme to whet your appetite for Flatpack’s Birmingham take-over later in April. Given the date, there will be an emphasis on the daft / funny side of the lineup.”
• True or False at Stryx, 6-8.30pm. Investigating notions of intentional creation or accidental genius, Alekx Wojtulewicz invites you to determine which of his performances are which.

Arts Connect West Midlands has launched a Development Programme for Early Career Practitioners whose practice involves working with children and young people. They are offering up to £2,000 to support development opportunities. Find more information on their website.

What is the Arts Connect Development programme?

ACWM are inviting professional development proposals from early career artists, individual practitioners and organisations whose practice involves working with best casino slots to play children and young people. We recognise that individual practitioners and smaller independent organisations are a crucial part of the cultural ecology for young people but there are limited opportunities to support professional learning.

Find out eligibility, and more info on the Arts Connect West Midlands website.

It’s Digbeth First Friday!

Digbeth comes alive on the first Friday of each month with exhibitions, late-night openings, special events, culture in unexpected spaces, live music, street food and more.

Here’s a round-up of what’s happening this evening across Digbeth:

• First Friday Frolics for Calais at The Edge – Cabaret: Tall tales, enigmatic characters & merriment from Orchestra or Not, Dr Ethics, Anna Palmer & Leon Trimble and Leon Priestnal
• One in Four at The Bond – Multi Arts Festival celebrating the positive impact of creativity in Mental Well-Being. Featuring: The Well-being Community Choir, Musical Connections, ADHD, Elmo Sexwhistle, Random Acts of Recovery Arts Workshop with Birmingham Craftivists
• 9 EVENINGS: Breathing & Staring – Vivid Projects presents the first collaboration between Darren Joyce, George Saxon and Justin Wiggan. Drawing on their recent groundbreaking projects with the health sector, the artists present new research exploring empathy, nostalgia and recall through audio, performance and film
• Display show and Flore Nové-Josserand ‘City Growth Blues‘ – In the main gallery at Eastside Projects ‘Display Show’ includes works by Céline Condorelli, Charlotte Cullinan & Jeanine Richards, Koenraad Dedobbeleer, Leeds Weirdo Club, Goshka Macuga, Rita McBride, Eilis McDonald, Nathalie du Pasquier, Amalia Pica, Yelena Popova, Haim Steinbach, Gavin Wade, Nicole Wermers and Christopher Williams and in the second gallery they present ‘City Growth Blues’ by Flore Nové-Josserand
• Emma Hart: Big Mouth – Join Grand Union after hours, Emma Hart has created some bespoke cocktails inspired by her practice which will be available for you to enjoy at the bar while you explore her sculptural and audio works that want to tell you how it really is and how it really feels
• Edible Eastside HOME GROWN COOKS – Join Edible Eastside for their end of Summer event. They are offering free beer and cocktails with garden inspired snacks (botanical tempura, home made vegetable crisps, meze style dips) to anyone who makes a pledge towards their crowd funding campaign, HOME GROWN COOKS
• Conversio at Centrala – “Conversio” by Malgorzata Davidek is a multi-element textual and visual narration based on the stories of migrant women. During her residency, artist’s worked with the migrant women of Birmingham all of different ages, ethnic backgrounds, languages, who for economic, health, family or other reasons they have left their home countries
• Soup: PTII residency – Soup: PTII is an interdisiplinary artist residency based at Stryx, Birmingham. The residency awards emerging artists in the West Midlands the opportunity to work for 8 weeks in the heart of Digbeth, giving artists uninterrupted time and space to develop their projects

More about Digbeth First Friday on the website.

It’s that time again! Digbeth comes alive on the first Friday of each month with exhibitions, late-night openings, special events, culture in unexpected spaces, live music, street food and more. Digbeth First Friday runs across Digbeth from 6pm ‘til late.

A few events:

• Sparrow + Castice and Juneau Projects at A3 Project Space 4-8pm
• Birmingham Camera Obscura unveils its new camera at Minerva Works 5-8.3pm
• Dissidents and Dreamers exhibition at Centrala 6-11pm
• THIS IS WHAT A FEMINIST LOOKS LIKE at Stryx 6.30-8.30pm
• First Friday Frolics with Artists on the Edge, Friction Arts 8pm-2am

Full events list on their website www.digbethfirstfriday.com or follow them on social media for updates: @digbethfirstfri #digbethfirstfriday

Findings of the West Midlands 24 Hour Culture Survey are out and can be found here.

Plans for the West Midlands include 48 arts organisations and three Major Partner Museums.

One new organisation joining the West Midlands portfolio is BE Festival, an international theatre showcase.

Black Country Living Museum is a new Major Partner Museum in the West Midlands, joining Ironbridge and Birmingham Museums Trust.

The six organisations being offered a higher level of funding to achieve specific aims are:

• 2Faced Dance Company
• Birmingham Royal Ballet
• DanceXchange
• Ex Cathedra
• Motionhouse
• Sonia Sabri Company

There are three organisations from the West Midlands leaving NPO. From what I gather, those are Big Brum, Rhubarb Rhubarb (which has been in hiatus since 2011, following the sudden and long-term illness of Rhonda Wilson, MBE — its founding CEO and creative force) and Tindal Street Press (formerly based in Birmingham. Since 2012, it has been an imprint of Profile Books Ltd.)

Here are a selection of happy tweets I’ve seen in my feed today:

Excellent news for @Multistory – a further 3 years #NPO funding from @ace_national – we’re happy!

— Multistory (@Multistory) July 1, 2014

We are pleased to announce we remain an @ace_national #NPO 2015-2018 – ^MSp

— mac birmingham (@mac_birmingham) July 1, 2014

Great news for #jazzlines continuing as an Arts Council NPO http://t.co/xJcJ4h7Rik @THSHBirmingham — Mary Wakelam Sloan (@mmmury) July 1, 2014

We’re delighted that DanceXchange will again be an NPO in 2015-18, and that @IDFB is now included in our funding… http://t.co/aZmhIQhBrw — DanceXchange (@dancexchange) July 1, 2014

Congratulations to @SoniaSabriCo @nutkhutuk & all others who have been successful in securing @ace_national #NPO funding. — Sabra Khan (@sabrakhan) July 1, 2014

Delighted that our #NPO status has been maintained for 2015-2018. We are grateful to @ace_national for their ongoing support. Thank you. — Fierce Festival (@fiercefestival) July 1, 2014

I am relieved to say that Black Country Touring has retained its NPO funding at the same level. Fingers crossed for friends & colleagues — Steve Johnstone (@stevebct) July 1, 2014

Five years of collective passion, sweat & imagination. A city-wide, Europe-wide, sector-wide collaboration. @befestival is an #NPO. — Mike Tweddle (@mike_twed) July 1, 2014

Today’s NPO news gives Redeye the thumbs up for a new Lightbox course to start this autumn http://t.co/r66RFnzmxj #NPO #artsfunding

— Redeye (@RedeyeNetwork) July 1, 2014

And the not so happy … 

Big Brum cut from Arts Council National Portfolio. Surprised and saddened – see statement on http://t.co/epOts2FMFJ#NPO#ACEfunding — Big Brum Theatre (@Big_Brum) July 1, 2014

You can check out the stats for yourself on the Arts Council England website, and just the NPOs in the West Midlands on this spreadsheet I uploaded to Google Drive.

Credit to Polaroids and Polarbears for some of the stats info – and thanks to Jenny Duffin from Birmingham Loves Photographers for her help.

Last Wednesday I was invited to visit ‘Bryant Priest Newman Architects‘, located at 3 Mary Street in the Jewellery Quarter. Sleek and striking, the building has played host to a series of Birmingham based artists including; Ed Wakefield, Jane Tudge, VOID Group Show, Stuart Layton, Sam Brookes and will soon be expecting Karen McLean. These artists were all selected to take part in a program set up by ‘Three’ , generously funded by the Arts Council England, this flourishing 9 month project has provided a succession of wonderful exhibitions.

Sam Brookes is the fifth artist to take part in this exciting program and has been making use of Three’s studio space having presented his exhibition, ‘The Soft Machine’ on the 24^th of April, which will be running until the 9^th of May. Having read about his intricate illustrations I was excited to see the complex figures up close. Peering around the corner of Caroline Street, BPN Architects’ large glass window glistened at me to come over and with the reference to Kafka’s ‘Metamorphosis’ already ringing in my mind I started wondering through ‘The Soft Machine’, looking forward to meeting and interviewing Sam Brookes.

JD – “How do you feel about the way you’ve exhibited your illustrations and that they are without a written narrative?”

SB – “I prefer it. I like the way that there is no narrative, but people can kind of build a narrative as they see it. Whatever I might have been thinking about at that time becomes totally different once it’s out of my control. It’s not in control of anything and the work is just at the whim of everyone else. Everyone has their own thing that they might see, think about or even just be interested in some part of it. It all might be similar to me or different, but I think that’s what is interesting really.

I struggled doing images with words. I found it difficult and in some ways it felt a bit stifling but I think it was probably a bit of anxiety whilst at Uni, working alongside deadlines, but it was good to do because it allowed me to develop technical skills and practice them a lot. Spending time in the library was also good because I got to read a lot of different books and I found a lot of influences there.”

JD – “So there’s a reading process behind it that is still important to you?”

SB -“Yeah, I don’t always read a whole book – I’ll read say bits and then that’ll work its way into the work. So with William Burroughs; with his bugs, centipedes and insects – things like that there is the imagery that comes up anyway. I don’t understand him too much because he’s very complex but you have to go with it, with ‘The Cut Up’ writings.” (The Cut Up trilogy consists of; ‘Soft Machine’, ‘The Ticket That Exploded’ and ‘The Nova Express’)

“But yeah, it influences it but it doesn’t take a huge control over the work. I don’t read something and really concentrate on a part of it; it just maybe vaguely influences it.”

JD – “When did you first define what you do as illustration?”

SB – “I don’t know if it’s defined as illustration… because I did a degree in it I was taught in that certain way, so I was surrounded by it but I don’t know if they are strictly illustrations – they border it a bit. It’s hard to define. There’s an overlap of all practices; so graphic design, fine art, illustration and photography and then there’s middle grounds where they integrate. Its’ hard to really tell which one is which. The place where I studied was very renowned for children’s books and I just couldn’t do it – which was probably detrimental to me!

I couldn’t do children’s books because every time I tried to draw something, I ended up doing something that looked pretty gross! It was also difficult because there were so many opinions from a lot of people, as well as tutors and it was hard to decipher what to do with it… but I should have really followed my own intuitions because at times you get so anxious about what’s right or wrong you kind of forget that that doesn’t really matter. I didn’t like that part of illustration. With this work there’s no right or wrong way, it’s just what it is.”

JD – “You said that a lot of the illustration that you saw at University was for children’s books. Were there any illustrators or books that opened you up a little or that you liked?”

SB – “When I was at Uni I was really obsessive with detail, I needed to loosen up… but once you become obsessed with something it’s hard to distance yourself. Then in first year, we went to visit a group in ‘Big Orange Studios’. We saw someone called Paul Davis and I really liked his way of working. I also like David Hughes, he has a crude and quite violent style of working. I liked his technique; it was very scratchy. They were caricatures done with pen and ink, very crude but they were also funny. Now really, I like Julie Mehretu. Her way of working is based upon mark making – the variation of marking and the way in which each mark feels. She does these huge abstract paintings. She calls them paintings, they’re kind of drawings and paintings – absolutely massive layered architectural drawings. She creates this chaotic atmosphere with the marks and it’s like the movement within a city or a space – but with marks made with ink and paint. She’s amazing and I really enjoy her work.

I like lots of things that I see or read (such as) films and Polish Surrealist poster art. I’m interested more in now working with the figure and (gestures to the illustrations around us) how some of them are much more final, they look like creatures within themselves – I’m interested in the shapes of the body. Say you draw two overlapping figures, how the lines are crossed form new shapes and the space around the shape of the body is changed by directions. I start thinking about lots of different things at once.”

JD – “But you’re able to record it all?”

(He reaches over to his coat and produces one of his sketchbooks. Here I get a chance to see one of his works in progress. He gestures to more pronounced areas of the drawing whilst explaining how he felt towards the shapes on the page. The drawing appears to portray moving figures, showing a continued use of black ink markings, creating stark contrast and shading against the white of the paper)

SB – “This piece that I’ve been working on is going down this new route and process. So, finding bits that are more pronounced, taking some parts out and then forgetting them – seeing what these different shapes are doing.

Once they overlap like this it’s interesting to see how it obliterates it – the image completely changes after you’ve overlapped it. I want to use velum; it’s a type of tracing paper that you can see through better. You can get marks to overlap but still see through it. I want to find a way to develop a depth within the drawings, without just drawing straight over them.”

JD – “There’s obviously a lot of movement in this piece but at the same time the image is also obviously very static. So you can already see the layers.”

SB – “It’s like gestural drawing. That’s what’s kind of weird isn’t it? It seems like there’s movement but when in actual fact it’s such a static way of working. It’s very methodical and very time consuming.

That does give it a ‘stillness’ but it also looks like there’s a bit of movement. That’s why I need to get these more gestural; quick, impulsive marks within the work. I’d like to make more use of the lines of red, as they affect the way that the eye scans across the work and use masculine/feminine lines too.”

JD – “Once up close to the pictures, you notice all the dots and the detail. Are the dots important to you?”

SB – “It makes me sure that I’ve been working hard. I really need to get away from the dots. They give an interesting quality but they are punitive, they punish you. After a while they aren’t enjoyable. With that one (picture below) I enjoyed the viciousness of breaking the pens, the more uncaring marks. There are parts that I like and others that I don’t. Not the hand so much but I do like the legs or at least what’s left of them. There are parts that work, that are more developed.

JD – “Are there other mediums and materials you’d like to use with future series?”

SB – “I’d like to use Indian ink, different colours of ink like red with black. That’d be nice. I’d like to use more colours but it’s just my fear of using them. I need to break my working patterns down and reassess what I’m doing. Not destroy them – that’s wrong. Bringing in other things to it, other depths to the work could maybe make it more interesting and give it a different movement/look.”

With all the build-up and enthusiasm for dance performances during IDFB I feel well and truly ready for BE Festival 2014. Having not personally attended BE Festival before I was a little unsure of what to expect, and so took the opportunity to visit the 2014 launch at Birmingham Rep on the 16^th April. I was quickly immersed into a world of acting, exciting workshops and performers.

BE Festival has been hosted in Birmingham since 2010 after responding to an Arts Council-hosted conference entitled, ‘The Challenge of Change: How can we make a better future for theatre, here in the West Midlands?’ in 2009.

5 years on, the realised dream of BE Festival still continues. Having invited performers from 11 different countries to take part in this years’ amazing selection of 22 performances, the festival has already attracted a large following.

This year The Rep will open their doors to BE Festival, with the main stage itself set to feature a pop-up restaurant. There they will be serving delicious interval dinners to artists and audiences so that they can have an opportunity to eat together each evening. The menus include vegetarian options and advance bookings for this are now available through box-office.

You’ll now be able to see all of the wonderful events planned which include visual arts and talks, workshops, performances and even musical post-show events, finishing with an Awards Party on the 12th of July.

Even better, if you’d like a chance to be involved with BE Festival, meeting the performers and organisers behind the action then you might be interested in their volunteering opportunities. Open until the 12^th of May, volunteering opportunities with BE Festival also include 6 positions for aspiring stage managers/technicians to form part of the Production Team.

If you would like to volunteer please send an email detailing your interest, any relevant skills, experience and CV to emmahalsteadbe@gmail.com. Volunteers will be needed in May and then throughout June and July.

For the full 2014 programme please see HERE.

“Born of a passion and a belief that opera can speak directly to all kinds of people, Artistic Director, Graham Vick, set out to create a company that the people of Birmingham – a city of many peoples – could be proud of…

…We’ve got more exploring to do to discover where opera can be performed. How to perform it. How to re-write the rules of engagement between audiences and performer. How to experiment with space and acoustics. Who can we make it speak to?”

Birmingham Opera Company would like to invite you to their production of Khovanskygate: A National Enquiry.  You may have already heard a sneak preview at Springhill Tesco Superstore, where professional soloists Joseph Guyton and Stephanie Corley were accompanied by Sergey Rybin on piano. The singers performed a selection of opera favourites from Tosca, Madame Butterfly and Othello, demonstrating their talents whilst preparing to play the roles of Prince Andrei and Emma in this latest production.

The opera will take place in a big top tent at Cannon Hill Park, with performances at 7pm on the 22nd, 24th, 28th and 30th April before a final performance on the 2nd May.

The story depicts Russia in the midst of a division between powerful conservative forces and growing Westernising influence. Musorgsky paints a devastating portrait of a nation on the brink of collapse; torn apart by state corruption, religious fanaticism, social inequality and ethnic cleansing.

The unique setting and involvement from local performers already sets the bar for an interesting series of evenings. Birmingham Opera Company released an open call for singers with varied to little experience in performance, asking them to join in with rehearsals several days a week. If you’d like to become involved with Birmingham Opera Company’s projects yourself, then please contact them at getinvolved@birminghamopera.org.uk .

We wish the cast and Birmingham Opera Company the best of luck for the shows. For telephone booking information please call 0121 246 6632 Monday – Friday 9:00am-11:00am or use the following link for further information and online booking.

So, here’s a reminder of what’s coming up in the very near future (today onwards):

Flatpack’s Box of Light, celebrates early cinema “with a weekend of performances, screenings and activities for all ages” events across the weekend, starting tonight with:

Box of Light Variety Show – An evening of edification and entertainment featuring acclaimed lanternist Professor Heard and the Physioscope, a Victorian experiment recreated for the first time in a century by Roderick MacLachlan. The finale of the show is provided by French artist Julien Maire, whose Open Core performance includes a live dissection of a video projector

and other nice things across the weekend including The Icebook (which I saw at Flatpack 2012 and I strongly recommend), pieces by Little Earthquake and Ben Pacey specially commissioned for Box of Light at Birmingham REP, and there are also workshops/activities – with more info and full events listings on Flatpack’s website.

Bring to Light, is “a weekend of adventurous music, celebrating the very best in new music and performance.” it starts tonight over at The Rainbow, and continuing tomorrow/Sunday at LoB:

This will see performances from visual artist turned sonic performer Dinos Chapman, South Africa’s Shangaan Electro, the ‘brain pulse music’ of Masaki Batoh, Josephine Foster, and more.

There’s also a workshop at DanceXchange and Supersonic Kids Gigs at Symphony Hall. The full schedule was announced earlier in the week so do take a look at it.

I’ll be at both (obviously not at the same time.) Say hello if you see me. 

Another thing starting today is Illuminate, three atmospheric days and evenings of interactive light artworks in Southside:

Featuring a 360° film igloo; a light inspired live dance performance; a series of interactive street projections; and from Shanghai, the Lanterns of Terracotta Warriors Exhibition.

Good stuff. More on the Birmingham Hippodrome’s website.

Next weekend is another busy one too. You’ve got the RISK weekender at THSH, and Eye Candy Festival at Southside, and some other stuff I’ll try and formulate into a list.