• Invisible City‘s final event, Media Circus, takes place on 29 Oct at Fazeley Studios. With entertainment, music, drinks, performances and digital displays, along with the winners of the Invisible City categories to be announced. Fancy dress is along the lines of Victorian Circus.
• CBSO’s Friday Night Classics: Nightmare on Broad Street takes place on 29 Oct, 7.30pm at Symphony Hall, with a pre-concert talk at 6.15.
• Town Hall host a Halloween Silent Movie Special with the 1923 classic The Hunchback of Notre Dame on 31 Oct at 7.30pm.
• Black Country Living Museum are holding Halloween at the Museum on 30 & 31 Oct from 6.30pm – 10pm, with opportunities for psychic reading and trick or treating along the cobbled streets.
• Take a guided tour of Aston Hall, exploring the ghosts and legends on 31 Oct at 7.30pm. Full of spooky surprises, this is not suitable for children of a ‘nervous disposition’.
• Halloween Night at the Museum Collections Centre invites you on a spine tingling trail for a chance to see some of the scariest objects not on general display, join the tour on 29 Oct from 6.30pm – 9pm.

Since Halloween falls on a weekend, it would be a crime to let an opportunity to get dressed up go unmentioned. Most weekend club nights will be welcoming heavy eyeliner and fake blood, on the only occasion where you can get away with wearing a bin liner, here’s a few that stand out;

• Jocko Homo will be hosting The Victoria’s Halloween festivities from 9pm with free entry.
• Face present their Halloween Bash at Cellar Door, the Rainbow, with house legend Emerson Todd.
• Hare & Hounds are holding House of God Halloween Party with horror makeup available on the night.
• Eddie’s Rock Club will be dishing out a free shot for the first 100 people through the door, and a £50 prize to the best dressed.
• The fourth Electric City event at HMV Institute is Spectrum’s Halloween Fancy Dress Special, with Sub Focus and Stanton Warriors live.
• The Curates Egg presents a Halloween special at The Old Wharf on 31 Oct, with live music from Nightingales, The Courtesy Group and Black Carrot.

Plus outfit inspiration is provided by this month’s issue of Area for how to pull off a creepy-but-cool costume, with just the right amount of effort to keep your street cred.

Art of Ideas is a group exhibition curated by Matthew Collings and Matt Price, entitled ‘The Witching Hour’, which will be taking place in the Birmingham Museum & Art Gallery’s Waterhall Gallery from 11 – 14 November.

The four day exhibition will explore darkness and the uncanny, featuring photography, painting, sculpture, printmaking, film and animation, from over 20 artists based in or hailing from the West Midlands.

The Art of Ideas publication is designed to encourage more people to start collecting contemporary art in the city and region. With its supernatural theme, The Witching Hour exhibition offers an opportunity for people who are interested in collecting art – whether individuals, businesses or arts institutions – to see and acquire works by leading and emerging artists from the West Midlands.

– Matt Price

Exhibiting artists include both internationally renowned names along with emerging talent, including: Hurvin Anderson, Richard Billingham, Graham Chorlton, Faye Claridge, Ravi Deepres, Tessa Farmer, Brian Griffin, Roger Hiorns, Harminder Singh Judge, Chris Keenan, Idris Khan, Karin Kihlberg / Reuben Henry, David Miller, Sally Payen, Juneau Projects, Ged Quinn, David Rowan, Liz Rowe, George Shaw, Toby de Silva, Gillian Wearing and Stuart Whipps.

]]> http://www.createdinbirmingham.com/2008/08/26/bmag-receives-a-300000-windfall/ Tue, 26 Aug 2008 22:38:54 +0000 http://www.createdinbirmingham.com/?p=1994 D’Log has spotted that the Birmingham Museum & Art Gallery have been given some money by the  DCMS/Wolfson Foundation Improvement Fund to develop new audiences.  From the BBC:

Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery will spend its £300,000 grant on a new gallery telling the story of the city from medieval times to the present.