The exhibition, sponsored by The Royal Society For Arts West Midlands and Pure Planet Recycling Ltd is called Looking though Birmingham. Here’s some of the blurb from the EC Arts website:

Pete Ashton has created a series of slow animations consisting of sequential photographs shot through the artists own customised lens.  The lens is made from a vintage camera which forms a process called “Through The Viewfinder”. The slow animations will be displayed on salvaged CRT monitors that have been converted into peep-show machines.

A frequent subject of Pete’s work is “unnoticed Birmingham”, the patterns and shapes that emerge as the city succumbs to and builds on the entropy of progress. For this show he invites you to view Birmingham’s pedestrian flow filtered through a nostalgic, intimate perspective of inner Birmingham.  A second event will take place in June to view ‘outer’ Birmingham.

Remember when we mentioned those huge birds painted on the side of Central Library? Well artist Lucy McLauchlan has been busy yet again, out in the cold with a group of volunteers jazzing up another part of the city, this time in Moseley.

Together with EC-Arts and a little help from the Irish Welfare Information Centre & Birmingham Irish Community Forum, ‘Come Together’ is a temporary artistic intervention utilising the hoardings on Moseley Road.

The project is a result of both EC-Arts objectives to utilise redevelopments within transitional periods, and artist Lucy McLauchlan’s ongoing desire to create a positive impact with her work in the public realm.

Lucy has created ‘Come together’ a theme inspired by the Digbeth community. Her infamous bird murals depict ‘community’ to counterbalance the wasteland the site envelops.

If you’ve been about Digbeth today and yesterday, you may have noticed a few of these more interesting looking billboards. 48 Sheet is an experimental art installation is the latest project by EC-arts, which runs until 14 September, using advertising billboards as blank canvasses for the five participating artists.

These alternatives to dominant advertising messages test a variety of art forms and artistic processes, and features artists Harry Blackett, Robin Kirkham, Lucy McLauchlan, Ian Richards and Elizabeth Rowe. Read more about each piece on the EC-arts website.

The billboard locations have been mapped out on google here, along with this nicely drawn guide to tell you whos who.

If you’ve wandered by Central Library recently, you’ll have noticed a new addition to the decor.

Painted over the course of three days, artist Lucy McLauchlan was given permission by Central Library and Birmingham City Council Planning to give the infamous brutalist library a make over. The project is part of the ongoing work of EC-Arts.

It was Lucy’s wish to produce one of her infamous murals in Birmingham to simply ‘beautify the city’.  This coupled with EC-Arts motivation to commission artistic interventions, temporary and permanent within the public realm, utilising architecture where possible was the foundation for the Library project.

Lucy’s written a post about it with a few more pictures.

It’s still unknown as to how long the birds will be allowed to stay, so go take a look while you can.

As part of the redevelopment of Digbeth coach station, National Express are working with EC-Arts on the Digbeth Public Art Project. It’ll be launched in December and will feature three permanent commissions:

• Boundary – “In essence the boundary fence of the Coach Station will be public art in both form and function”
• Irish Quarter Visual Art – “designed by artist Dave Sherry… The visual art installation will represent the Irish Quarter and encapsulates the history and vitality of the area, creating a landmark for the Irish Quarter and the City”
• Short Film – made by a group oy young people, this “will document the public art process, community engagement, artist interviews, workshops, events and the fabrication and installation process”