This Thursday take an after-hours cultural excursion on the Art Bus. Visiting seven Birmingham galleries for this edition, (The Barber Institute of Fine Arts, Eastside Projects, Ikon Gallery, mac birmingham, The Parkside Gallery (BCU), RBSA Gallery and the Waterhall Gallery at Birmingham Museum & Art Gallery) all will be open from 5pm until 9pm. The free bus will be transporting visitors throughout the night.

More information can be found here.

Birmingham Literature Festival

This week Birmingham Literature Festival have released their full programme, running from 2-11 October 2014. For updates and news follow them here.

Fierce Festival

The Fierce Festival programme is also now live, running from 2-12 October 2014. They recommend joining their mailing list for updates.

Plastic Fantastic at Ikon Gallery

On Saturday 23rd August join Ikon Gallery for an hour-long 80s inspired jewellery workshop by Working Clasp. Book online or call Ikon Shop on 0121 248 0711.

The Gloaming Tales at mac birmingham

An Artist Rooms Project, The Gloaming Tales is going to be a spellbinding night of myth and legends told by storytellers around the campfire during the most magical time of day, twilight. Find out more here.

Glug Birmingham

We are on the final countdown to Glug, with less than a week to go! This week we have been sending out more flyers and beer mats, folding programmes and also released a promo video by Created in Birmingham’s Finlay Bell. It’s not too late to book tickets, visit the website to book.

Glug Birmingham: Midland Masters [PROMO] from Inkygoodness on Vimeo.

Local artists create edible flag to mark Indian Independence Day

Local artists Alexandria Robinson-Sutherland and Lexx Carby of Uneek Walls worked with ingredients at Birmingham wedding caterer and restaurant, Itihaas, to adorn the four-foot canvas. Using turmeric, basmati rice and coriander leaves the artists created the edible flag to mark Indian Independence Day.

• mac
• Barber Institute of Fine Arts
• Ikon
• RBSA Gallery
• Eastside Projects

Hop aboard the bus as it travels around the city, all while enjoying a mince pie and glass of wine at selected galleries.

Some of the galleries taking part in Art Bus were featured in our brief CiB exhibitions round-up last week, including the launch of Trade Show at Eastside Projects, and Tim Johnson, David Tremlett, Amikan Toren and Dean Kelland exhibitions at Ikon Gallery.

Visit the galleries’ websites (linked above) to find out more information about current exhibitions for each of the venues.

The Art Bus will run from 5 – 9pm and a schedule of the bus times can be found here.

Ikon Gallery began life in the mid-1960s. Founded by Angus Skene and artists from the Birmingham School of Art, the gallery was initially housed in a glass-walled kiosk in the Bullring in an attempt to offer a more open environment for those unsure about what to expect looking from the outside in. After initial success, the gallery moved and expanded, changing locations as popularity grew and existing leases expired.

Before long, Ikon had become one of the most important contemporary galleries in the country. In 1997, after a lengthy stint opposite the Alexandra theatre, the gallery moved to its current location and a building I feel is very befitting of the name.

Now based in Brindleyplace – an area that was completely rejuvenated roughly 20 years ago – Ikon lives inside the former Oozells Street Board School, designed by John Henry Chamberlain in 1887. Just around the corner from the Sea Life Centre, easy parking right next door at Brindleyplace NCP and a beautiful, beautiful building. You can certainly see why it would make a great family day out.

Without wanting to sound like a broken record from my previous articles, it’s scenery like that which Ikon Gallery is based in that makes me appreciate Birmingham all the more. A lovely, modern square – the image of what good investment can do for depleted areas of a city. Recently, Ikon revealed plans for Ikon 2 as part of the redevelopment project in the Eastside district. Having not known the city 20 years ago (I was only 7), it’s difficult for me to judge too greatly, but from the outside in it feels as though Eastside is what Brindleyplace was 20 years ago, albeit Eastside starting from a better base point. A hefty piece of investment, Birmingham’s cultural spaces continue to grow and there’s more reason to be excited about where this city is heading from an arts perspective.

It’s the topic of where Birmingham sits as a culture capital that formed the basis of my interview with Helen Stallard and Stuart Tulloch when I visited Ikon not too long ago. Helen is part of the marketing team at Ikon, whilst Stuart is the curator and has been in the role roughly 6 months. With both myself and Stuart being new to the city it led to some very interesting conversations about how Birmingham is viewed form the outside, though Stuart is much better versed than I am on the history of Birmingham’s art movements.

Before we began the interview, Helen took me on a tour of the building and through the current exhibitions on display. On the second floor, the fabric motifs of Russian artist Timur Novikov don the walls in bright rooms with high ceilings, the perfect arrangement when viewing what are relatively large scale works. The shape of the building really lends to the gallery space and you feel like you’re in a special place.

Dotted around the rooms are Visitor Assistants who help the viewer understand the artist, the artwork and the technique applied in the creation. All seem happy to do so, which may seem a given, but I actually find it very refreshing. I’ve been to a few exhibitions lately in which people in similar roles have done everything to avoid eye contact with me and sat on their phones.

Part of Ikon’s 2nd Floor Gallery

Adjacent to the Second Floor Galleries is the Tower Room. In what feels like a really unique space, a video by Angolan artist Nástio Mosquito is played. You can see the Tower Room in the pictures of the front of the Ikon building, for want of a better phrase, it’s a pretty cool room.

Below in the First Floor Gallery is the work of Neoclassical sculptor John Flaxman. In what is once again a really vibrant, clean space the artwork is fantastically positioned. It’s easy to see why the gallery is held in such high esteem.

The Tower Room

A room I did not visit in my first experience of Ikon (but one I am sure shall become a frequent haunt for my son and I) is the Events Room, a base for Ikon’s learning programme. This part of the gallery is extremely important to Ikon, it’s a chance to engage with visitors on another level. On one hand, it promotes creativity and interaction with the art in the gallery and beyond. On the other, it enables the gallery to learn from its patrons about their experiences and further develop a programme that will continue to attract and develop relationships.

The learning programme is quite varied. From workshops based around the art on display (a good example of this would be the ‘Drawing in Stitch’ workshop on the 20th April), to walks, afternoon teas and storytelling event ‘Tell me on a Sunday the programme caters for a variety of interests and age groups. Many of the workshops are free, though occasionally you may have to pay for materials.

In sourcing artwork for exhibitions, Ikon takes its pick from emerging artists, both nationally and internationally. There will often be historical works, but these will have a significance to now. The gallery will often collaborate with other organisations in order to produce touring shows, or even exhibitions in other spaces in Birmingham, much like Metropolis currently on display in the Gas Hall at BMAG. Metropolis has been collected by Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery and the New Art Gallery Walsall in partnership with Ikon. I went last weekend and it’s a great exhibition. For someone with a real affinity for large cities like myself I found it a visual feast. It’s on until the 23rd of June so plenty of time to make a visit if you haven’t already.

The Events Room

The exhibitions at Brindleyplace mentioned above finish on the 21st of April, so if you are intrigued then head over soon before it’s too late. A typical cycle between a gallery refresh is 7 weeks, with a brief break in between to install the new exhibition. In this instance, the new galleries will be open from the 1st of May and include work by François Morellet and Giorgio Sadotti.

It’s now 15 years since Ikon moved to Brindleyplace, and next year marks the 50th anniversary of the gallery’s conception. In the programme over 2014 you can expect to see reflections on some of the significant artists they’ve had in the gallery over the past half a century. From my point of view it’s going be very interesting to revisit how the gallery was founded. It clearly has a big part to play in what Birmingham has to offer the arts community in the future, much like it has done for the past 50 years.

You can find out more about Ikon Gallery’s events, programme and history at their website www.ikon-gallery.co.uk

What are you experiences of the gallery? Please comment below and share with us what you have enjoyed over the years.

AngelShares is a new crowdfunding service for the arts.

It was developed locally (founded by Sarah Gee of Indigo Ltd and built by Made Media) and launches with projects from Ikon Gallery, Craftspace, Light House Media Centre, Belgrade Theatre and Herbert Art Gallery & Museum.

The interesting thing about this one being that eligible donations can attract Gift Aid, adding a healthy chunk of extra cash to any projects that you choose to support.

AngelShares is on Twitter and on Facebook.

Arts Council England West Midlands’ Digital Content Development (DCD) Programme is a three year programme of investment which aims to catalyse the creation and creative use of digital content platforms for arts organisations across the West Midlands region

The website went up recently and the map on the homepage shows some of the projects, along with how much money they received. Further information is due on the website at some point, but if you look at the page source then you can glean a little more. On the basis that you probably don’t want to ruin your eyes, here’s what I found:

• Birmingham Repertory Theatre – Towards the development of an online multi-user playwriting resource (£27,884)
• Pesky People – Development of a multiplatform approach to venue access information (£25,000)
• Leamington Spa Art Gallery & Museum – PostCart: creative digital access of art gallery and museum collections (£24,750)
• Library of Birmingham – Development of an Alternate Reality Game for young people (£23,750)
• Talking Birds Theatre Company – Development of The Difference Engine – a multiplatform real time access tool. Some mention of it here (£1,500 + £20,860)
• The Play House – Develop an online resource to match the company’s participatory ethos (£22,349)
• Eastside Projects and Birmingham City University – Piloting a 3D online art gallery (£22,000)
• The MAC – Playground: exploring the use of digital technologies in a new-built art centre (£20,500)
• Royal Shakespeare Company – Creation of a new digital arena for the creativity of the RSC. Pretty sure this was Such Tweet Sorrow (£20,000)
• Audiences Central – To develop a web platform and plug-in for cross regional arts marketing (£18,000)
• B Arts – Development of a new form of arts centre/collaboration (£17,380)
• Rhubarb Rhubarb – To create an online evaluation tool (£17,000)
• Shropshire County Council – Citizen Journalism (£15,612)
• Rideout – To explore the production of creative digital content engaging youth crime statistics (£15,000)
• Radio To Go – A collaboration with the British Library to pilot an online music archive. Called The Pilot Project (£13,750)
• Rosie Kay Dance Company – To create an online version of the touring production, 5 Soldiers (£12,500)
• Indigo Ltd – The development of a pilot online platform exploring new forms of crowd-source fundraising in the arts (launching soon and called Angel Shares) (£11,750)
• Wolverhampton Arts & Museums / Black Country Museums – Research and Development of a collaborative online resource for the Black Country Museums (£10,550)
• Black Country Touring – Exploration of enhancing a site specific, theatrical experience through live streaming (£10,348)
• Multistory – To create a new media platform for celebrating local stories as part of place-making (£10,235)
• Fierce Festival – Towards a Viral Online research game (£8,253)
• Birmingham Opera – Exploring new models of ownership and sales of published works (£6,737)
• Borderlines Film Festival Ltd – Experimenting with mScapes technologies (£5,600)
• Orchestra of the Swan – Research and development towards a strategic plan (£5,000)
• Capsule – To support digitally enhanced new marketing and distribution opportunities (£4,880)
• Welsh National Opera – research and development of phase one of iMaestro. To allow Welsh National Opera to research digital copyright law and the possibility of exploiting full-length opera samples under the Creative Commons license (info about that here) (£4,600)
• Ikon Gallery – Towards the development of a social media project (£3,500)
• The Other Way Works – Professional development around Augmented Reality and Transmedia (£2,575)
• Ex Cathedra – Market development, engaging an online music aggregator (£1,323)
• Dance Consortium – Exploring social media in relation to contemporary dance marketing (£1,000)
• MADE – To explore the use of digital platforms in placing making (£1,000)

As well as these projects, the programme supported a range of other activities including workshops, innovation labs and other events.

I’ve heard of one or two of these projects, but the vast majority are new to me so it’ll be interesting to hear a little more. I should probably also add that I’m involved in the Rosie Kay Dance Company project – that’ll launch next week so I’ll blab a bit more about it then.

With a £1million grant from the Art Fund, Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery and partners New Art Gallery Walsall and Ikon Gallery have been creating a major collection of international contemporary art.

Which is interesting but I think I’d heard about that before. Still, new news is that this collection will be shown off later in the year (from 13 November) at BMAG’s Waterhall.

This is the first chance to see some of the newly acquired works by artists from India, China, Africa, and Western Europe. In painting, photography, and video installations they explore the theme of the “modern metropolis” – the social and physical landscapes of city life.

These international works will be shown alongside examples from the Museum’s Contemporary British Art Collection including paintings by Tony Bevan, Fiona Rae, George Shaw and many others.

Here is a few exhibitions on around the West Mids, are free to the public and are open on a Sunday. Go on! Put on your favourite woolly jumper, brave the cold, and go get some culture.

Armando Andrade Tudela
A new series of films reflects upon a modular construction designed by French architect Jean Pierre Maneval in 1963.

4 February – 29 March 2009
Ikon Gallery
Open: Sunday 11am-6pm

In Touch
In this new interactive gallery visitors can engage in and experience a variety of works through touch, sound and light.

01 Jan 2008 – 01 Jan 2012
Birmingham Museum
Open: Sunday 12.30pm – 5pm

Fresh Out of the Box
Exhibiting artists include: Artists Anonymous, Sarah Lucas, Marc Quinn and Gavin Turk.

Runs till 14th October 09
The New Art Gallery Walsall
Open: Sunday 11am – 4pm

I wanted this to be a longer list but not that many galleries are open on a Sunday, especially the more independant contemporary ones, which seems odd. Can anyone shed some light on why this is?

On her website you can devour some Comic Sushi: Tales of German cats, hairy midget elves and Mr Lemon. Takeaway titbits include badges and postcards. You can pick up a copy of her comic Tofu and Cats at the Ikon Gallery shop.