The Pavilions Pop-Up Arts Shop will be open from Friday 1 April to to Wednesday 7 April (excluding Easter Sunday). Here’s some info about what they’ll have in there:

Organiser Jamie, a contemporary feltmaker from Selly Park specialising in fashion and home accessories, will be offering his own range of items for sale, including clutch bags, satchels and trilby hats, many made with locally sourced wool from Worcestershire.

Other artists scheduled to showcase their work are Jan Bowman, architect turned painter, illustrator and author of the recent children’s book ‘This is Birmingham’; Dudley based glassmaker Ian MacDonald; jeweller Ettore Consorte (Smethwick) digital illustrator Jane Anderson (Bearwood) and Nisha Grover who produces various different artworks such as acrylic painting, textiles and murals.

As well as providing valuable retail space for the artists, the shop will also act as a gallery space, showcasing a wide selection of art from Midlands artists. Among the work on display and for sale will be the acrylics, oils and silkscreens of Emma Hardicker, who will also be compiling collections from eight fellow members of Birmingham Printmakers including Harborne based Anne Crews, Tim Southall and Phil Wilkinson.

I happened to walk past it earlier today – this is what it looks like:

Jan Bowman trained as an architect and now draws pictures for a living. Her work celebrates the best of 21st-century civilisation. Originally from Scotland via Canada, she lives in England with the Old Boot and two cats

She’s also the writer/illustrator of a new book called This Is Birmingham which is out on 10 December and recently earned this gushing review from Shirley Dent in The Guardian:

a book very much continuing that tradition of imaginative non-fiction at its best. Stunningly illustrated it brings to glorious life the sights and sounds of Brum so familiar to my nephews. But the real genius is that it sneaks in some hardcore social and political history, starting with Birmingham’s Lunar Society and broadening out into the American, French and industrial revolutions, taking in immigration and urban development along the way. And the whole thing, my middle nephew will be pleased to learn, reads like an adventure through time and place

It’s well worth visiting Jan Bowman’s website for a glance at some more of the pics. The book’s aimed at those of us who are aged 8+ and it’s only £6.99 on Amazon at the moment.