Michael Smith looks for the positive in what some consider Europe’s most boring city – Birmingham

Putting the ‘n’ into ‘BBC cuts’.

UPDATE

You can see this episode on iPlayer until 7pm on 4 November. It featured The Event (in particular, Creative Machines, Minimalist Sculpture at Curzon Street Station), Eastside Projects and Project Pigeon and was actually quite complimentary about the fringes of the city (although not the centre, which is probably fair enough).

BAZ are busy at The Event. They’re hosting Love in the Snug (an alternative festival hub) where you can also buy the in-joke stuffed Mills and Koons, which is:

A Brief Introduction to the Saucy Secrets of the Birmingham Art World

I did and can confirm it’s simultaneously amusing and baffling (I’m pretty sure some of it’s flying way over my head). They’re also hosting Curate Me Out on Saturday, 7pm at the Lamp Tavern:

Shamelessly pilfering the format’s of ITV’s Take Me Out and Blind Date, Curate Me Out will see BAZ setting up three curator-artist ‘dates’. This live performance event complete with a professional compere, bright lights and music jingles acts as a post-performance party for all who have attended The Event

The Birmingham Post have a an interview with Chris Poolman (one half of BAZ) about all of this.

Getting to wander around Curzon Street Station (although there’s some good stuff in there, I have to admit I was excited enough about the building itself), finally making it over to The Lombard Method, Simon Faithfull’s window piece at Grand Union, meeting the guys behind BAZ (and Athletico Tortured Artists), Crowd 6‘s exhibition and all sorts of other bits and pieces.

Not that it was all my cup of tea, necessarily, but then that’s all part of the fun too. Charlie Levine’s written a post of her own about what’s going on – she’s got pictures.

The Event is on until 30 October. If you don’t know your way round (and even if you do) it’s worth joining one of the guided tours.

The last one was good. Lots to see and lots to do, so go discover on The Event website. Or read on for some blurb:

Birmingham Contemporary Art Forum is delighted to announce it will be hosting The Event’s third bi-annual visual art festival from 21 – 30 October 2011 from their galleries, studio spaces and empty buildings in various locations in and around Eastside, Birmingham’s creative quarter in Digbeth.

Groups presenting works in The Event 2011 are: AAS, An Endless Supply, Companis, Crowd 6, Eastside Projects, Grand Union, The Lombard Method, SLICE and TROVE.

Birmingham Contemporary Art Forum will be hosting a silent auction of over thirty artworks from the 6 – 24 June 2011 for The Event’s third bi-annual visual art festival due to be held in Birmingham this Autumn. The bidding will close on the 24 June 2011 in Digbeth’s Bond Company, where the works will be available for viewing and final bids may be placed between 7 – 9pm.

Here’s a random smattering of what’s up for auction but you can see the whole lot here:

Victoria Jenkins

Sally Payen from a ‘series of case studies’

Juneau Projects – Emotional Modernism

Viv Sole – Barchan

• Birmingham Opera Company’s ‘Othello’
• Birmingham Royal Ballet’s ‘Quantum Leaps’
• ‘Birmingham Seen’ at BMAG
• Zena Edwards’ ‘Security’ at The Rep
• Tom Dale Company’s ‘Roam’ at DanceXchange
• The Event
• Kindle Theatre’s ‘All You Can Eat’

And plenty more besides, although nine months away from CiB (and a fair amount of time out of the country) meant that I was slightly more out of touch with some of the smaller-ticket stuff.

What did you enjoy?