On 8 November Turning Point West Midlands will be hosting Voice Your Vision at The New Art Gallery Walsall from 10am – 4pm.

With the opportunity to discuss and debate the future of visual arts in the West Midlands, this event aims to find and prioritize ways of strengthening the visual arts in light of recent cuts to the sector.

In these challenging times it is important that we play to our strengths that those in visual arts come together as a collective voice. Artists are at the heart of Turning Point West Midlands and we hope you, along with arts organisations – studios, galleries and museums, come together to discuss and steer the way forward for the visual arts strategy within the region.

The event is free and refreshments will be served. To confirm your attendance email: jane.morrow@bcu.ac.uk

The New Art Gallery Walsall has recently opened The Cage, where resident artists a.a.s invite you to join them as they carry out a series of experiments exploring openings to The Other Place, a collective space of thought or dreams, the space of the future or potential, and the collaborative processes or assemblages that produce those ideas.

Do you dream? Have you ever imagined something impossible? Do you have hopes for the future? Then you’re already on the way to The Other Place.

…Some say that when we are awake we are dealing mostly with illusion. This would mean that The Other Place is the PRIMARY Reality.

If this intrigues you, every Saturday a.a.s will be in the artists’ studio or out in Walsall where they’ll be performing experiments to explore The Other Place. They will also be hosting the following events until the end of the project, which runs until 16 January;

How to shuffle perspective game book correction rule do it meeting
27 November 2010

As a response to the Arnolfini artistÕs book works collection, a.a.s will be using William BurroughsÕ cut-up technique to generate new instructions from existing performance scores.

Interstitial Stone Portal Ritual
31 December 2010 – 1 January 2011

At the change between years in the Gregorian Calendar, The Nagual will create a portal in a stone circle, to bring about the time of intersect, a sliding between realities.

XE-54
4 – 16 January 2011

Over the last two weeks of the residency, you will have the chance to take part in an ongoing performance fiction, and play games with the levels of reality developed over the project.

Remember the Birmingham Word Cloud exhibited at mac? Well Walsall have got artist Simon Poulter on board to develop Walsall’s Word Cloud.

Contribute words that pop into your mind when you think of Walsall via email to ioannoui@walsall.gov.uk, text on 07734731992, through the Facebook page or across Twitter using #walsallwords.

The cloud will be on display in The New Art Gallery Walsall throughout November and December. In the meantime, see it grow online through their website.

Outside IN is a pioneering project which promotes the visual art work of leading disabled and deaf artists. The New Art Gallery Walsall has been chosen to launch this new venture on Thursday 16 September.

DASH‘s Artistic Director Mike Layward introduces you to this ground-breaking concept, the galleries, the artists and their work. We then hand you over to internationally renowned performance artist Bobby Baker (author of recently published book Diary Drawings: Mental Illness and Me) as she strikes up an unmissable conversation with The New Art Gallery Walsall’s resident artist, Sean Burn.

The launch will be open to the public from 1-4pm, and if the art isn’t enough to tempt you down, there will also be games of marbles, activities, artist talks, plus nibbles – great!