Now that is out the way, let’s get back to the cool stuff happening in Birmingham.

First off is an extremely exciting project Thrift Radiates Happiness, a contemporary art exhibition happening in the often ignored Municipal Bank in Birmingham; the impressive yet slightly dishevelled building on the opposite side of Broad Street to the New Library.

From TRH Blog:

This exhibition presents works based on the British class system, the ever-present UK recession and investment in art and the world economy.

With the main foyer space hosting a specifically commissioned sound piece by Elly Clarke, the offices off this central entrance will house pieces of work by Tom Crawford, Caitlin Griffiths, Ellie Harrison and Nicole Wilson, all of whom work with and present works based on commerce, current economical issues, up-cycling objects and investment.

This event will be opening 13th March and close on the 17th of the same month and, although free to enter, there is a little twist should you care to make a deposit…

For the second part of this exhibition audience members will be invited to ‘invest’ £2 for which they will be given a number to a safety deposit box, within which will be a limited edition print by one of the contributing artists.  Their £2 investment immediately rising and resulting in an original piece of artwork made for the exhibition by artists and architects. 

This is a RIBA event, curated by Charlie Levine / TROVE, in association with Aedas Presents, Birmingham Architects Association and Birmingham City Council/Library of Birmingham.

Check out their site, or head to their Facebook and Twitter – I especially recommend their Flickr to get a photographic insight into the space and their latest happenings.

It looks at the relationships with people, places, families and communities. The artists involved explore where it is they belong, looking at where they’re from, or the communities they’re involved in and aims to forge links between the cities and between the artistic communities of these places. The natural connections and overlaps are made within all the works and new opportunities develop.

Cross-overs, connections, ties and links can expose themselves at random moments.  Relationships can be born out of incidental meetings.

The curators Charlie Levine (UK) and Suvi Lehtinen (Sweden) also met at a random moment during the summer through a mutual friend and curatorial partner, and this is when the idea of the exhibition was born.

The exhibition took place in Stockholm in December and will launch on January 23rd at 5pm till 7pm at Trove in Birmingham and run Monday – Friday until 20th February.

TROVE have worked with 146 local, national and international artists who have created, exhibited and performed as part of their programme over the last three years.

Situated in the Old Science Museum on Newhall Street, TROVE is an independent art gallery who have worked with Fierce Festival, Hereford Photography Festival, Hedge Enquiry, Minnie Weisz Studio, Museum of Lost Heritage, Birmingham Architects Association, Birmingham City Council, Clarke Gallery, Birmingham City University and Crowd 6.

For their third birthday they are celebrating by throwing a party – At Pop! Bang! Wallop! there will be presents, piñatas and pass the parcel, artworks and cards from past TROVE artists and even a bouncy castle. 

Pop! Bang! Wallop! – TROVE’s 3^rd Birthday Party – 12^th October 2012 5pm – 9pm.

“TROVE & mac birmingham’s ALLOTMENT Project and Edible Eastside present:

Post Colonial-Now Karen Mc Lean

Talk: Sat 18th August 2012 1 – 4pm with Charlie Levine, Cathy Wade & Karen Mc Lean. Lunch served at 1pm, talk begins at 2pm.”

Edible Eastside,122 Fazeley Street, Digebth, Birmingham, B5 5RS

Hedge Enquiry

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.

Trove‘s latest project, initiated by curator Charlie Levine during a summer spent in Paris, features an exchange of postcards between 17 artists across the world.

Inspired by Walter Benjamin’s method of documenting travels via postcards sent home, Levine commissioned 17 artists to instead design a postcard.

These were then printed and packs of the final 16 postcards distributed to all the artists involved with each other’s addresses. During the month of August a postcard exchange project took place. Cards were altered, added to, written upon and cut up and sent around the world.

Contributing artists include; Darren Banks, Ana Benlloch, Tom Butler, Martyn Cross, Vicky Cull, Anna Francis, Jo Gane, Caitlin Griffiths, Gabo Guzzo, Elizabeth Hingley and Tomonaga Tokuyama, Lulu Horsfield, Calum F Kerr, Hayley Lock, Kira O’Reilly, Samantha Voong and Emmett Walsh.

Paris Correspondence School opens at Trove with a preview on 21 Jan at 6-8pm. The exhibition can then be visited until 28 January by appointment.

The CiB Shop window was jazzed up with the help of Birmingham Royal Ballet, Art Detection Services set up their workshop in store and Shady Bird popped by to play a set. In other CiB news, CiBmail was launched.

The Rainbow announced their plans for developments and expansion both upstairs and below, we said goodbye to more independent record shops and sampad celebrated their 20th anniversary.

Trove showed some science, we had a nosey at CBSO’s summer programme and some behind the scenes footage from The Electric showed up.

Not My Type brought together “a veritable who’s who of Brum talent” (to quote myself) and, in other illustration-related news, the Love To Print crowd released Patterns #1.

Other things to look back on and go ‘oh yeah, I remember that’ include Such Tweet Sorrow, BAP’s document on Birmingham’s Creative Capital, the Big Culture Blog and a call for “more of the Simon Rattle effect”. Also, In Our Backyard looked interesting and Chris Bates made a video for Munchbreak’s Television:

Au & Ag opens with a preview at Trove on 16 December, showcasing work by Vicky Cull and Justine Moss, in association with Brilliantly Birmingham and Museum of Lost Heritage.

Focusing on gold (Au) and silver (Ag), Cull’s work takes on silver, responding in particular to its ‘noble’ connotations with queens, armoury, medals etc. While Moss works with gold,  creating chandelier sculptures from gold jewellery.

The exhibition will be open by appointment between 13th and 22nd December 2010. For further information, read more on Trove’s website.

After exhibiting his photography at Hereford Photography Festival in 2004, Wang Qingsong has been invited back for the first UK screening of his video work. TROVE will be presenting his two films, 123456 Cuts and Ironman.

123456 Cuts and Ironman show remarkable restraint in terms of cast and scale of production. They demonstrate the more personal, more bodily, effects of excess: the bloody deconstruction of living flesh into meat and pulp.

The preview is on tonight (12 November) at 6-8pm, and is open 13 November at 6-8pm at TROVE Newhall Square, 144 Newhall Street.

Held at New Art Gallery Walsall, AIRTIME is open to practicing visual and applied artists in the West Midlands who are looking for advice on professional matters such as insurance, promotion and funding, along with developing networks and collaborations with like-minded people.

This is a chance to gain information and tips from artists, arts organisations and other experts, including Hencilla Canworth Insurance Brokers, representatives from AIR, a-n, Companis, Coventry Artspace, Craftspace, DACS (Design and Artists Copyright Society), NAN,  New Art Gallery Walsall, Rhubarb Rhubarb, Trove, Walsall City Council Creative Development Team and other arts organisations from the region.

The events are busy and fast-paced, so make sure you have in mind the kind of information you want to get out of this unique opportunity. Places are limited and will be allocated on a first-come-first-served-basis, with some reserved especially for final year and graduating design students, so pre-booking is essential.

RSVP your name and address to airevents@a-n.co.uk with AIRTIME Walsall in subject box.