The first Visualise Festival will be held on 21 – 31 October, as a major celebration of young people’s visual creativity. They’re calling for anyone under the age of 24 to submit their artwork as part of the Young People’s Open Visual Art Competition, which will hold a high profile exhibition in Birmingham City centre.

All forms of artwork are accepted (apart from films), and must be no bigger than A3 in size. There are also some prizes up for grabs and will be awarded to 1st, 2nd and 3rd place entries in each of the age brackets, along with an art box for every shortlisted entry.

Deadline for entries is 4th October 2010, and notification of selected entries will be made during the week commencing 18 October.

For more information, visit the Visualise-Birmingham website, or contact the Visualise team at info@visualise-birmingham.org or by calling 07886 367 544 or 07971 824 188

A celebration of young people’s written and spoken words. Verbalise showcases the talents of Birmingham’s emerging spoken word artists and performance poets, kicking off with a series of Saturday afternoon workshops led by renowned spoken word artist PolarBear. Verbalise culminates in two days of performances, in and around Birmingham City Centre and appearances as part of the Young Readers festival in Birmingham Central Library and at Aston Hall’s Book Bash.

And Visualise, which is slated for the end of October 2010:

At its heart will be a major open visual arts competition for young people of all ages, to be hosted in a high profile city centre venue. The festival will also offer the chance to see the work of other arts and community organisations from across the city, working with young people and the visual arts.

A coordinator is needed for that one, if you’re interested.