cease trading as a retail operation and are now investigating ways to move the organisation towards a new model, offering valuable exhibition space and meeting rooms at it’s city centre location, whilst still working to support the local creative community

So it’s not closing yet, it’s just not going to be a shop anymore. No doubt there’ll be more to come on what the new model will look like but in the meantime I’d like to congratulate everyone involved for what they’ve managed to pull off over the past eight months and wish them all the best for the next phase.

• Goldie does Diggers « As One Arts
  ‘Diggers’?
• compliment sandwich
  From this bio on their Twitter account, compliment sandwich is the “Podcast by the people who brought you juneau projects (Ben Sadler & Phil Duckworth)”
• Digbeth is Good » For What?
  Nicky spots the link
• Digbeth is Good » An artsy What’s On for tonight
  “There’s an awful lot going on this evening, so here’s a very quick round-up”
• Tom Tebby – Chop – Drinks Reception, Opening Party. | We Are Birmingham
  New exhibition opening downstairs at We Are Birmingham. “There will be drinks reception this Saturday, 19th February, from 6.30pm onwards and we would love to see you all there”.

Featuring new pieces and a selection of more familiar, reworked pieces, the exhibition will consist of detailed montages rendered across wooden panels and canvases.

Inspired by inner-city sprawl, discarded objects, architectural foliage and influenced by Avant Garde posters and decollage, the familiar and mundane are transformed into unexpected environments. Many of the works spread out like chaotic viruses and others dwell in a post-apocalyptic world where dereliction and organic mass have fused.

For more information, take a look at the Facebook event page, plus more of his work can be found on Flickr. The exhibition continues until 5 March.

Brilliantly Birmingham kicked off together with the fifth annual FLUX exhibition, Aedas Presents launched a new monthly art programme and Art of Ideas finally arrived with a host of associated events running over four days.

The We Are Birmingham Shop opened its doors with a drinks reception, Chris gave a debrief of the Arts Council briefing on funding and the West Midlands creative jobs board, Jobplot, returned with a fresh makeover.

November also saw the launch of The Pilot Project, Jennifer Tee’s exhibition, Memento Park opened at Eastside Projects, and Chris attended the wedding of the year.

Lucy McLauchlan returned with her paintbrushes to add something a little interesting to the Moseley Road hoardings, while VIVID launched their latest project, Language, and as December approached, the Christmas fairs sprung into action.

As winter kicked in, we bid a Blonde Farewell to Ikon Eastside, got crafty with Craftspace, said hello to Creative Central and looked ahead to Flatpack and Fierce’s joint 2011 venture.

A quick message from the folks at We Are Birmingham;

Four months after Pete asked Birmingham’s creative communities for help, the We Are Birmingham shop is very nearly ready to open. We start trading on Saturday morning at 10am but before then we want to have a little drinks reception to thank everyone for their help and support and to announce stage two of this project.

Please come to the shop on Dale End at 6.30 on Friday evening. There’ll be a very short speech in our gallery after which we’ll give you a tour of the spaces above the shop. It’ll all be over by 7.30.

• Work in the shop
• Be a volunteer
• Sell your work there

Get involved, they’re working very hard and doing a very good thing. Or help them out by passing the information on to others or donating some cash.