feeding the five thousand » The Event

Visitors check out the extended gallery outside Eastside Projects

Crowd6

Stan's Cafe at Eastside Projects

Morris Dancers. Limousines, Book Fairs and hundreds of visitors made The Event launch a memorable one. We took a few snaps to show those of you that couldn’t make it just what you missed…

Grand Union Artists' Book Fair

The audience watching Juneau Projects at Eastside Projects

Mona Casey Projects

Crowd6

Morris Dancers lead the crowd to Eastside Projects

Grand Union

We’ve had a busy day at The Event welcoming guests from around the UK to see what we are up to.

The Family taste testing.

John Hammersley invites people to talk…

Mona Casey Projects

Checking out Eastside Project’s new one -night-only gallery space.

Visitors buying books at Grand Union.

Calum F. Kerr’s Book Coat.

Transit Station making a new sculpture.

OK now we are off to the launch…

We took our rainbow umbrella through the showers and gave visitors to the Custard Factory some Kool-Aid while they sheltered from the rain, and did some circular cloud stepping to send them on their way with good energy. Then we sent droned acoustic energy bouncing around the space.

On day two street music and games were on the agenda for our afternoon activity, and we circled round people to try to break the chains of the cult they were enslaved by, played levitating songs, and gave Transit Station a steady rhythm to work to as we experimented with the acoustics under(neath) the arches.

More Here

We are very excited to launch the first day of The Event 09 today and have been busy taking pictures of all the venues to give you a sneaky preview of the spaces.

So here is a visual tour of the spaces and an idea of what our guided tours look like.

Starting at Eastside Cafe on Coventry Street (where you can find The Event staffed Information Point from 12pm-5pm) we walked to the end of the street and over Digbeth High Street on to Rea Street to take a look at The Anchor Inn where Mark Essen will be hosting his Record Exchange Celebration and The Event Brew on Thursday 5th November.

From there we walked up Bradford Street to see Crowd6’s exhibition – What Takes Place. The artist collective have utilised new artist led-space The Lombard Method at 68a Lombard Street to host their latest project.

Leaving Crowd6 we crossed over to Alcester Street and walked across Digbeth High Street using the crossing point by The Irish Centre opposite the Custard Factory. This small crossing point is where John Hammersley will be inviting members of the public to engage in dialogue on Friday 6th November from 9am-5pm.

Once on the opposite side of the road we turned right on to Floodgate Street (next to South Birmingham College) to see the industrial space taken over by Mona Casey Projects (119 Floodgate Street). The Space Between, Surrounds Our Desire is housed in a former factory unit. Kept purposefully raw the work is mounted and displayed on raw MDF and cardboard structures.

Directly across the road from Mona Casey Projects is the Rea Street Garden which is home to Alex Lockett and Ian England’s Project Pigeon presented by [insertspace]. The small piece of green land is a welcome haven in the concrete and built up environment of Eastside and is home to 12 reared homing Pigeons. You can visit the loft from 2-4pm on Friday 6, Saturday 7 and Sunday 8.

Carrying on the walk we continued to the end of Floodgate Street, turned right on to Fazeley Street and right again on to Heath Mill Lane to visit Eastside Projects (86 Heath Mill Lane).

As well as hosting the Abstract Cabinet Show Eastside Projects will host one new piece and two new performances on Friday evening. The first will be an ongoing dialogue from international touring theatre group Stan’s Cafe; the second is a live performance by Juneau Projects and the third is an extension to the gallery space in the form of a Limousine to showcase a selection of new publications.

Backtracking slightly we walked back towards Fazeley Street to visit Grand Union’s new artist space. Housed in an industrial unit Grand Union put the finishing touches to their space yesterday and are ready to host their Artists’ Publishing Fair and performance by Calum F. Kerr on Friday.

Throughout the next 5 days Transit Station will move around Digbeth building sculptures out of wood in open spaces. Harminder Singh Judge, S Mark Gubb and Gian Paolo Cottino will be deconstructing one of Bob and Roberta Smith’s 3 metre wooden cube CCA (Centre for Contemporary Art) sculptures and rebuilding it in to, yet unknown, pieces of art.

Our final call was to Birmingham Central Backpackers at 58 Coventry Street to engage with The Family. Brightly clothed with equally bright and sunny attitudes The Family soothed us with fun yet calming exercise.

You can join The Family everyday until Sunday from 10am and 2pm for taster sessions – or if you would like to live the family life for 24-hours then call 07806 50 27 26 to book your space.

Free guided tours of THE EVENT leave from Eastside Cafe at 3pm daily. No need to book in advance just turn up at 2.45pm.

Come help shape The Family’s activities by joining them in some song writing and singing in the lovely Lickey Hills woods.

They will be meeting at the Lickey Hills terminus of the number 62 West Midlands Travel bus route at noon. The 62 comes straight down Bristol Road from the city centre. Bring packed lunch and/or snacks and maybe some kind of musical instrument/percussion.

Sunday, 4th October 2009
12:00 – 15:00
Lickey Hills
Lickey Road, B45 8UX
Birmingham, United Kingdom

12:00 – 16:00
This is a lead-in event for the a.a.s. project in The Event

The Rea Garden
Floodgate Street
Birmingham
B5 5ST

More information: TROVE

15:00 – 17:00
A representative of BCAF will be present at this a-n networking event.

School of Art, Margaret Street, Birmingham City University.

Open to all visual and applied artists, AIR TIME events are designed to provide information and tips from artists, arts organisations and other experts on professional matters such as insurance, negotiation and funding your practice, alongside opportunities to meet and network with like-minded artists. Some places will be reserved especially for final-year art and design graduates.

Contributors include Mike McCormack (Hencilla Canworth Insurance Brokers), artists and experts including representatives from AIR, a-n, Art Lounge, Arts Council England,Birmingham Contemporary Art Forum, Creative Alliance, Coventry A rtspace, DACS (Design and Artists Copyright Society),Designer Maker West Midlands, Eastside Projects, Friction Arts, Grand Union, Ikon Gallery , NAN, The Edge, Three White Walls and Vivid.

Event organised by a-n The Artists Information Company on behalf of AIR: Artists’ Interaction and Representation, in partnership with DACS and Birmingham City University

AIR – Artists Interaction and Representation is the membership scheme for practising visual and applied artists that is an integral aspect of the Artist subscription provided by a-n The Artists Information Company
www.a-n.co.uk/AIR.

Pre-booking is essential as places are limited.

To reserve a place contact AIR@a-n.co.uk with AIR TIME 09 Birmingham in the subject box.