Sima Gonsai at New Art Gallery Walsall

Artist and one of last years Platinum Alumni Sima Gonsai is now Artist in Residence at The New Art Gallery Walsall!

“This spring, Birmingham-based film maker and ‘cyclist explorer’ Sima Gonsai will be exploring all corners of the Walsall borough on her bike. By following the routes and directions suggested by local residents, Sima will create an alternative map of the town based on personal stories, collective memories and local folklore.

Sima will be using the Artists’ Studio at The New Art Gallery Walsall as a base to recharge, fix any punctures and write up all the stories gathered.”

Last year Cycle Dialogues was part of the Fierce! Festival programme and you can see Sima talk about Cycle Dialogues on FierceTV. Sima follows in fellow Platinum artists Feng-Ru Lee or Milee the Sheep who took up residency last August.

Sima will be Artist in Residence until 10th May 2009 and will be holding Open Studio Event on Thursday 30th April, 2- 4pm – ALL Welcome!

Hip Hop Shakespeare with Akala

25th April 2009

Vivid – 140 Heathmill Lane, Birmingham

BBC Blast, The Hip Hop Shakespeare Company in partnership with Punch Records, are running a free lyric writing and performance workshop with MOBO-award winning hip-hop artist Akala.

The workshop is aimed at (but not limited to!) young people aged 13-19 years old in both schools and youth clubs who are considered ‘hard to reach’ and who may not ordinarily be interested in Shakespeare and his work. We’ll be demonstrating how modern hip-hop shares many similarities with the themes, language and rhythm used by The Bard.

This is a chance to build young people’s self-confidence and unlock their creative and artistic abilities by having them write and perform their own rap lyrics based on a theme from one of Shakespeare’s plays, giving them a platform to showcase their creative ideas and works, and with guidance from leading industry professionals.

If you’d like more details and/or would like to register for a place, email blastsupport@bbc.co.uk

www.hiphopshakespeare.com

Exciting Intern Opportunity with Fierce

We currently have an exciting intern opportunity for someone looking to expand knowledge and expertise within a long-standing arts organisation.

The internship will be a short placement of 6 – 8 weeks and will involve the following tasks:

Contribute towards a new communications strategy

Follow up on Momentum project

Provide administrative and project support

General office duties

Fierce is a busy office managing a range of projects and this will give anyone looking for relevant experience in the arts sector something to really get their teeth into! (And has been known to open doors to paid work opportunities)

If you are interested or would like to find out more about the internship call 0121 244 8080.

Are you looking for a work space of your own?

Are you a free-lance creative in need of inspiring office space?

We have a desk space for rent at the Fierce Earth office – for a bargain £200 a month (plus VAT) we can offer you:

A dedicated desk space with pedestal cabinet (with filing cabinet if required) – no hot desking here!

1 x computer with access to internet (subject to confidentiality agreement)

PLUS Free wi-fi access for a lap top

Complimentary tea and coffee

Heat, light and utilities

Meeting room facilities (by arrangement)

Phone land line available (by arrangement and for an extra fee)

Excellent City Centre location – with pay car park nearby

Opportunity to work in a creative environment and pick our brains for free

Fantastic networking opportunities and great views of the City!

Desk available NOW: 6 month licence agreement with 1 months’ notice either way. First month payable in advance.

If you are interested please contact Helga at helga@fierceearth.com or call 0121 244 8080 to come and see the space.

Sing Hallelujah – Reverend Billy is coming!

Reverend Billy and his Gospel Choir of Life after Shopping are coming to Birmingham on 29th May at Ikon Gallery as part of his ‘The UK Shopocalypse Tour’ .

The show will be part of Fierce! Festival’s year round programme for 2009 and sees Fierce! partnering with our friends at the Ikon Gallery.

Reverend Billy will arrive from the US with his Choir of Life after Shopping on to appear in Birmingham, his only Midlands gig, on Friday 29th May for an early evening performance outside the Ikon Gallery in Brindley Place at 5.30pm, so if you feel that we’re suffering from shopping overload, if you’re concerned about a world rife with global advertising, multi-national control, global warming, packaging and supermarket domination in a profit driven and dirty world, then bring your placards and come on down, because help is at hand!

Reverend Billy is an infamous New York-based performance artist and activist who is banned from every Starbucks in the US. Here is some of Rev Billy in action from YouTube.

Whilst in Birmingham for ‘The UK Shopocalypse’ Reverend Billy will be looking to engage with local groups who empathise with his beliefs of:

• Supporting and advocating sustainable consumption
• Encouraging and establishing strong local economies
• Defending free speech, peaceful assembly and public space

If you would like to help inform Reverend Billy’s trip to Birmingham call 0121 244 8080.

Wunderbar Festival – a new Festival for the North East of England

November 6 – 15 2009.

Fierce is leading the development of a dynamic new festival, the first of which will take place across the North East of England from 6 – 15 November 2009. Centred initially around Newcastle Gateshead, the Wunderbar Festival is a biennial Live Art and Performance Festival – an international festival with a regional heart, bringing high quality, contemporary artists and work from around the world to the North East of England.

Wunderbar will present an eclectic programme of new live work, performances, visual art, installations and extraordinary happenings. produced in collaboration with a broad range of the region’s established venues, companies and artists, exploring opportunities to create extraordinary work across every scale. Wunderbar will produce the bravest of collaborations, mixing the experimental with the mainstream, the largest world-renowned organisations with the most singular independent artists and presenting the most unusual of spectacles in everyday spaces and places. Key partners include Culture 10, Dance City, Northern Stage, Baltic, Locus+, Theatre Royal, Sage, Culture Lab, Tyne and Wear Museums, the NE Cultural Olympiad and Tyneside Cinema, alongside many others.

Wunderbar Festival’s ethos is to place the audience at the very heart of the experience. It will be strongly rooted in the region, offering opportunities for local and regional artists and companies to raise their game and find an international stage for their own work, with a programme that will rapidly put the North East on the map as a hotbed of dynamic contemporary arts.