You are currently browsing the category archive for the 'News' category.
Wednesday 9 December
6pm onwards
Graft present an evening of experimental performance from three emerging UK artists.
This exciting event is to launch ARC, a new monthly event in which regional curators will be invited to present new and existing works in The Vaults’ unique space.
Alongside new commissions by Institution of Meaningful Interaction; Mark Baldwin; and Sarah Ruff, graft present an experimental open mic zone for new performance, and performance surgeries for emergent practitioners.
For further details, please email arc.birmingham@googlemail.com
A festive party full of family fun!
Make your way to Kings Heath this Saturday and really get into the festive spirit. You can spend some quality time with Santa, wander the Christmas market and fair, listen to the choirs and bands or nip to the Vintage Market at the Hare & Hounds. All with some rum punch and Christmas cake chucked in for good measure!
For a programme of events – click here.
This month is the 10-year anniversary of Birmingham’s most innovative art and music producers and our friends, Capsule. For 10 years Capsule have been bringing some of the most exciting, frightening, and beautiful music and international audiences to the city, and now invite everybody to join them in celebrating this momentous occasion.
Don’t miss…
Wednesday 2 December
Tunng + Six Organs Of Admittance
Lightning Dust + Bela Emerson
Town Hall, Birmingham
Doors 7.00pm
Special guests include old friends Tunng who combine a perfect mixture of skewed electronica and pastoral English Folk music. Six Organs of Admittance, psych-folk-pop, hippie jams updated for the kids of today. Lightning Dust, the side project of Amber Webber and Joshua Wells, both members of Canadian band Black Mountain. Complimented by the bewitching Bela Emerson, an innovative and prolific performer of electric cello, electronics, tenor viol and musical saw.
To book advance tickets call 0121 780 3333 or visit www.thsh.co.uk.
Here’s to many more exciting years of Capsule!
Helga’s most recent column for Birmingham Post is online now: ‘Helga Henry: 1999 was a special year for Birmingham culturally’
‘What was in the water in Birmingham in 1999?
There must have been a strange cultural karma or zeitgeist – Jonathan Watkins became director of the Ikon Gallery, it was the formation of both Capsule and Tindal Street Press, and it was the first Rhubarb-Rhubarb International Portfolio Review.
Fierce Earth was a toddling two-year-old in 1999.
We marked the passage into our second decade with our largest ever festival which included the now legendary Ballet on the Buses and the eerily beautiful Tunnel Vision.
And our cultural younger siblings are also celebrating.
Tindal Street are launching Roads Ahead, an anthology of stories edited by Catherine O’Flynn.
She will also be reading from What Was Lost (my top read of 2008) together with the rest of the Tindal St Three, Clare Morrall and Gaynor Arnold.
All featured in this national prize long list in the last six years.
A stonking 12 out of Tindal Street’s 48 books have had national prize listings – where is the blue plaque for Tindal Street in Balsall Heath?
The 10th International Portfolio Review capped off a red letter year for Rhubarb, following the world premier of Obama’s People (which opened last week in London).
Attracting 100,000 visitors to the Museum and Art Gallery, the show generated over £4 million to the visitor economy.
Capsule’s season of 10th birthday celebrations kicks off with a suitably eclectic line up at the Town Hall in early December.
When I asked Rhonda at Rhubarb, Alan of Tindal Street and Jenny and Lisa at Capsule to consider what it took to survive the last turbulent decade, they had similar responses.
They highlighted what Alan called a “survival instinct” and what Capsule considered to be “stubbornness and determination”.
Rhonda mentioned the battle for recognition at home and needing at all times to trust yourself.
But allied to that all mentioned a need to respond to changing circumstances, to improve continually and to keep your artistic integrity while aligning yourself to your marketplace and your audience.
Of plans for a Museum of Modern Art, Jonathan has said: “The opportunities here are so exciting. There’s so much here, and there’s so much about the city that I really, really like. Where would I go to do something as exciting? Ikon without a museum isn’t bad, but with an affiliated museum I can’t think of anything else like it.” Tindal Street and Capsule want to grow sales and grow artistically.
I’ll leave the last word with Rhonda – it is a rallying cry for us all in the next ten years: “We have a plan, the credibility to action it and the knowledge to make
it work – what we need now is for Birmingham to realise its assets in the arts and creative industry world.”’
Here’s to another 10 years!
Terry Grimley from the Birmingham Post recently met with Fierce’s newly appointed artistic directors, Laura and Harun. His article appeared in last weeks post and is online now.
They talk about their past, the Fierce legacy, the future and moving to Birmingham:
‘Initially, I assumed that McDermott and Morrison would not be lured away from the London scene and that Fierce! would be in for a period of programming by remote control. In fact, I could not have been more wrong.
“A lot of people seem to assume that, but for us it doesn’t seem possible not to come and be embedded in the city,” says Laura. “I think the really big discovery for me so far is the incredible energy here.”
“We feel that Birmingham is on the cusp of having its moment as the next big cultural centre,” says Harun.’
Terry’s meeting comes following the announcement of their appointment and Anna Blackaby’s coverage ‘Fierce Festival takes on new artistic directors’ and our blog post here.
We’re excited about what the future holds, we hope you are too!
On Monday Helga’s most recent column for the Birmingham Post went to print, you can find it here.
“Fierce Earth recently announced the exciting arrival of its new joint Artistic Directors, Laura McDermott and Harun Morrison. Hailing from London, most recently from Battersea Arts Centre, relocating to Birmingham later in the year…
So how best to introduce Laura and Harun to the city and its creative and cultural life? In particular, what hidden gems could they find in the region beyond the usual suspects.
To find out, I did what is now called “crowdsourcing”, but in my day was known as “asking around”. What follows is a selection of my creative colleagues’ brilliant ideas. I don’t have space to name-check them here but, thank you, you know who you are!
From our office in the Jewellery Quarter, they could nip into the Pen Museum and make their own steel pen using Victorian presses. Or the button factory at Toye, Kenning & Spencer.
In addition to the world-class Pre-Raphaelite paintings at the Museum and Art Gallery, they could enjoy the Burne-Jones stained glass windows at St Phillips Cathedral, then the Pugin architecture of St Chad’s.
You encounter the creative city where it socialises. The Rainbow on Digbeth High St, coffee and patisseries at Maison Mayçi, Kings Heath, fabulous Thai food and architecture at Bartons Arms, Newtown.
My personal hidden gem, Russells on Lozells Road, for a feast of mutton soup, chicken and dumplings, rice and peas washed down with tropical “Sexy”.
Perhaps you only truly know Birmingham once you’ve travelled the entire Outer Circle bus route. Perhaps Laura and Harun could join the psychogeographers of www.birminghamitsnotshit.co.uk. Every 11 November, they board the 11C for eleven hours, disembarking at ten that night, having documented the experience (and taking breaks of up to 30 minutes wherever they fancy).
Probably because our suburbs are essentially a network of connecting villages, they are a fund of under-appreciated treasures, including Moseley private park, home of Moseley Folk Festival, Perrot’s Folly in Edgbaston and Saint Nicolas Place at Kings Norton Green (one of the oldest collection of Tudor buildings in the UK). One is never far from a green space, be it Cofton Park, Cannon Hill or the Waseley and Lickey Hills.
At this rate, Laura and Harun will have an unusually pleasant induction process! Discovering Birmingham’s treasures can take a lifetime. By showing our city off to newcomers, we discover it ourselves.”
Can you suggest any more of Birmingham’s hidden treasures?
Fierce! Festival heralds new artistic era with appointment of directors
Following an extensive search which attracted international interest, Fierce! Festival are delighted to announce the appointment of its new artistic leaders. Heralding the transition into the next phase of Fierce!’s life, the Board today announced the appointment of Laura McDermott and Harun Morrison as the new Joint Artistic Directors of Fierce! Festival and its related year round programme of work.
Since the departure of Mark Ball, who left his role as founder and artistic director of Fierce to take up the helm at LIFT (London International Festival of Theatre), Fierce! Festival embarked on a search for a new leader. The board wanted a talented individual to maintain Fierce’s role as a vital pioneering organisation and to create a new artistic vision to build on the success of this award winning brand, its internationally acclaimed festival and ground breaking development work. They are delighted to have discovered two such individuals.
Laura and Harun applied jointly with a compelling vision for festival and the region. Talented producers in their own right, with highly developed curatorial voices, between them McDermott and Morrison have worked as producers at Greenwich + Dockland’s Festivals, LIFT and the Royal Opera House. The foundation of their collaboration developed at the award-winning BAC (Battersea Arts Centre) where they have worked together for the last 4 years. Laura has extensive experience of producing work in found, unusual, or outdoor spaces and in a music festival context, both for Glastonbury in the UK and the vinspired Lake of Stars festival in Malawi. Harun has worked extensively in the visual arts sector for Whitechapel Art Gallery, South London Gallery, INIVA and this summer will be working for Tate Modern on their annual Summer Institute project.
Recent standout projects they have worked on during their time at BAC include the Punchdrunk and BAC production The Masque of the Red Death (2007-8), a building-wide performance across all 71 spaces of the former Victorian town hall, which was listed in The Guardian by Lyn Gardner as one of nine ‘Productions that Transformed Theatre’; the BAC and Time Out Young Critics scheme, which developed and showcased the critical voices of under-25-year-olds; and for 2009’s BURST festival, performances by Dries Verhoeven for the foyer payphone, Amy Sharrocks for Battersea Park’s boating lake and Rotozaza for the local ASDA supermarket.
Chair of Fierce! Fesitval, Alan Rivett said: “We are delighted to welcome such a vibrant and dynamic duo to Fierce! We seem to have skipped a generation but not skimped on quality! They have an impeccable pedigree and this new appointment can only further the vision, commitment and international outlook of the arts in the West Midlands. I believe that, together, Laura and Harun with the wider Fierce! team, will re-interpret for a new age Fierce!’s longstanding reputation for wonder and spectacle, excitement and danger, confrontation and intrigue.”
In responding to the news of their appointment, Laura and Harun said: “On our way to the interview we did a straw-poll, asking passers-by: ‘If you could bring any live event to Birmingham what would it be?’ A man called Martin collecting for RNLI, a young guy called Jay Ahmed, and a woman called Ashley in an Afro-Carribean hair care shop each gave us challenging, creative, demanding answers. We want future Fierce! events to be as provocative, enabling and eye-opening as those answers. We want to create a program born from this spirit of dialogue with Birmingham which can resonate throughout the UK and beyond.”
For contact details and full press release please click here.
As part of this year’s ‘year round’ programme Fierce! Festival are collaborating with friends at Capsule as part of the upcoming Supersonic Festival – we hope you can make it!
“Fierce! can claim to be the Hay-on-Wye of performance art, the Glastonbury of experimental theatre” Daily Telegraph
“If this is Birmingham, I can’t wait to move back” Audience Member
As it enters its second decade of operation, Fierce! Festival enters a new era.
Following the departure to LIFT of its founder and artistic director, Mark Ball, Fierce! Festival seeks a new artistic director to build on the success of this award winning brand, its internationally acclaimed festival and ground breaking development work.
Are you adept at discovering the world’s best artists and presenting their work in unusual places and spaces? Are you an inspiring, enterprising and experienced artistic and cultural leader, with the vision, commitment and international outlook to change the landscape of the arts in the West Midlands? Do you want to build and grow both audience and partnerships that will ensure a bright future for the festival and its year round activity? Then this could be the role for you.
For full details and a job pack please e-mail helga@fierceearth.com or download the pdf here.
Closing date for submissions Monday 8 June at midnight
Fierce! Festival Limited is supported by:
Recent Comments