Best Believe ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥

The quintessential English emporium; Liberty of London has a series of videos on You Tube on how to style and wear ‘the scarf’ including; the chiffon knot, the Plait, the Head Scarf and as above the Pussy Bow.

Launch party Thursday 24th June from 5pm Sauce Gallery, Custard Factory Birmingham.

Merz Party, Eastside Projects, Saturday 12 June, 1-4pm, FREE.

Merz Party is about everyone making collage. With an exciting array of printed material waiting at Eastside Projects to be cut up, and stuck back together, it uses a group dynamic to generate new ideas by swapping, sharing, obliterating and adding to each others’ work. Bring your best scissors and help artist Elizabeth Rowe bring a collage revolution to Birmingham!

Lead by award winning saxophonist and rapper Soweto Kinch and featuring a stellar rostra, The Flyover Show returns to Birmingham with dynamic and challenging performances on the 29th May. Now in its third year the unconventional inner city festival transforms the grey space beneath the Hockley Flyover into an oasis of cultural expression, celebrating generations of black British music and art. For the first time this show explores the specific theme of black female identity.

This year’s Flyover Show is a week on Saturday, in Soweto’s words it is about ‘Jazz and Poetry and Hip Hop’ – well worth going to and free might I add, for more info check here. For the revolution see below…

Monday 26 April 2010 6pm – 7.30pm @ Symphony Hall, Birmingham  

 This free seminar discusses the issues that women from an Islamic background face in the urban arts sector. Are they under represented? The speakers will discuss the cultural barriers that have may have prevented them getting involved in the sector, with debate around whether this is changing through a better understanding and shift in attitudes towards contemporary music.

 There is no cost but places are limited and are offered strictly on a first come first served basis. 

 Anyone interested in attending must register for a place by emailing sophie@punch-records.co.uk clearly stating your name, email address, telephone number and the title of the seminar you wish to attend.

For more information please call Punch on 0121 224 7444 or visit our website www.punch-records.co.uk, where details of confirmed speakers will be announced.

Joint Artistic Directors of Fierce Festival, Laura McDermott and Harun Morrison invite you to Fierce Start Party!!! |||| What’s a Start Party? It’s the beginning of an exciting journey. What will be there? Fierce Festival artists sharing tasters of their work. When’s the next festival? We’ll tell you the shape of Fierce’s next year |||| A.E Harris Building,128 Northwood Street, Birmingham, Jewellery Quarter, B3 1SZ |||| Save the Date!!! |||| Thursday 15^th April |||| visit our new blog at www.wearefierce.org for additional details about the Start Party|||| Doors open from 3pm. Words at 7pm. Party from 9pm.||||

6 February – 23 May / Waterhall Birmingham Museum & Art Gallery

Since the mid-1960s Bridget Riley has been celebrated for her distinctive, optically vibrant paintings that actively engage the viewer’s sensations and perceptions.

The exhibition is a first in a new series of solo artist’s exhibitions from the Arts Council Collection; it includes the iconic Movement in Squares (1962), which Riley credits as the beginning of her breakthrough into abstraction.

The exhibition also includes paintings and over 30 works on paper from the artist’s own collection that have never been exhibited before.

A Hayward Touring Exhibition from Southbank Centre

Admission Free

Calling all Birmingham beat makers – CDR Knowledge – Beat Innervisions Birmingham comes to the Ikon Gallery next week on
Thursday 21st January. Featuring production insights from:
Morgan Zarate (Spacek)
Soundspecies (burntprogress)
And a discussion with Burnt Progress/CDR big man Tony Nwachukwu and the producers on the bill; Spacek’s Morgan Zarate and Soundspecies.
Folks will be able to gain insights into how Logic Pro was used to craft and develop one of their standout tracks. Furthermore have a chance to get to grips with Logic Pro 9 supported by CWPro and CDR community members and observe CDR community members build a track from scratch on the night!

Running Order:
7.00pm   – Working Logic – Production demonstrations / Track productions (until 9.30pm)
8.00pm   – Introduction
8.15pm   – Soundspecies
9.00pm   – Morgan Zarate
9.40pm   – ‘Open CDR’ – Tracks produced during this session played – LOUD!
10.00pm – END

To register peep here.

The project is aimed at diverse young people aged 16 -19 from inner city Birmingham (some of whom are not in education, employment and training) but who have some interest/ability in the arts. The project will focus on ideas of guerrilla craft, DIY Craft and Craftivism – with a view to developing a young people led craft collective which will then organise a series of interventions throughout the city.

More info here.

Pioneering typographer, sleeve designer and artist Swifty will be setting up shop at the Sauce Gallery in Birmingham’s Custard Factory from Saturday 12th December. Everything from originals and one off prints to T-shirts, skateboards and stickers will be for sale in The Swifty Pop Shop.

The Pop Shop, which is being brought to Birmingham by Sauce Gallery and Punch Records, will feature Swifty’s Newsagents installation. This life size shop front was partly inspired by Peter Blake’s ‘Toy Shop’ and the artist’s fond memories of a local village newsagent in Lancashire. The Shop will also be home to the A-Z of Swifty Show, including pieces based around everything from Action Man to Zebedee from the Magic Roundabout.

The Pop Shop is the latest branch of Swifty’s expansive career. Having studied design at Manchester Polytechnic, at the age of 21 he trained under Neville Brody at The Face magazine. His work at The Face and later led him to be recognised as one of the top new talents in the specialist world of typography.

In 1989 he joined the team at Straight No Chaser, a publication aimed at the jazz, jive and soul community. As art editor he drove the creative style that went on to embody the magazine as a whole. At the same time he established his own font company, Swifty Typograpfix, and spread himself between the magazine and producing fonts, record sleeves, club flyer designs and many other sidelines. Swifty dominated the scene, being the designer of choice for nearly every acid jazz label.

Punch Director Ammo Talwar said:

“Swifty is a design legend whose work cuts across all typography boundaries. Bringing the Pop Shop to Birmingham is a real scoop for the city, and will give visitors a rare opportunity to see many of Swifty’s personal projects first hand.”

The Pop Shop will be open to the public at the Sauce Gallery, 5 The Custard Factory, Gibb Street, Digbeth from 11th December to 10th January 2009. For more information visit www.punch-records.co.uk