A Blonde Farewell - Ikon Eastside 2010 closing party on 3rd December 2010
Yesterday the Birmingham Post reported that the future of Ikon Eastside is uncertain after becoming a casualty of Birmingham City Council’s arts funding cuts, which got me thinking how this would affect Digbeth. I know I’m stating the obvious here, but as it’s buzzing around in my head, better out than in….
I’ve always found Ikon Eastside to be a great gallery with interesting installations that tend to make me ponder. But it’s a lot more than just something good in itself, to me it’s always felt like a big jigsaw piece that helps makes up the whole that is Digbeth’s cultural quarter (or whatever it is). The many art launch nights in conjunction with VIVID and Eastside Projects, more recently joined by Grand Union, have meant that many have begun to experience local arts in bulk along an informal trail rather than visiting single exhibitions.
It’s also great to see how the organisations interact with each other and grow as a community – from the launch of We Are Eastside to watching some Grand Union people helping Ikon Eastside dismantle AVPD’s Hitchcock Hallway exhibition to repurpose the plywood into God knows what. Seeing the network grow into something that supports itself in big and little ways has been exciting and felt full of potential.
No doubt if Ikon Eastside does close the rest of the community will adjust and cope, but it would mean a very big change in the local arts scene for both artists and audiences and make Digbeth’s cultural community feel very different. It made me think how I’d feel if The Spotted Dog pub were to close – sure, I’d drink in one of the other great local pubs, but it would feel like things had drastically changed and something special that was part of the core of things had gone.
The IKON didn’t produce ANYTHING substantial this year, and the year before. The same old crap. No value for people. It is deserved to be dead! I hope it will will die peacefully without making any troubles. Artmakers MUSt realise that the time when they could fool people HAS GONE for good!
A lttle bit of a harsh response there, know what you mean, but there’s room for all kinds of stuff out there, and if you don’t like it, best ignore it and engage with the stuff you do like. IE does add something to the Digbeth mix in that it is a presence from one of the ‘big boys’ and having that alongside the more (or less) independent and artist-led groups adds weight for what they are trying to do, for some people. Losing stuff like this is not something I want to see, despite it not being my cup of tea either. We’re all going to need to look to less dependent ways of working, not relying on funding, and making stuff work more commercially, collaboratively and relevant, without the cushion of public money. No bad thing IM(not particularly)HO.
Skyward ho!
It’s never good when a creative venue closes as it’s usually been a long time in the making, but I don’t find it surprising. The only way I ever find out whats going on is through these blogs and sites.. an it’s often been and gone by that point. I can see the points of the previous commenteers and particularly the idea of “less dependent ways of working, not relying on funding, and making stuff work more commercially, collaboratively and relevant, without the cushion of public money.”
We’re ALL gonna have to come up with some REALLY good ideas or dig out the lucky underwear if we’re to ride this storm out. Good luck people, be careful out there
Hmmm…can’t say I agree with Jhon that Ikon Eastside have produced *nothing* substantial in the last year, but I guess that’s often a matter of personal taste. As well as a good installation space for Ikon, it’s also proved to be a great venue space for performances and happenings from the likes of Capsule, 7 Inch Cinema and International Dance Festival Birmingham, so more than Ikon’s usual arts audience will miss it.
Hopefully, as Lee says, ways will emerge of these things sustaining themselves when the funding runs out. Fingers crossed and lucky underwear on…
I am more interested in the artist run spaces in Digbeth and the up and coming scene – never really understood why we needed another Ikon, the existing one does it’s own thing perfectly well. Not sure how relevant it’s very specific brand of international art is to many people, but we obviously do need a contemporary art gallery of that type in a ‘global’ city like Brum.
But don’t forget Ikon already gets a lot of funding to run the Brindley place venue. Muscling in on Digbeth after the artist led pioneers started to build a scene there means they are soaking up even more ACE and BCC funds. That money could go to more deserving ventures – who could offer a lot more value and variety for the same amount of money.
Looking at the recent cuts and how the large, city-centre building based institutions have hooverd up all the cash, leaving non for the smaller guys, I find it hard to see how a compelling case can be made to save Ikon Eastside?
I’ve seen some good stuff there and an equal amount of lame stuff too. It is a loss of sorts, but the major instituations, Ikon amon them, should be considered lucky and should be asking themselves how they can do more to support the city’s smaller arts ventures, many of whom have just been effectively cut.
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Just for the record Ikon has not been used as a venue for Capsule events, but has been for Flatpack Festival. Having said that it would be a shame to see it go as a fair amount of time, effort and funds have gone into setting it up. It’s also worth noting that VIVID, Capsule Punch, Birmingham Jazz all of whom work in Eastside were either cut or not taken forward for RFO funding by BCC. So let’s be clear that many arts organisations are going through difficult times and will need to look at innovative ways of making activity happen in the future.
Lisa – I think I was thinking about the screening of ‘Burning’, which Flatpack Festival did in association with Capsule, sorry for the confusion.
I see another Eastside arts organisation suffering from the BCC cuts is ACE dance and music, who have a dance studio on Floodgate Street which is their base an incredible amount of education work as well as professional development. I know a good number of the ACE Youth company progress on to professional dance training – hopefully they can find ways of maintaining their vital work despite the funding cuts.
Whatever happens, with so many affected arts organisations based in the area, it’s looking likely these cuts will mean some quite big changes to Digbeth’s landscape.
I’ve worked in the Eastside area of brum for the last few years and I can safely say that should Ikon Eastside close for good this would be a major loss for the area’s network of arts venues and the keeping up of high profile goings on. There needs to be more on Fazeley Street not less!
£200,000 a year (as stated in b’ham post) does seem an awful lot to keep a small venue running though – is there not a cheaper more efficient way to have Ikon in Eastside?!
I’ll certainly be aiming to frequent Ikon Eastside again next year when they host some of Flatpack Festival.
“but there’s room for all kinds of stuff out there, and if you don’t like it, best ignore it and engage with the stuff you do like.”
Such attitude brings failure. The attitude of IKON was “if you don’t like it-it is your problem, just get lost”. It is not suppose to be the attitude of the place which people actually sponsored. Have IKON gave something back to those who paid for it? Practically nothing. Cheap art installations, cheap ideas which don’t connect to the lives of real people around. It is very easy to giving something back like open-call exhibition for everybody who wants to try its luck in ART, DESIGN, FILM and other creative stuff,-was it organized?I didn’t hear about such initiative. IKON didn’t use its art power to change peoples lives in Birmingham. Most art installations were produced just for entertainment purposes. I strongly believe that using ART for entertainment is like using the Hubble telescope to look into the windows of your neighbours,-it can be very entertaining, but why should such time-wasting activity be sponsored by others?
ART must deliver strong value for people, and I’m sure it can deliver. At present IKON didn’t produce such value for the money it was paid and many people afraid to say that openly.
It is time for those in ART who receive the public money to realize that they are there not for fun and easy life, but they have responsibility as well.
The quality of installations at IKON is well below even of many BA graduation shows at art universities in UK.