Getting involved – Friction Arts work towards bringing the Eastside artistic community and local Digbeth and Highgate residents closer together, because let’s face it, they often feel miles apart at the moment. It seems it’s time for some great, practical action:
So we’ve come up with some opportunities for others to get involved in their local community. On September the 4th we are running ‘Highgate Funday’, in Highgate park next to the Paragon hotel (or the Rowton house, as older members of the community call it). The funday is intended to be an event where ‘Royston Vasey meets the Bouncy Castle’ – if you get the picture, and we’re working with community groups and individuals in the area to showcase some of their skills alongside artists that live or work in the area. The idea is to create links between Highgate and their neighbours working in Eastside – at present there may as well be a twenty foot wall between them. So we’ll be having the usual funday stuff like face painting, food stalls, etc, but there’ll also be some art interventions and displays as well.
This will be followed, over the next couple of weekends, by the ‘Inside Out Festival’, where we’ll be making a series of exhibitions, interventions, film screenings and the like, leading from Highgate into deepest Eastside – bringing Highgate residents across to Eastside and Eastside denizens across to Highgate. So, if you are an artist who lives or works in the area and you’d like an opportunity to put something back into the community you inhabit, please get in touch and we’ll find a way for you to be included – we have a small budget for this, but all the actual work is being done on a voluntary basis, so we can only offer to cover expenses. We promise it’ll be fun, and you’ll get that nice, warm glow from doing something unselfish – and who knows, you might get to develop friendships with your neighbours. Now wouldn’t that be great?
More Great Stuff from Friction | – Friction Arts have been very busy with the vital Heard And Not Seen project in Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery (until 22nd August), which has attracted a lot of a lot of ‘nicely controversial’ local and national media coverage:
‘…in light of all the recent hooha around Europe about various ‘burka bans’ in the offing. It’s clear that the need for the project is greater than ever – so let’s get talking!’
Next Thursday there’s action back at the Edge, Cheapside with a seminar evening with Isaura Mendes of the Bobby Mendes Peace Legacy, Boston USA. The theme for the evening is ‘A Legacy of Peace?’. Join them from 6pm next Thurs 22nd July for will no doubt be a night of lively and important discussion.
fizzPOP – Fancy circuit-bending your cuddly friends? Sign up to join fizzPOP in hack-a-toy on Wednesday 9th June 6pm-10pm at The Edge, Cheapside for only £3 per person as subs.
The Edge – Friction Arts’ The Edge venue on Cheapside has a brand new website! The site contains full details about what’s been happening and is coming up, the facilities available for visitors to use and ‘a policy of open call-out to all artists, performers, community and voluntary groups that are interested in using the Edge for shows, events, exhibitions or workshops’. Lee from Friction Arts says:
We are working hard on creating a new identity for the Edge and what goes on there – so I’ve created a new website specifically for the space at www.edgearts.com . We’re also issuing an open call-out for people to come and do stuff at the space – whether it is an exhibition, installation, performance, workshop, film screening, jelly fight or whatever, and have posted info about all that here. Exciting times are ahead (and behind and all around us). Never thought I’d get excited about the opening of a Costcutters either!
At the Edge… – What kind of Fool are you? « We Are Eastside | Birmingham – Friction Arts have ‘an overwhelming series of offers over the next two weeks’ and asked me to post up the details. From this Friday, they have a residency by Jonathan Kay and the Nomadic Academy of Fools. Jonathan is a man ‘on a mission to reach new places with his fools and very, very, funny. For those of you who don’t consider yourself Theatre goers, this is not Theatre as we know it…so challenge yourself to a new experience.’ Here’s how:
Shows:
Fri 19th March at 8pm, ‘Know One’s Fool’ – improvised wonder from Jonathan Kay himself
Sun 21st until Wed 24th March inclusive at 8pm – ‘Shakespeare’s Richard II Scratch’ – ‘a magical performance without props or set, where the cast play all the parts’
Friday 26th March at 8pm – ‘Feast of Fools’ – performances by all the fools of a comedie de tragik nature’
Workshops:
Sat 20th – Sun 21st March, 10am until 6pm ‘Know One’s Fool’ – discover the dangerously daring art of fooling
Sat 27th- Sun 28th March 10am until 6pm ‘Know One’s Fool’ – discover the dangerously daring art of fooling again (some people are attending both workshops, recommended)
All workshops and performances at The Edge, 79-81 Cheapside, Digbeth, Birmingham B12 0QH. To experience ‘unforgettable work that will remain with you forever’ contact Jo Tremarco 07506 739579 or jotremarco@yahoo.co.uk to book tickets.
It’s a bit rough around the edges, and a little dark, but its the content that counts…The film is about 45 minutes long, so sit back and enjoy…
And don’t forget that next Saturday 27th, we have another talk at the Edge with Babak Salari and Diana Ivanova, talking about another great International project – ‘My Street’, in Cuba.
New events and how to find out about them | – My, my, there’s lots going on at The Edge on Cheapside. It’s becoming a big bee hive of creative activity, some by Friction Arts and some ‘Off The Edge’ events by others making good use of a great space. Here they list in detail what’s in store, such as:
18th Feb, 4.30 – 6pm Postcards from South Africa – a seminar about Friction Arts’ recent residency in Johannesburg.
26th Feb from 8.30pm – Happy Artist Social Club – ‘a place to hang out with other artists without ignoring someone else’s art in the process’.
27th Feb – Artists seminar by Diana Ivanova (Bulgaria) and Babak Salari (Iran/Canada/ Wetherspoon’s) launching their new book documenting their My Street project in Cuba.
6/7th March – Hacking wonderousnesses from Fizzpop
13th March West Midlands Filmmakers for Haiti are putting on an evening of short films and a disco in aid of the disaster.
But they’ve saved the best until last, namely:
And last – until we announce the next cavalcade of fun - and certainly by no means least – from 19th until 28th of March we are hosting a residency by Jonathan Kay and the Nomadic Academy of Fools. I cannot stress how foolish you will be to miss some, or indeed any of the workshops and performances, and bad foolish, not good foolish. I’ll be posting more fully soon, but until then, go here and get NAF.
