Talking Shop
A suggestion. I’m quite keen for events and things in the shop. One idea is for a series of short talks by a variety of people, maybe midweek between 6-8pm. Lots of em. With any luck there’ll be coffee and cake to be had and some seating anyway.
I’m fairly open to topics but arts/culture topics would be best. I particularly like the idea of people explaining/demistifying the area they work in. For example:
- A dancer explaining what contemporary dance is all about
- A photographer explaining the difference between fine art photography and holiday snaps
- A day in the life of a theatre manager
- How an exhibition is curated
That kind of thing. Only better.
I’d love to hear any suggestions (people/topics/whatever) in the comments – I’m happy to chase people up.
If you’d like to put yourself forward then please do using the Events and such form.
Advertisement
Hi!
I think this is a really great idea, you should definitely do it! I was thinking, there are lots of really nice helpful people (tutors) at BCU who are all practicing artists/illustrators/photographers etc and maybe they’d be happy to talk? I’m only at uni so don’t really have many contacts to give you myself. Do you know hello creatives? They’re on twitter and they’re really good and have always replied to me if I ask a question so they’re nice and helpful. Probably busy though but I guess you’re expecting that from anyone you ask. Maybe you could also get a tattooist (lots of amazing ones in Brum!) to come and talk about their art? It’d be cool to get lots of diversity going on and then in that way it would get more people to the shop as you’ll be appealing to loads of different people.
Sorry about the million suggestions, I’m just so excited for this shop to open, sounds like a fab project!!
Chloe
Chloe Cook
February 17, 2010 at 2:54 pm
I’m backing Chloe on getting some tattoo action in. How about live art events? Graf artists and suchlike. Not sure how feasible this is with space, mess, etc. but might be worth a ponder.
I like the idea to have practicing artists giving talks – could that extend to a debate/discussion event? For example, in light of recent events, the whole intellectual property thing for artists showcasing work on the web is something that could be ripe for a good slogging out
Shona
February 17, 2010 at 6:49 pm
The tattoist idea’s a great one. Anyone got any suggestions for one who’d do a good talk/Q&A?
Live art things would be good. I’m kinda hoping people submit suggestions for those through the forms but if you’ve got anything you’d like to see then let me know. Only worry about graf stuff (in particular) is the ventilation in there. Well up for things of the ilk though.
It might be a bit pokey in there to get a decent discussion/debate sesh going, but I could be wrong.
Chris Unitt
February 17, 2010 at 7:01 pm
Hmm, seeing as I have, um, zero tattoos, I’m clearly no expert, but this local outfit has a few tat artists who might be worth contacting: http://www.modernbodyart.co.uk/tattoos.html
I guess the tack with events is to run a few that you’re happy with and gauge from them whether you think debatey stuff would work in the space.
Yup, good point about live graf. Ooh, what about a certain Mr. Smith’s ‘Art is Easy’ gig?
Shona
February 21, 2010 at 6:39 pm
modernbodyart.com are very good at what they do – Jo Harrison is award winning, but don’t know if she’d wanna do anything for free?
Also – Dawnii used to work at MBA and now runs her own studio called ‘the painted lady tattoo parlour’ in Northfield. her work is fab too: http://www.myspace.com/dawnii13
adrienne
February 26, 2010 at 10:10 am
if you’re wanting to maximise footfall for evaluation purposes, (ahem!) then you should think about things which are family friendly – particularly on saturdays. local artist run workshops – if they’re willing. profile raising type stuff. simple drop in activities.
in addition, you’ve got room to have proper bookable arts activities going on in there which could be artist’s masterclasses – for a small fee which could cover the cost of the artist plus materials?
curatorial talks would be interesting – but would ikon/bmag people etc wanna do it? good promo for them to highlight current exhibitions i suppose.. or freelance curators could also talk? Mona Casey is very good.
ALSO you could set one small section of the shop aside for ‘interactions’ – haven’t thought this bit through really.. but could be something as simple as painting a wall in blackboard paint and having chalks available. people could come and draw, leave comments etc. then you’d wanna photograph it regularly as documentation.
hmm. will give it more thought.
adrienne
February 26, 2010 at 10:16 am