4-8 November, Birmingham
Various Venues

It’s 40 years since Cybervironment Plus. Organized by Simon Chapman for Birmingham Arts Lab from a room in a scruffy corner of Newtown in the summer of 1969, it may well have been the first artist-led festival in the city. A lot has changed in this time, but what is interesting about artist-led activity is that in many ways it changes very little. As it was for the Arts Lab back then, it remains a way for artists to exhibit their work, present the work of others (often at an early stage in their careers), to form networks beyond the city, to experiment, to push boundaries, to have fun and to investigate contemporary culture outside the mainstream institutions. Through it the artist community can make itself visible, get people engaged with their work and immersed in the fabric of the city in which they live. It’s through artist-led activity that conversations happen, ideas are sparked and from which collaborations begin, careers are kick-started and trends formed. Sometimes larger institutions grow from such activity – Ikon gallery itself began with a small group of artists taking the initiative and setting up a kiosk in the Bull Ring shopping centre in 1965.

As it once was for the Arts Lab, artist-led activity still involves finding run-down venues that can be done up or, more simply, just used as they are. Springhill Institute at the back of the Jewellery Quarter is a dilapidated former industrial building that has been used for all manner of exhibitions, talks, events and even a series of international residencies since it opened in 2003. Along with other artist-led venues in creaky buildings such as Spectacle and COLONY, Springhill Institute played a key role in developing the current dynamic artist scene. While some artist-led spaces run for years, many come and go, operating for a period of time while circumstances and landlords permit or while clusters of people share the same vision before moving on to new projects. Springhill Institute is currently operating as a ‘mobile production platform,’ not least because founder members Karin Kihlberg and Reuben Henry are so busy with their own careers as artists they can’t run the space full time. They will be popping back from their current residency in the Netherlands to take part in The Event, presenting a curious performance by Nina Beier and a series of poster commissions.

Fuelling into the regeneration of Birmingham’s city centre, the reclaiming of disused and industrial spaces continues today with Birmingham City University-supported Eastside Projects now settled into their converted industrial premises on Heathmill Lane, new artist and curator-led organization Grand Union taking on premises on Fazeley Industrial Estate in Digbeth, and nearby, The Lombard Method poised to begin their programme of exhibitions and events in an old warehouse. For The Event, the Lombard Method will be playing host to Crowd6, a collective who ran premises in Bearwood for a while and now operate in different locations around the city.

As with the Arts Lab, using very temporary venues and off-site locations for one-off exhibitions, projects and events is another strategy employed to good effect by Birmingham’s artist community today. Cheryl Jones and Matt Westbrook are the current directors of [insertspace], a curatorial venture that commissions artists to make works in unexpected contexts, whether on the back of bus tickets, in pubs around Digbeth, or, as they are doing for The Event, in a pigeon loft. Stuart Tait and Ana Benloch are the masterminds behind a.a.s., perhaps Birmingham’s longest-running artist collective, whose membership evolves with each new initiative. Their projects, always cryptic and often on a city-wide scale, regularly involve people in the action, as does The Family – their mysterious participatory project for The Event that begins at the Birmingham Central Backpackers hostel and will lead who knows where. Rather than spending months organising a show in an official arts venue, such approaches have an immediacy and an urgency about them, as well as activating different parts of the city and the communities in them.

In order to make things happen, artists often have to assume the role of – or actually become – curators. Artist Mona Casey perhaps most clearly illustrates this phenomenon, presenting the group exhibition The Space Between, Surrounds Our Desire as part of The Event – a project that began life as an online exhibition will now become form in a space in Floodgate Street in Digbeth. When there is a strong artist community, a culture of independent and freelance curating can emerge, and this often brings critical writing, zines and artist-made publications with it, catered for during The Event by Grand Union.

Artist-led activity is a sign of a healthy art context. It is the lifeblood of a city’s art community and an essential part of the wider cultural infrastructure. It creates an energy, a sense of being connected and of something significant happening. And sometimes it can be the birthplace of great art, of innovative movements and of meaningful chapters in the history of art. Let’s hope that in 40 years’ time, people will be reminiscing about The Event.

www.the-event.org