Birmingham Art Bus
The Birmingham Art Bus took visitors on a night tour of six of the cities premier museums and art galleries. Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery (BMAG, The Gas Hall Exhibition, The Barber Institute of Fine Arts, The Ikon Gallery, Parkside Gallery and The Midland Arts Centre. The Art Bus takes part of a national event ‘Museums at Night’ where over 400 museums, galleries, national heritage sites and historic buildings open up their doors to the general public after hours. This allows them to gain access to some of the countries precious, historic, modern, priceless artefacts, sculptures, art works and architecture.
The bus and entrance to the galleries was free, except the The BMAG had a half price fee for their current exhibition on show for visitors. A new experience for me was the Parkside Gallery, whose architecture was art itself. The works on show ‘PUNK ROCK SO WHAT!’ chronicled the era of the music and the bands that were on the scene and created a cult of followers to the music, the fashion and ideology. Visual images and graphics of various bands, singers and musicians from that era accompanied by their their album covers and posters advertising their message from a period in music spanning over a forty years. It was an emotional walk back in time for me to music I appreciated, the exhibition finished on Friday 13th November.
The other venues I attended such as The Barber Institute of Fine Arts had its collection of 17th century Dutch portraiture, 17th century prints ‘The Age of Innocence ‘ on display with a vast range of post modern, classical artworks and sculptures. At the end of the evening there was an issue with the coaches being over subscribed and the excellent staff arranged more to get us art lovers back into the city centre, but by this time The Ikon was closed so I will have to go and explore there on another day. Overall a very enjoyable evening, to mix and communicate with fresh faces and have new conversations with people who appreciate a wonderful talent, craft and skill…ART!
by Dee M
