We are looking forward to August’s Digbeth First Friday with RESOLVE Collective.
General Assembly will mark our first event with RESOLVE, as part of their FIELD Commission with Cooking Sections, Industrial Actions, celebrating histories of resistance, organisation, and reimagination by asking how sabotage can aid in critical community-focused work in Birmingham today.
At 7pm, a screening of Heather Powell’s 1988 film Paradise Circus made with the Birmingham Film and Video Workshop will be shown in conjunction with RESOLVE’s event in the gallery space. Paradise Circus documents the ways in which the city of Birmingham (its built environment and architecture) is perceived by women, living in an environment largely designed by men.
From 8pm, we will be hosting a celebratory gathering with music, food and dancing – all are welcome to join us in marking this first event with RESOLVE Collective as part of Industrial Action which we look forward to seeing evolve over the coming year.
Join us at Minerva Works where Grand Union studio holders will be opening doors to the public, welcoming visitors into our active art-making community. This will be a chance to meet and chat about the work and practices of our incredible studio holders and see inside the spaces they work.
Pottery studio and co-operative; Modern Clay will also be open to visitors and showcasing the collaborative work they’ve been doing with us on The Growing Project. Handmade terracotta pots and other Modern Clay editions will be available to buy and downstairs at the Bothy, in the Minerva Garden, participants from The Growing Project will be running a store selling Minerva ‘Teas of Resistance’, alongside other Grand Union wares.
Join us for a late-night opening of Simon Says/Dadda, an exhibition by Birmingham and London-based artist Beverley Bennett. Comprising a newly commissioned 3-channel installation, Simon Says/Dadda is a collaborative project exploring father/daughter relationships among Black and Asian women and non-binary individuals, highlighting the deep impact that structural inequalities have within wider society.
Working in partnership with Metal, Liverpool; LUX, London; and The Newbridge Project, Newcastle; Simon Says/Dadda is an ambitious large-scale film project developed through a series of gatherings across England, bringing to light stories that are currently not represented in the visual arts space.
Grand Union is delighted to announce Simon Says/Dadda, an exhibition by Birmingham and London based artist Beverley Bennett. Comprising a newly commissioned 3-channel installation, Simon Says/Dadda is a collaborative project exploring father/daughter relationships among Black and Asian women and non-binary individuals, highlighting the deep impact that structural inequalities have within wider society.
Working in partnership with Metal, Liverpool, LUX, London and The Newbridge Project, Newcastle, Simon Says/Dadda is an ambitious large-scale film project developed through a series of gatherings across England, bringing to light stories that are currently not represented in the visual arts space.
Join us for a late opening of Albera Whittle’s We gather and dream of new congregations.
This exhibition is the culmination of 18 months of collaborative work with Alberta Whittle, Grand Union, and our Minvera Garden group for women and people of marginalised genders.
Using a combination of public sculpture, film, and workshops this exhibition will transform our gallery into a working apothecary and a space for community groups and workshops to come together.
The exhibition proposes a varity of methodologies for creating dangerously and congration as a means of remembrance and resistance. Asking questions about our commonality and the effectiveness of grassroots community building, direct community action and looking to healing gardening practices.
Join us for a late opening of Albera Whittle’s We gather and dream of new congregations.
This exhibition is the culmination of 18 months of collaborative work with Alberta Whittle, Grand Union, and our Minvera Garden group for women and people of marginalised genders.
Using a combination of public sculpture, film, and workshops this exhibition will transform our gallery into a working apothecary and a space for community groups and workshops to come together.
The exhibition proposes a varity of methodologies for creating dangerously and congration as a means of remembrance and resistance. Asking questions about our commonality and the effectiveness of grassroots community building, direct community action and looking to healing gardening practices.
Join us for a late opening of Albera Whittle’s We gather and dream of new congregations.
This exhibition is the culmination of 18 months of collaborative work with Alberta Whittle, Grand Union, and our Minvera Garden group for women and people of marginalised genders.
Using a combination of public sculpture, film, and workshops this exhibition will transform our gallery into a working apothecary and a space for community groups and workshops to come together.
The exhibition proposes a varity of methodologies for creating dangerously and congration as a means of remembrance and resistance. Asking questions about our commonality and the effectiveness of grassroots community building, direct community action and looking to healing gardening practices.
Join us for the launch of Alberta Whittle’s new exhibition We Gather and Dream of New Congregations. Using public sculpture, film, workshops, and community gardening with women’s groups, We gather and dream of new congregations seeking to address issues surrounding the use and ownership of land and to aid in the much-needed healing of our Birmingham community.
Join us at Grand Union for a screening of ‘Sweet Sugar Rage’, a film by Sistren Theatre Collective’ (1985), presented as part of Cinenova’s ‘The Work We Share’ programme.
Cinenova’s ‘The Work We Share’ is a national public programme of newly digitised films from the Cinenova collection addressing representations of gender, race, sexuality, health and community. The films are captioned by Collective Text, and supported by response commissions from contemporary artists and writers.
We will host their newly digitised film, Sweet Sugar Rage by Sistren Theatre Collective (1985, 43 minutes) alongside a new commission by artist Natasha Bonnelame inspired by the work.
Sweet Sugar Rage exposes the exploitation of women’s labour in Jamaica’s sugar cane fields and shares the themes and methods of Sistren’s workshops and theatre in the context of their wider efforts in education, employment rights and community activism.
There will be two screenings at 6-7pm and 7.30-8.30pm.
Book a seat on Eventbrite HERE
In collaboration with Grand Union, the MA Art History and Curating course at University of Birmingham presents The Age of Dreamers is Over: a group show navigating the historical scales of anthropogenic* rupture, as well as the potential for collective healing.
This immersive exhibition brings together interactive sculpture, sound, and light works from artists Louise Beer, Jack Lewdjaw, and Mina Heydari-Waite. Unified by the idea of the night and darkness as a site of creative energy and potential growth, the three artists included in this exhibition have examined forms of rupture from the climate crisis; to revolution and colonialism; to the decay of the English high street. Reflecting upon the notion of ruination and rebuilding, The Age of Dreamers is Over serves to explore the impact of human hands on one another and on the very world we live in – if we have the capacity to destroy then we can also attempt to mend and create.
*Anthropogenic: originating in human activity.