Elsewhere, Here — Opening Night
Join us for the opening of Elsewhere, Here, a curated exhibition exploring contemporary artistic voices from the Middle East through the lens of diaspora, memory, identity, and belonging.
Presented by No.35 Gallery in collaboration with Stryx Gallery, the exhibition brings together the work of 15 contemporary artists whose diverse practices reflect personal and collective experiences across borders.
📍 Venue:
Minerva Works
158 Fazeley Street, Birmingham B5 5RS
Meet the artists, connect with fellow art lovers, and experience an evening celebrating contemporary art and cultural dialogue.
🍷 Complimentary drinks and light snacks will be available throughout the evening.
Admission is free. Everyone is welcome.
Join members of Ikon Youth Programme for Archive Intervention, a display curated by the current 2026 cohort at The Bothy at Minerva Apothecary Garden on the Grand Union canal side in Digbeth.
This intervention revisits The Cut (2018), a series of printed posters developed through collective making, discussion and experimentation by Ikon Youth Programme members in 2018. Selected from the Ikon Youth Programme archive, this presentation creates a dialogue between past and present cohorts.
Through revisiting and reinterpreting archival material, current members engage with the practices and shared histories that continue to inform the programme today.
Across the past year, Grand Union has collaborated with MA students from the University of Birmingham’s Art History and Curating course to produce a programme of work entitled ‘Comfort Near Me’.
‘Comfort Near Me’ explores practices of comfort within Grand Union’s community. By working with studio artists and the Minerva Group, the programme aims to encourage sharing comfort found not just in physical places, but in intangible forms.
This programme is comprised of a newly commissioned film revealing ways in which Grand Union studio artists Roo Dhissou, Sarah Taylor Silverwood, and Nilupa Yasmin create comfort within their studios; a workshop hosted by Nilupa Yasmin with the Minerva Group stitching together personal narratives of comfort to make a unified artwork; and an immersive installation inside Alberta Whittle’s Bothy, bringing together these components. The programme is accompanied by a small publication designed in collaboration with Sofia Niazi.
For May’s Digbeth First Friday, join the student group in the Bothy (Minerva Garden) to see the installation, watch this newly commissioned film and write up some reflections on the connections formed between people and the conversations sparked.