we are eastside

We Are Eastside – Dazed Digital

We were then taken on a ramble through the creative hub of Eastside Birmingham. In the industrial buildings which line the river there are springing up artist spaces and studios, between artist run space Eastside Projects, The Flatpack Festival and Vivid, another industrial Art space there is much to be anticipated of this community. The most notable thing perhaps being the comparatively plush and affordable studio space providing a great springboard for the artists and creative businesses inhabiting them.

Read the full article HERE

Controversial Guardian piece on Eastside

A similar scent of frustrated optimism pervaded Birmingham during the excellent Flatpack film festival. Flatpack is a six-day event that aims to spill out across Digbeth, the abandoned factory and warehouse district now being occupied by the so-called culture industry. The city of 1,001 trades wants to reinvent itself as the city of 1,001 media firms, fashion labels and organic coffee shops. A loose collective of arts groups called We Are Eastside is trying to turn Digbeth into Birmingham’s “cultural playground”, the same method that has been employed across England’s old manufacturing bases. With new high-speed rail lines reducing the journey time from Euston to 46 minutes, the city even has one eye on persuading bored London hipsters to take a weekend trip to Brum.

Read the full article HERE

We Are Eastside features on Jotta Magazine

Much of the Flatpack programme took place in the Eastside area of the city which pleasantly surprises with galleries, studios and creative organisations hidden within the many streets of warehouses and industrial buildings. The projects and spaces cover music, visual arts, digital media, film, literature, craft and photography. ‘We Are Eastside’ is the flagship of what’s going on in the area. They aim to, “act collaboratively and advance in a common direction: outward.” The area is nothing but a jewel in Birmingham’s art scene.

‘We Are Eastside’ present themselves immaculately to those outside of their own streets in a way that is highly accessible and welcoming. The identity for We Are Eastside has been superbly designed by James Langdon and features a beautifully crafted typeface by Radim Pesko.

There is consistently an air of innovation, humility and a creative pride in Birmingham that is not elitist but rather aims to encourage the arts wholeheartedly.

Read the full article HERE

We Are Eastside brochure

For your viewing pleasure, a guide to Eastside. These beautifully designed brochures can be found all round the city, pick one up or glance at your leisure online here.

Saturday @ VIVID

Saturday 27 March at VIVID

3pm – 5pm | admission FREE
TREVOR PITT with Shelli Graham
MATT STOKES
 
9pm til late | admission £4
A Plasticine Party

————————————————-

The WE ARE EASTSIDE open weekend is at last upon us! Drop into VIVID between 3pm and 5pm to see The Gainsborough Packet by Becks Futures prize-winning artist Matt Stokes. Also at VIVID Trevor Pitt and Shelli Graham reveal LP covers, badges, and projections made in response to Pitt’s Sleeve Notes sessions at VIVID in 2009.

From 9pm, VIVID will host A Plasticine Party, an Eastside knees up celebrating the launch of We Are Eastside and marking the beginning of the end of Flatpack Festival. For more information and tickets visit the Flatpack website here.

TREVOR PITT with Shelli Graham | Sleeve Notes Go Viral

During the summer of 2009, Trevor Pitt looked back at his formative years in Birmingham, tracing his flirtations with pop, punk, film, art and cultural theory. Joining Trevor on this journey have been individuals who played a significant, often underground role in shaping the music, fashion, and club scenes during this period. Through intimate 1-1 chats, they mapped the scenes and wrote the Sleeve Notes to their own lives.

Sleeve Notes session with John Lupton (2009). Cover art by Shelli Graham.

Fast forward to spring 2010 and Pitt is back at VIVID to launch the second phase of Sleeve Notes, supported by Hello Digital. Starting with a tweet, Pitt looks at how social media can proliferate information and widen participation in events which would otherwise stay ‘underground’.              

Follow Sleeve Notes on Twitter: http://twitter.com/sleeve_notes

Also at VIVID…

MATT STOKES | The Gainsborough Packet
2008/9 | super 16mm film and audio transferred to hard-drive | 8:56 mins

VIVID presents Matt Stokes’s song and film, The Gainsborough Packet, the acclaimed new work shown in Baltic and 176, London in 2009. 

The Gainsborough Packet, production still. Photograph: 2tone Photography. Courtesy: The Artist, Workplace Gallery and ZieherSmith.

The work is the culmination of a year’s research and development which began with Stokes’ discovery in the Tyne & Wear archives of a letter written in 1828 by an ordinary man named John Burdikin. The letter was the inspiration for the lyrics, music and film created by Stokes and his collaborators on the project, which trace Burdikin’s life and adventures. Stokes has collaborated with musician Jon Boden from acclaimed folk band Bellowhead, composer Alistair Anderson, and Tim Kerr, an iconic figure of the US punk and early hardcore scene.

The Gainsborough Packet is exhibited courtesy the artist, Workplace Gallery, and ZieherSmith. 

——————————————————————————————————-

VIVID | 140 HEATH MILL LANE | BIRMINGHAM | B9 4AR
T: 0121 766 7876 | E: info@vivid.org.uk
www.vivid.org.uk

Craftspace Collective Saturday Event…

There will be a Craftspace Collective event  this  Saturday 27th March at the Custard Factory , Juneau Projects, Ben and Phil (Birmingham based maverick contemporary artists) will be setting up a workshop called ‘Aggressive Localism’ in which they make costumes for Skateboarders, inspired by the outfits worn by Morris dancers and characters in Mummers Plays.

The workshop will consist of  working collaboratively to make two new costumes. It is a free open workshop aimed at 16-19 year olds but anyone can come along and take part in the We Are Eastside Weekend event.

Look for the Craftspace Collective banner, By the Lake at the Custard Factory (next door to the Kitchen), Birmingham B9 4AA

Starts at 11.00am  until  4.00pm

Come along and be creative!  Hope to see you there!

Troyka at Jazz Club at The Rainbow

We Are Eastside

Welcome to We Are Eastside; your guide to the organisations that host and produce bold new work across film, digital media, crafts, music, visual arts, literature and photography all based in Eastside, Birmingham, UK.

We are:
7 INCH CINEMA / FLATPACK FESTIVAL – BIRMINGHAM JAZZ – CAPSULE –CRAFTSPACE – THE CUSTARD FACTORY – EASTSIDE PROJECTS – GRAND UNION – IKON EASTSIDE – PROJECT PIGEON – PUNCH – RHUBARB RHUBARB – THE EDGE – TINDAL STREET PRESS – THE LOMBARD METHOD – VIVID – VRU