Digbeth First Friday 1st July

This Digbeth First Friday is bound to get those creative juices flowing!

Start your evening at the Jubilee Centre with a new exhibition at Showcase Gallery then head upstairs for The GAP’s salon-style exhibition by young artists. Wander through the Custard Factory and pop in to Broadcast’s new exhibition SQUEEZE. Then visit Eastside Projects to experience a multi-sensory performance and screening of Dylan Spencer-Davidson’s moving image work.

Discover Make/Shift/Space – a portable artist structure – as it makes its way through Digbeth throughout the evening. Take a look at Laura Oldfield Ford’s edition launch at Grand Union, see what the SOUP PTIII artist residencies have been working on at Stryx and have a look at Centrala’s exhibition A-eight with Cache returning 8 till late at Centrala for an all-vinyl showcase of leftfield techno music. And as always there’s an abundance of eclectic excitement on offer at Friction Arts at the Edge from 8pm.

Don’t forget to keep an eye out for the street art created during the recent City of Colours festival!

On offer this month:

Showcase Gallery: The Black Rainbow, 5–8pm
An exhibition of new painting and drawing by Paul Newman, including ongoing series ‘Frank’s Progress’ incorporating elements from historical English landscape painting, modernism and Gothic horror.

The GAP: Summer Salon Open Wall Night! 5.30–9pm
The GAP is hosting an open, eclectic, salon-style exhibition of artwork made by young members of this exciting new Birmingham venue. Artworks will be displayed collectively in salon-style creating an eclectic mix of work, juxtaposing artists, and bringing all into conversation with each other.

Stryx: SOUP Residency, 6.30–8.30pm
July DFF will be the cumulative event for Soup PTIII residency and artists will present the audience with work they have produced throughout the 8 weeks programme.

Grand Union: Laura Oldfield Ford edition launch, 6–8pm
To mark her solo exhibition at Grand Union, Laura Oldfield Ford has created a limited edition print. On Digbeth First Friday we will be launching the print, which will be available for purchase.

Eastside Projects: Dylan Spencer-Davidson: Screening and Performance, 6–8pm
Join us for a multi-sensory, live performance, set within our current exhibition Production Show, fusing music, choreography and found texts. Throughout the evening grab a drink in Black Pleasure and catch a screening of Spencer-Davidson’s moving image work ‘No Fear’. In a virtual world a group of people have gathered to perform a dance.

The Edge: Fabberay with Friction Arts, 8pm
We will be crafting you an evening of delightful and twisted treats featuring family and friends;
Ben ‘The Baby’ Jones & Jane ‘Toddler’ English, Friendly neighbourhood Ontologist Dr David Ethics, The delicately dark Diva, Crayola and her Hip Hop Choir. With music from: Alisha Kadir – soft protest and BEARmusic.

Centrala: A-eight exhibition and Cache, 6–9pm
Join us at Centrala for the final night of our A-Eight Emerging Artists from the Eastern European Diaspora group show from 5pm. Upstairs in Centrala ArtLoft there’s multidisciplinary artist Raquel Macartney’s Sculptural Installation  ‘Debris By Day, Debris By Night’ 2016, as part of Her Soup Part III Residency at Stryx. Later Centrala are excited to welcome the return of Cache with an all-vinyl showcase of the best leftfield techno music with a reel of mind-bending visuals, utlising a cutting-edge, live cinema approach, from 8 until Late.

Broadcast: SQUEEZE, 6.30–11.30pm
Broadcast takes over an empty unit in Digbeth’s iconic Custard Factory to present SQUEEZE, a showcase of artworks by a group of enthusiastic young artists brought up or studying in Birmingham.

Make/Shift/Space: The Late Shift, 6–9pm
Make/Shift/Space takes to the streets of Digbeth showcasing work from four public artist-residencies. Throughout the night, Make/Shift/Space will platform a live curation and procession of objects, artefacts, audio and visuals from artists Claire Hickey, Laura Burns, Sarah Taylor Silverwood and Emily Warner.