Celebrating the legacy of Dig Brew Co and the inclusion of most of its artistic material labels cans coasters memorabilia etc to Birmingham City Universitys ADM Archive we invite you all to Teach Your Business How To Swim – Rise and Fall in Digtopia, an exhibition about the reckless live fast history of Dig Brew Co and its relation to Birmingham’s current socio economical context.
The exhibition opening will take place on 27 March 5pm – 7pm at The Shell Parkside Building BCU. It will then remain open from 28 March and 25 April 10am – 5pm.
Free tickets can be booked here
Curated and designed by Infinite Opera and Oliver Webb the exhibition was commissioned by the BCU Arts Design and Media Facultys Keeper of Archives Dr Pedro Cravinho.
Acknowledgements Arts Design and Media Archive Team ADM Exhibition Team the Centre for Interdisciplinary Performative Arts CIPA and ADM Digital Technical Team.
Dig Brew Co was a Digbeth based brewery celebrated nationally for the quality of its beers and especially for its ability to create a thriving community The taproom became notorious for their new creations in brewing and for a curated theatrical experience of the inner workings of the business where fiction and reality often mingled With a collaborative ethos at its heart and with the haste of the constant making of new recipes designs and events that generated an honest space of novelty and innovation business at Dig Brew Co did not follow the traditional moneymaking standards This approach reckless and fastlived however resulted in unexpected creations such as the very first opera about beer and a huge legacy for many people and the city of Birmingham.
Having closed its doors in January 2023 Dig Brew Co and its history are explored in this exhibition as a lens to interrogate Digbeth a promised land marketed as an utopia but often experienced as a dystopia by many through the brutal processes of gentrification and a global pandemic. Throughout the design of its labels beer pump clips and other memorabilia inspired by nostalgia and the mythology of its own expanded universe there is a critical vision of Birmingham socioe conomic context pre and postpandemic All of these materials now are part of Birmingham City Universitys ADM archive as a new collection that critically reflects a crucial time in the recent history of this city as well as that of many others going through similar postindustrial transformations.
We would love you to join us to commemorate the wonderful work that Digbrew Co achieved building a community and providing high quality beers to Birmingham and beyond.
We look forward to seeing you there.