Free creative festival
✨❄️The GAP Winter Craft Market❄️✨ Saturday 9th December, 11am – 4pm
Pop down to on 9th December for a festive fun-filled day out whilst supporting local artists and young people. Expect an exciting array of unique handmade gifts and goodies for sale – all made by local young artists, designers and crafters – in amongst our cosy community cafe and during the bustling – in The GAP
The GAP Gallery 2 – 3.30pm/ exhibition all day
To celebrate the opening of the ATHAC Creative Artists exhibition join Ort Gallery for this drop in pottery workshop exploring pattern and texture, using a range of mark making tools and air drying clay.
Create a unique selection of nature inspired tiles that you can take home and paint.
The workshop will be assisted by one of our ATHAC Creative Artists.
Join us this Saturday between 12-3pm to find out all about our new garden project and how you can get involved! ✨🌱
You will be able to….
👀 …have a rare opportunity to look around the charming front garden of Myrtle Cottage, the oldest house in Balsall Heath and the former home of The Old Print Works director
👋🏽 …meet Rebekah Warmington, Nature Pedagogue and Environmental Educator, who is collaborating with The GAP and young people to regenerate the garden
💡…share your ideas for how the garden can be transformed into an urban oasis which reflects the heart and history of Balsall Heath and its vibrant communities and cultures
🍂 …get crafty with some Autumnal Activities to get your ideas flowing!
Be sure to pop by, have a little browse, let your imagination wander and share your ideas and inspiration to support the project 💫
All ages.
Free.
Drop-in
The ‘Hell Bus’ is an exciting interactive art installation by artist Darren Cullen (@SpellingMistakesCostLives) exposing the dirty tactics polluting industries employ to green their public image. Joined by campaign group Adfree Cities and environmental organisation Switch It Green, people of all ages will be welcomed aboard the exhibition to be entertained, educated, and encouraged to get involved.
The bus has already made appearances at COP26, Glastonbury Festival and Boomtown, and featured in comedian Joe Lycett’s Channel 4 documentary ‘Joe Lycett vs The Oil Giant’. It is sure to catch some eyes in Birmingham.
The exhibition’s tour is timely, as public concern surrounding planet-harming activities and fossil fuel expansion is high while greenwashing by large corporations is leaving individuals feeling unsure of the solutions. The ‘Hell Bus’ tells this story in a fun and accessible way, while Adfree Cities and Switch It Green are on hand to provide people with simple, effective ways to take positive action against oil and gas companies like Shell.
YOUTH THEATRE
FREE TASTER SESSION
Saturday 9 Sept 1-4pm The GAP
An exciting opportunity for creative, curious, local young people 12-16 yrs, who love to explore, imagine, tell stories & step into other people’s shoes. This is taster session for regular, weekly youth theatre sessions on Saturday afternoons. From Sept – March we will be exploring the theme ‘The Island’ What’s it all about? What does it mean to live on an island? How does it shape who we are, and who we are not? What does it mean to be “castaway’? And what is it like to be colonised? Islands have a gripping hold on our imaginations, offering conflicting possibilities: a paradise or a prison? refuge or danger? community or complete isolation?
Give it a go…
Don’t worry if you’re not sure this is your thing… Come along and try it out this Saturday and see what you think. You can also find out more about the other exciting plans and amazing opportunities being a member of The GAP Youth Theatre has to offer!
What’s involved?
We will use all kinds of drama techniques to get inside the hearts and minds of islanders, design theatre sets, make amazing masks and learn how to tell stories collectively for an audience through performance.
Who’s leading it?
The GAP has an excellent track record of giving young people meaningful and transformational arts experiences. It has highly experienced staff who are expert at facilitating the development of creativity, critical thinking, a confident sense of self and personal values, through the social practice of making theatre.
What will it cost?
There is NO CHARGE to belong to the GAP Youth Theatre. We just ask that you contribute your commitment. As well as having loads of fun on this project you will also need to be prepared to work hard as a reliable member of the team.
NO EXPERIENCE NEEDED
FREE MEMBERSHIP
TRY BEFORE YOU COMMIT
1 – 5pm at The Gap. All ages. Free. Drop in/No Booking required.
Come along to this public sharing of artworks created by young people as part of The Other~Wise Summer School, exploring ways to reconnect with nature through creativity and culture. Meet the young participants to hear first-hand their ideas and learnings, and contribute towards the exhibition by sharing your own knowledge. Join us throughout the day to make your own seed bombs, and for a youth-led walk around Balsall Heath to distribute ones made during the summer school (exact time tbc).
2pm – 3.30pm – The GAP
Ages 5 – 8
Free!
Led by The GAP’s youth arts practitioners
A fun and relaxing workshop exploring the act of listening to others. Join us in listening to some children’s story books being read aloud, before crafting your very own ‘listening stick’ using twigs, wool and fabric. Finally, we’ll work together to create our very own story inspired by the prompt ‘listen to children!’
Books we’ll read from include: The Rabbit Listened by Cori Doerrfeld, Quiet Please, Owen McPhee! by Trudy Ludwig, and the classic Not Now, Bernard by David McKee
Things to note:
*This is not a drop-in workshop. Please arrive at the start time.
*Children must not be left unsupervised at the venue. Parents and guardians are invited to sit in on the workshop, or relax in our cafe area that adjoins the workshop space.
*This session will be audio recorded for the purposes of documentation. No names or identifying features will be associated with recorded voices. If you’d like to know more, please contact us by emailing ella@thegapartsproject.co.uk
During Balsall Heath Second Saturday – afternoon and evening
Join us for a weekend of original theatre devised by third year Applied Theatre students from the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire
Get your free tickets now online at:
www.insertfestivaleventbrite.com
Find out more at:
www.NextChapter.com
6Ft Rule
Mee.3Meet Greenie, JJ and Dottie. 3 best friends from different walks of life. They met at a freshers event during their first year of uni and have been inseparable ever since. They laugh together, live together and cry together. They’re trying to navigate their way through the crazy world of dating, it involves what feels like endless swiping left on tinder and too many one time dinner dates. But at least they have each other, for now.
Serpent’s Gaze
Hush Hush
A Serpent’s Gaze is an unconventional twist on the Greek mythological story of Medusa and her tale of misfortune. This piece uses comedic elements such as satire, breaking the fourth wall and melodrama to capture our audiences. We will also be creating original music and exploring themes of injustice and discrimination against women.
Both Sides Now
The Other Shoe
The Other Shoe theatre company welcomes you to Both Sides Now. A story following a young black career and her elderly patient and their turbulent journey of friendship which comes with trials and tribulations of finding common ground.
Escapism
Introspective Productions
Escapism immersively explores the effects on LSD on two impressionable first year students after coming out of lockdown. Through using personal lived experiences and stories, this piece aims to provide a real experience for its audience and to help break the stigmas around LSD and drug usage, whilst also allowing them to make more informed decisions in the future.
TW: Strobe Lighting, Loud Sounds, Drug Use
Through The Dark
Atlas Theatre
Through the dark is a twisted and sometimes familiar tale exploring what happens in the nighttime.
New Visions
Welcome to the community cafe, where the stories are even warmer than the coffee. In this small, immersive play, where, two women whose lives are changing quickly as the world changes around them, they’ll have to rely on their unbreakable bond to get through the challenges ahead. A moving, immersive play that explores the depths of friendship, growth, and the power of connection.
Club Clique
Clique Culture
Club Clique invites you to join us for this, our goodbye bash. To you, our misfits and queerdos alike, we bring you our biggest party to date with a chaotic cast of drag excellence to really let your authentic self-shine under the lights. Trust us, we’re going out with a bang!
April 8th, 2pm – 3pm. The GAP
As part of Balsall Heath Second Saturday, members of Print and Matter will be running an Eid card making workshop. Come and make a repeat pattern Eid card using stamps. Free, no booking required.
Exhibition
This workshop coincides with Art for the Faith Hearted, an exhibition and publication documenting and showcasing work produced during Print and Matter, an experimental art programme specially designed for Muslims on Birmingham wanting to explore connections between religious practice and art making.
Project by OOMK with support from Amal.
www.printandmatter.tumblr.com
@printandmatter
2.30pm – 4.30pm The GAP
Make and design your own pot while having a chat about fear and how we overcome it.
Historically these posts were used to help people control their fear of witches….what collective fears do we have now, and why do we fear things?
Family friendly, free, drop in
11am – 1pm The GAP free entry
Truth of the Youth presents —-Spoken Word Workshop.
Build your confidence, learn some skills and have fun with spoken word., 11am onwards in The GAP.
