Arts Champions – Northfield (2011-2014)
Northfield 2011-2014
Ikon is the Arts Champion for Northfield District of Birmingham, providing high quality free arts activities with, and for, a wide range of communities across the four wards of Weoley, Northfield, Longbridge and Kings Norton.
In September 2012 Birmingham-based artists Nikki Pugh, Giovanni ‘Spoz’ Esposito and Meredith Andrea began working with parent groups at Children’s Centres in the Northfield areas of Rubery, Frankley and Longbridge. As part of ‘in residence’ sessions, families explored how they negotiate their local area through walking, photography, sound recording and drawing.
Building on the successes of these sessions with a parents group at Deelands Hall on the Cock Hill Estate, Ikon was able to run the Portrait of Frankley photography project in 2013. Other Arts Champions work in Northfield included Drawing Rooms, a collaboration with Birmingham Contemporary Music Group (BCMG) exploring graphic composition; Post Marks, a European funded drawing project with partners in Spain, Italy and Germany; and Northfield Arts Trail with Northfield Arts Forum (NAF).
Arts Champions is a Birmingham City Council initiative pairing up city centre arts organisations with one of the ten Birmingham constituencies.Before this project Ikon spent six years as Arts Champion for Erdington, working with thousands of residents and local organisations including The Cube artist-run space, Erdington Library and The John Taylor Hospice.
Arts Champions is supported by Birmingham City Council