Birmingham Civic Society

Civic Debate – Birmingham: A Real City of Culture?
2017-09-28 17:00 - 19:00 UTC | UK Will Have School Lesson
In recent months, Birmingham has seen a surge in positive press coverage regarding its cultural offer – from museums to music, galleries to theatres, dance performances to pop-up festivals – Birmingham is the place to be. And last year more people chose to relocate to the city from London than any other city in the UK.
People are travelling from across the UK and abroad to sample the cultural offer of our city. But is this sustainable? Will the perception that the UK’s second city fails to deliver culturally be too hard to shake off?
Many will remember Birmingham lost out in 2008 as European Capital of Culture and then again in 2013 as the UK’s first City of Culture. With so many of our galleries, theatres and museums facing the ever-looming cuts to budgets, are we in a cultural bubble that’s ready to pop? Or is our city on the brink of a real cultural revolution that could positively change the perceptions of regional culture for generations to come?
Come and join the debate alongside a panel of cultural gurus and have your say!
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Brum's Big Conservation Area Buz Tour
2017-09-07 17:00 - 19:00
Did you know that Birmingham has 30 Conservation Areas?
To kick off Heritage Week and to mark the 50th anniversary of Conservation Areas, Birmingham Civic Society are organising a guided tour of Birmingham’s Conservation Areas. Join us on the Big Brum Buz for a tour around some of the city’s Conservation Areas, learning about the stories behind them and why they are areas of special interest for our city.
The tour will finish at the Gunmakers’ Arms in the Gun Quarter, where you will be able to enjoy a pint of Birmingham Civic Society’s Civic Pride ale, specially brewed by Two Towers Brewery to celebrate our centenary year in 2018. Ticket price includes a pint of Civic Pride or a glass of house wine/soft drink.
Birmingham Civic Society are partnering with Civic Voice, Birmingham Architectural Association and RIBA West Midlands and the event is kindly sponsored by EH Smith.
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A private view of Thresholds
2017-07-20 14:30 - 15:30
Join us and go back in time to the dawn of photography with Thresholds, a new virtual reality artwork by Mat Collishaw. Thresholds is showing at The Waterhall Gallery, BMAG, and we are delighted to offer our members and their guests a private viewing on Thursday 20 July from 3.30pm – 4.30pm. Using the latest in VR technology, Thresholds restages one of the earliest exhibitions of photography in 1839, when British scientist William Henry Fox Talbot first presented his photographic prints to the public at King Edward’s School in Birmingham.
The experience is a fully immersive portal to the past; people are able to walk freely throughout a digitally reconstructed room, and touch the bespoke vitrines, fixtures and mouldings; even the heat from a coal fire is recreated. A soundscape for Thresholds includes the sound of demonstrations of the Chartist protesters who rioted in 1839 on the streets of Birmingham, and can be glimpsed through the digital windows.
The original 19th-century exhibition, staged by the British Association for the Advancement of Science, celebrated cutting edge technological innovation. Unfortunately, Fox Talbot’s original images have faded almost beyond recognition with several of the surviving photographs existing only in light-proof vaults. Thresholds not only restages an important historical exhibition but provides a way to view images that have since been lost.
Mat worked with photographic historian Pete James; Paul Tennent from Nottingham University’s Mixed Reality Laboratory; respected authority on Fox Talbot, Larry Schaaf; Architect / Architectural Historian David Blissett; the team at VMI studios and The Whitewall Company, London.
Thresholds was first presented by Somerset House and Photo London, in collaboration with Blain|Southern gallery. The project is supported by: Colmore Business District, Birmingham City University, King Edward’s School, The Schools of King Edward’s Birmingham, BOM, an Art Fund Jonathan Ruffer Curatorial Grant, the Ruddock Foundation for the Arts and the exhibition’s touring partners.
“The dawning of a new art form … this is the future”
BBC Radio 4 Saturday Review
Tickets are £4.50 plus usual online booking fee.
Book here.

The Best Exotic Indian Wine Tasting
2017-07-06 16:30
Join us at The Electric Cinema on Thursday 6 July for the next in our People, Places, Pride series – a fun and indulgent movie experience of a special screening of The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel – but with wine. Not just any wine, but highly awarded wines, from the Nasik Valley in India. Trustee Tony Elvin, and Alok Mathur, head honcho at Birmingham based Soul Tree Wines, will incessantly stop this classic movie in all the wrong places, then make up for it by serving a selection of The Best Exotic Indian wines. They’ll even tell you a little bit about them. Doors open at 5.30pm with a ‘sparkling’ welcome.
Book tickets.

Breaking News is back!
2017-07-05 17:00 - 19:00
Our 2017 Spring Reception had to be cancelled at the last minute due to unforeseen circumstances…but now it’s back…as our Summer Reception! Marc Reeves, Editor of the Birmingham Post and the Birmingham Mail and Editor-in-Chief for Trinity Mirror Midlands, is our guest speaker, and it has been rescheduled for Wednesday 5 July, 6-8pm at DWF LLP. We now have instant access to news, with the ability to share and even create stories. What impact is this having on the way we receive and understand events happening around the world? Marc will be sharing his thoughts on how the nature of news, and storytelling, has evolved over recent years and what its future may look like.
Book on Eventbrite.

Backstage tour of The REP
2017-06-22 16:30 - 17:30
Join Steve Ball, Associate Director at The REP for a private, backstage tour on Thursday 22 June, 5.30 – 6.30pm. This fascinating behind the scenes tour takes in the costume, wig, make-up and set building departments.
Afterwards members will have chance to see The Play That Goes Wrong, the Mischief Theatre Company’s multi award-winning West End smash-hit comedy. Steve has very kindly offered a 15% member discount for the 7.30pm main house performance. This popular show is nearly sold out with only a limited amount of tickets still available.
Book for the backstage tour on Eventbrite.

...and the winner is...Civic Pride!
2017-06-15 17:00 - 19:00
You are invited to celebrate the launch of Birmingham Civic Society’s centenary ale – Civic Pride.
The name was chosen by members and the public to celebrate the Society’s centenary in 2018.
Join us on Thursday 15 June, 6-8pm, at Two Towers Brewery, at the Gunmakers Arms, and hear about Civic Pride from Darren and Mark, the wizards behind Two Towers. Then raise a glass or two with our Chairman, Gavin, to the founders of the Society and its formation on 10 June 1918.
Book today on Eventbrite.

2017 Spring Reception
2017-05-25 17:00 - 19:00
Marc Reeves, Editor of the Birmingham Post and Birmingham Mail and Editor-in-Chief for Trinity Mirror Midlands, will be our 2017 Spring Reception speaker.
We now have instant access to news with the ability to share and even create stories. What impact is this having on the way we receive and understand events happening around world? Marc will be sharing his thoughts on how the nature of news, and storytelling, has evolved over recent years and what its future may look like.
This event, on Thursday 25 May, 6 – 8pm, at DWF, is for corporate members and their guests only.
Book on Eventbrite.

Sidestreets & Silversmiths: a walking tour of the Jewellery Quarter
2017-04-26 17:00 - 19:00
Guide, Ian Jelf, is back for our annual walking tour! On Wednesday 26 April Ian will guide us through some of the Jewellery Quarter’s most intriguing side streets and share stories of the silversmiths that lived and worked there. The tour starts at St Paul’s Church at 6pm and ends at The Pig & Tail in Albion Street around 8pm for a drink (included within the ticket price).
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CBSO lunch and rehearsal
2017-03-15 12:45 - 14:30
The second in our 2017 People, Places, Pride series of events:
On Wednesday 15 March, 12.45 – 2.30pm, at the CBSO Centre, meet the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra CEO Stephen Maddock OBE over lunch, then enjoy a very special opportunity to watch the orchestra rehearse. The CBSO was founded in 1920, and Stephen will talk about its significance to the city, its history and its future plans.

12.45pm – Arrive
1.00pm – Lunch
1.30pm – Presentation and talk from Stephen Maddock OBE
2.00pm – Presentation close
2.15pm – View rehearsal from the gallery **
2.30pm – Leave

** Note: The orchestra will be rehearsing from 2.15 – 5.15pm with a 15-20 min. break in the middle. Those of us that don’t have to leave at 2.30pm will be able to stay on to hear the full rehearsal or leave at the break.
The orchestra will be rehearsing the following with conductor Robert Trevino:
Bartok Miraculous Mandarin: Suite [to be performed as part of the following day’s concert]
Strauss Don Juan [to be performed at a concert in Coventry on Friday 17 March]
Book your place for the CBSO Lunch and Rehearsal
The CBSO would like to offer guests a 15% discount to attend the concert next day:
Thursday 16 March 2017, 7.30pm, at Symphony Hall – Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini
Featuring Robert Trevino Conductor and Stephen Hough, Piano
Programme:

Bartok The Miraculous Mandarin: Suite
Rachmaninov Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini
Shostakovitch Symphony No.5

To redeem the 15% discount, guests can purchase their tickets online here and add the code CBGF when prompted
