Events

Community Choir
Jan
31
to 5 Dec

Community Choir

The Ladywood Community Choir meets every Friday morning in term time, 10.45am - 12.15pm. We are an inclusive choir led by Singing Medicine Vocal Tutor Marianne Ayling. , which forms part of the Ex-Cathedra Singing Medicine programme. Enthusiasm is all that is required. Come along and have a sing with us!

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Kindred Foyer Exhibition
Jun
16
to 2 Aug

Kindred Foyer Exhibition

Does art suggest the subject, or the subject suggest the art? How does who we are affect what we create?

Cable uses a process of intuitive representation to draw out forms from his mind, interrogating and questioning them as they take shape; finding dream-like echoes of the archetypes of human and animal kin that occupy within him.   

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“Heights, Depths and Extremes”, the Victorian Popular Fiction conference 2025
Jul
14
to 16 Jul

“Heights, Depths and Extremes”, the Victorian Popular Fiction conference 2025

“Heights, Depths and Extremes”, the Victorian Popular Fiction conference 2025, will be at the Birmingham and Midlands Institute from 14-16 July.

 Registration is now open!  There will be fascinating papers, exciting keynotes, trips to Birmingham Victorian sights, a Magic Lantern show, a samosas and bhajis reception with silent films, and more.

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Before De-Extinction: Encountering Prehistoric Animals in Victorian Popular Fiction Richard Fallon, The Natural History Museum.
Jul
14

Before De-Extinction: Encountering Prehistoric Animals in Victorian Popular Fiction Richard Fallon, The Natural History Museum.

As the Texas-based company Colossal Biosciences claims to have resurrected the dire wolf, and the Jurassic World franchise returns to cinemas once again, it bears remembering that the idea of encountering extinct animals in the present day was chiefly an invention of nineteenth-century popular fiction. This paper will show how the anachronistic encounter between modern human and dinosaur, mammoth, or pterodactyl first became a staple of imaginative media, fuelling the tradition of fiction that inspires Colossal’s sensational and controversial biotechnology today.

Early in the century, humans crossed paths with revivified monsters like Megalosaurus only in comic sketches, or forms veiled in the oneiric and supernatural. Inspired by the innovations of popular science writers, Jules Verne and George Sand in the 1860s were among the first to bring extinct animals into prose fiction. In subsequent decades, amid the ‘romance revival’ and emergence of illustrated magazines like The Strand, living fossils became literary conventions. In stories like Reginald Bacchus and C. Ranger Gull’s ‘The Dragon of St Pauls’ (1899), depictions of these animals typically functioned to complicate but ultimately to reaffirm the self-conscious hierarchies of late Victorian society: human over nonhuman, present over past, masculinity over femininity, white Briton over colonised subject.

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Swimming with snarks: submarine gothic and the monstrous deep Jimmy Packham, University of
Jul
14

Swimming with snarks: submarine gothic and the monstrous deep Jimmy Packham, University of

In the late 1890s, the US scientist Alexander Agassiz set sail for a second voyage aboard the research vessel Albatross to investigate coral reef formations in the South Pacific. The Washington Post relayed that Agassiz’s team had discovered ‘a vast hollow in the sea-floor extend[ing] over nearly thirty degrees of latitude’ with a ‘depth of nearly four miles’. Quite what lay within these abyssal regions was unclear, but, the Post noted, ‘[u]nquestionably there are many kinds of monsters and chimeras dire in the depths of the ocean which no mortal eyes has ever seen, or imagination pictured … If any snarks exist in the ocean one would naturally expect to find them at great depths, for … the bottom has its own peculiar fauna, certainly rich and assuredly strange to the point of weirdness’.

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The Impact of Empire on the Countryside, 1837-1901
Jul
16

The Impact of Empire on the Countryside, 1837-1901

This talk opens up new perspectives on rural Britain during the Victorian era. Corinne Fowler will discuss her book of country walks, which explores how the influx of colonial wealth impacted on landownership, agriculture and rural society. Her talk includes the return of the Tolpuddle Martyrs from penal colonies in modern day Australia and Tasmania, the 1860s Lancashire cotton famine and its origins in the American Civil War, the loss of common land in Norfolk and Rider Haggard's day job as an agriculturalist.

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Magic Lantern Show
Jul
16

Magic Lantern Show

Jeremy Brooker, one of the leading magic lantern performers working today, creates unique magic lantern entertainments using original glass slides and equipment from the 18th, 19th and early 20th centuries alongside modern slides of his own creation.

Whether in the grand auditorium of the Centro Cultural de Belem in Lisbon, a circus tent overlooking Lake Geneva or the cabin of an historic Thames barge putting to sea with just 20 people onboard, audiences have marvelled at his mastery of this demanding art form.

In his hands, the beauty and visual spectacle which has kept the magic lantern at the forefront of popular entertainment for centuries retains the power to fully engage a modern audience.

In Birmingham for only one evening, this is a unique opportunity to enjoy a show of magic and spectacle.

This event is £4 for BMI members and £8 for non-members. Please call reception on 0121 2363591 to book.

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Ruskin Club - Heroes and Vagabonds'
Aug
12

Ruskin Club - Heroes and Vagabonds'

Join Samina on a re-run of the ‘Heroes and Vagabonds’ walking history tour.

Meet at the steps at the front of Birmingham City Council House at 11am. The walk is under a mile in length and will take approx about an hour and a half.

This tour is free for BMI members and £5 for any non-member.

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Study Day - William Shakespeare, Measure for Measure (1603/4) & Much Ado About Nothing (1598/9)
Sept
12

Study Day - William Shakespeare, Measure for Measure (1603/4) & Much Ado About Nothing (1598/9)

Shakespearean comedy promises ultimate reconciliation but this is never achieved without pain and suffering and never includes everyone. Measure for Measure explores the conflict between public role and private feelings that can arise in someone appointed to enforce the law. While the romantic comedy elements of Much Ado About Nothing are often prioritised, the play exposes an instinctive endorsement of stereotypical attitudes.

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Oswald Mosley in Birmingham
Sept
15

Oswald Mosley in Birmingham

Before ever becoming Britain’s most notorious Fascist politician, Oswald Mosley was a charismatic force in Birmingham, leading the Labour Party’s struggle to break the iron grip of the Chamberlains and their Conservative adherents. That it succeeded by 1929 was largely due to Mosley’s commitment, his money, his energy and his charm. Within years he had fallen out of love with the Labour leadership, blaming their stolid, unimaginative approach to unemployment; deserting his Smethwick supporters he set out to create a New Party and by 1931 Birmingham Labour voters reviled him and he was violently driven from the city.

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Study Day -  Jane Austen, Sense and Sensibility (1811)
Sept
26

Study Day - Jane Austen, Sense and Sensibility (1811)

The relationship between mothers and daughters provides the starting point for the exploration of a novel that richly demonstrates a complexity far beyond any simple opposition between head and heart. Mrs Dashwood’s preference for her younger daughter shapes the future for Marianne and the elder, Elinor.

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Drawing a portrait tutorial
Sept
29

Drawing a portrait tutorial

Join Artist in Residence Peter Tinkler as he draws a portrait in pencil, and you can follow along as he takes you through each step of the process. We'll look at basic shapes, structuring the head, using some classic measuring techniques like comparative and alignment for greater accuracy, and finally placing/adding the features. It will be a head in profile, and Peter will supply the reference for it. 

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Study Day - W. Somerset Maugham, The Constant Wife (1926) &  Edward Albee, Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (1962)
Oct
10

Study Day - W. Somerset Maugham, The Constant Wife (1926) & Edward Albee, Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (1962)

Both plays challenge assumptions about relationships and how men and women negotiate the marital contract. The RSC has commissioned Laura Wade to adapt The Constant Wife (for summer performances in the Swan theatre) and a production of Who’s Afraid… is being staged at Leicester’s Curve theatre this October.

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Study Day -  The works of Stephen Sondheim
Oct
24

Study Day - The works of Stephen Sondheim

A claim that Sondheim’s achievements may one day sit alongside Shakespeare’s may be a little hyperbolic but the National Theatre’s production of his last piece, Here We Are reminds us of his originality and theatricality. Reference will be made to Follies (1971), A Little Night Music (1963), Sunday in the Park with George (1984), Into the Woods (1987) and Passion (1994).

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Study Day - Euripides, The Trojan Women (415 bc)
Nov
21

Study Day - Euripides, The Trojan Women (415 bc)

The play foregrounds the experience of women left behind after the Trojan War. It explores their grief and suffering while exposing how, in war particularly, women are treated by men as commodities. The play is remarkable for the powerful anti-war perspective it offers. We are fortunate to have an excellent, strongly cast film, directed by Michael Cacoyannis (1971).

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Study Day -  William Makepeace Thackeray, Vanity Fair (1848)
Dec
12

Study Day - William Makepeace Thackeray, Vanity Fair (1848)

The subtitle ‘A novel without a Hero’ signals the book’s position as a trailblazer for nineteenth-century writing. Set during and after the Napoleonic wars, shunning sentimentality, it traces the narratives of two women: Becky Sharp and Amanda Sedley. Their contrasting characters and perspectives upon life and love provide the mainspring of a novel which has enduring appeal.

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History of Lench's Trust
Jun
30

History of Lench's Trust

Lench’s Trust is a remarkable and positive symbol of continuity in a city of seemingly perpetual transformation. In 1525 in Tudor Birmingham, the wealthy and childless William Lenche decided that the income from his estates should be distributed in “warke of charyte”. Since then, generations of Trustees and officials have carried out his wishes diligently, faithfully, and thoughtfully.

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The Birmingham of Edward Burne-Jones, William Morris and their Circle
Jun
16

The Birmingham of Edward Burne-Jones, William Morris and their Circle

Anne Amison’s lifelong passion for the works of Burne-Jones and Morris was fed by many teenage visits to Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery. Today she continues to share her interest by volunteering as a guide at St Philip’s Cathedral. Her talk will look at how Ned Jones from Bennett’s Hill became Sir Edward Burne-Jones, artist, his lifelong friendship with William Morris, and the great contribution they and their circle made to the artistic and cultural life of Birmingham.

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Ruskin Club
Jun
10

Ruskin Club

Join Ruskin Club as they visit the Birmingham Magistrate’s Court with Samina to view the stained glass windows.

Free for BMI members, £5 for any non-member. No booking necessary.

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Creativity and neuroscience: rethinking the mind and reconnecting with the body
Jun
9

Creativity and neuroscience: rethinking the mind and reconnecting with the body

Neuroscientists like Lisa Feldman Barrett are challenging established ideas about the brain and how emotions work. What are the implications of these developments in neuroscience and psychology for creative work? What does regulating the nervous system have to do with writing? How might the science of stress management help us dissolve "writer's block"?

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Study Day - Discoveries
Jun
6

Study Day - Discoveries

Films, novels and poetry provide stimulus for a wide-ranging day in which we share works that have proved to be exciting, pleasurable and thought-provoking. The programme for the day is kept open to allow space not only for recently created works, but also to provide an opportunity to share insights that have risen from revisiting drama, rewatching films, listening again to poetry or returning to books read in the past.

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Study Day - Shakespeare, Henry VIII (1615) & Julius Caesar (1599)
May
23

Study Day - Shakespeare, Henry VIII (1615) & Julius Caesar (1599)

It is salutary to engage with Henry, this most famous of monarchs, through the lens of the play in which Shakespeare is exploring what was for him fairly recent history. The striking final tableau presents the king cradling the new-born Elizabeth. Julius Caesar is recognised as a play offering timeless insight into the moral and political challenges facing an individual as he seeks to reconcile the conflict between private feelings and public good. Can there be such a definition as an honourable murderer?

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Grow your own Creative Writing
May
16

Grow your own Creative Writing

This eight-week course is for all writers over 18, whether seasoned or just getting started, who want to bring new life to their writing. The weekly workshops are designed to help you identify what stops you writing and what connects you more deeply with your innate creativity.

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Grow your own Creative Writing
May
14

Grow your own Creative Writing

This eight-week course is for all writers over 18, whether seasoned or just getting started, who want to bring new life to their writing. The weekly workshops are designed to help you identify what stops you writing and what connects you more deeply with your innate creativity.

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Ruskin Club
May
13

Ruskin Club

Just the Ruskin Club as we join Nuala to share her travel writing from Africa.

Free for BMI members, £5 for any non-member. No booking necessary.

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Writing Memoir: Bringing your Story to Life
May
10

Writing Memoir: Bringing your Story to Life

Everyone has a story worth telling. This course helps you to capture the essence of important moments, whether in your life or someone else's. You’ll develop key writing skills, such as how to structure your stories and create vivid details. A friendly and supportive class for new and established writers, with online drop-in sessions between classes to help you keep writing.

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Behind the Strongroom Door...
Apr
28

Behind the Strongroom Door...

What connection does Sherlock Holmes have with Birmingham? What mysterious item relating to the Second World War wowed audiences of the Antiques Roadshow? And how is archival research misrepresented in shows like Who Do You Think You Are? Mark Eccleston, Archivist at the University of Birmingham, reveals the secrets of the archives held at the Cadbury Research Library.

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Stephen Nicol Exhibition
Apr
28
to 7 Jun

Stephen Nicol Exhibition

Steve is an artist and traveller who has lived, worked in several countries for 40 years. These include the UK, USA, France, Spain, the Netherlands, Thailand, South Korea, Nepal, Cambodia and the Sudan.

The paintings on show here are oil paintings representing those countries like a travelogue.

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Study Day - William Golding, Lord of the Flies (1954)
Apr
11

Study Day - William Golding, Lord of the Flies (1954)

This is a seminal work. its status has been achieved as a result of the searing insight the novel offers into the ways in which human beings react when thrust into an alien, isolated environment. William Golding is a remarkable novelist and his writing is stylish, astute and powerful. Peter Brook’s film (released in 1963) is universally acclaimed and i shall also share insights into the novel, the making of the film and its aftermath revealed in a television documentary featuring its cast and director thirty-five years after the film’s creation.

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Study Day - Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice (1813)
Mar
28

Study Day - Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice (1813)

This is the first in what will be a series of Study Days looking at the roles and importance of the family in Jane Austen’s novels. This day will focus upon sisters. There will be a consideration of not only the five Bennet sisters but also the contribution made by others, such as the sisters of Bingley and Darcy.

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Reality: the mind and the matter
Mar
24

Reality: the mind and the matter

What is reality? Is what we experience in our lives real or mere shadows? 

By means of allegory, illusion and a sprinkling of quantum physics we come to realise that Plato’s Cave is an adequate metaphor, helping us realise the incomprehensibility of The Real.

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A Nation Unprepared
Feb
24

A Nation Unprepared

Apprenticeship in Britain - that is, vocational education based on the learner as a junior employee - once served as the transition between compulsory schooling and adulthood. It provided new entrants to the workforce not just with specific techniques, but with broader occupational competence.

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Complexity and Contradiction in Conservation
Feb
10

Complexity and Contradiction in Conservation

We will be joined by Matthew Vaughan of Donald Insall Associates, one of the world’s leading specialist architectural firms focused on the care, repair, adaptation and conservation of historic buildings. Established over 60 years ago the practice has pioneered a creative approach to conservation, centred on the belief that change is continuous and buildings are, in effect, ‘alive’.

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Grow Your Own: a course in cultivating, nourishing and sustaining a creative writing practice.
Jan
29

Grow Your Own: a course in cultivating, nourishing and sustaining a creative writing practice.

Do you want to write, but find it hard to get started or build momentum? Maybe your writing has fallen flat and your ideas feel tired, or you've got so many demands on your time and energy that writing feels like a luxury you can't afford. Wherever you're at, this course can help. Each week we'll explore a different way into writing through practical, playful experiments. You'll learn how to dismantle blocks to creativity, how to keep feeding your imagination, how to bring new life into your writing, and how to keep your writing going.

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Crafting Your Writing: a course in developing skills and techniques that bring your words to life
Jan
28

Crafting Your Writing: a course in developing skills and techniques that bring your words to life

In this course, you’ll explore techniques that help you create compelling characters, believable settings and convincing dialogue. We’ll look at different ways of plotting, balancing detail and description, and playing with viewpoint to create different effects. We’ll consider how other writers create convincing narratives and apply what we learn to our own writing. Our classes are friendly and supportive, and we welcome new and more established writers.

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Sharing Your Story: A Life Writing Course
Jan
27

Sharing Your Story: A Life Writing Course

Everyone has a story worth telling. Whether you want to share yours with friends, family or a wider audience, this course helps you to capture the essence of important moments in your life. You’ll develop key writing skills, such as how to structure your stories and create vivid details. No previous writing experience necessary.

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