City of 1000 Stories: January 2014

Friday 10 January 2014

Outline welcomes the Lord Lieutenant of Birmingham.

Programme manager Ian Andrews and Director of Schools and Corporate Events Bridget Byrne were proud to welcome representatives of the Lord lieutenant's office.Mr Paul Chandrasekharen Sabapathy CBE the Lord-Lieutenant was appointed in October 2007 and was born in India. His amazing story is another addition to the thousand stories that make up Birmingham and the Midlands.

Martin Tunstall and Denise Lewis reviewed the work produced as part of the live brief run with the Lord lieutenants office for the production of artwork to be displayed in the refurbished offices in Solihull.

Mandy purchase, Freya Rily, Catherine Suen, Suzie Bramich, Tony Simmons, Helen Johnson and Kelly Martin, students on the Foundation Diploma in Art and Design, gave formal presentations explaining the ideas behind their constructed textile pieces.

The students are looking forward to a visit to the offices in Solihull to meet the Lord Lietenant himself and discuss the siting of the work and appropriate display methods.

Wednesday 8 January 2014

Outline presentation at the V&A in London

In November Outline took part in a series of presentations at the Victoria and Albert Museum as part of the launch of a publication called "15 methods 20 questions." The book was a series of interviews with people who are developing innovative curriculum delivery models and Outline were invited to participate because of our Experimental Drawing workshops and Community Drawing projects.

Programme manager Ian Andrews gave a presentation on the development of the experimental drawing workshops, their rationale and delivery methods and the City of 1000 Stories initiative run by the Department to engage community groups in the visual arts.

The presentation was an abridged version of the interview conducted with the Q-Art research team which forms part of the publication.

What we are about

The idea is to look at Birmingham as a rich and diverse collection of stories. Whether it is about the past or the future, imaginary or factual, realistic or fantastical, how does your story begin and develop? And how can it be told?

Here at Outline our mission is to develop a greater understanding and use of drawing as a driver of rich experimentation and exploration. Everyone can draw, everyone can make their mark, everyone could leave a trace, and therefore everyone can tell their story, or their part of the story that makes up the book of Birmingham.

We are planning to develop these ideas through projects with their own students and more importantly to link with community groups of all persuasions so that some of the 1000 stories that Birmingham generates can be told through the visual arts.