Posts Tagged ‘ikon gallery birmingham’

Ikon Gallery In Birmingham, England

Birmingham is a fascinating city in the West Midlands, England and it is a really popular destination for city breaks and  day trips. The city has a huge variety of excellent tourist attractions including a great many churches which have Grade I status and historic houses as well as many museums and galleries, including the Ikon Gallery Birmingham UK.

The Ikon Gallery in Birmingham is a contemporary art gallery which is housed in the former Oozells Street Board School , Brindleyplace, however it wasn’t always so suitably housed.

Founded in 1964 by Angus Skene and four students of art.  The 4 artists were; Robert Groves, Jesse Bruton, Robert Groves and Sylvani Merilion. Angus had bought a piece of art by Prentice and the two of them talked about the numerous problems faced by local artists, which included the lack of support for local artists.  The conversation formed the basic ideas for Ikon which was to be a “gallery without walls”.

Skene initially financed the project, which consisted of exhibitions in such unusual venues as post offices and cinemas in a motorcycle sidecar. The idea being to increase the accessibility of art to the general public.  To reduce costs staffing was by the founding artists who did not take wages. After a while the Gallery was given a glass walled kiosk in the Bull Ring shopping centre.

Over the two couple of decades the Ikon Gallery moved from location to location until 1997 when it purchased, with aid from the National Lottery, the current premises, the former Oozells Street Board School. recently the Ikon Gallery has put on a number of exhibitions and its continual ability to produce the superb has led to it becoming immensely popular, to such a degree that it opened another gallery in 2006, Ikon Eastside in  Digbeth.

If you are thinking about a Birmingham vacation remember to allow time for you to visit at least one of the Ikon Galleries. Also it is important to know that although there are many Birmingham hotels and guest houses finding Birmingham bed and breakfast can every now and again be very difficult. It is therefore crucially important to book your accommodation at the earliest opportunity. You will need to know that the nearest airport is approximately 8 miles east of the the city center (just off the A45 and near the M42, Junction 6. You will will be able to find a respectable number of guest houses and hotels close by the airport.