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DIGBETH FIRST FRIDAY 01.05.26

LUNA: Care and Defiance, Artist talk and party, 5pm @ Centrala

Seema Mattu: Local Superstar exhibition launch, 12pm-5pm @ Eastside Projects

Dubstep Digbeth, 9pm-4am @ Suki10c

MusikLAB Livestream, 7pm-3am @ Komunal

Beauty and the Beast exhibition launch, 6pm-8pm @
Seventh Circle

Hot Plate: Soup PtVIII - Curated Open Studios, 5:30pm-8pm @ Stryx

Flatpack Festival Zine Launch, 5:30pm-8pm @ Pan-Pan

Horses!, 6pm-8pm @ Grand Union

White Lines Exhibition launch & Silver Dollar Reggae, 7pm-Late @ The Edge

#birmingham #digbeth #creative

DIGBETH FIRST FRIDAY 01.05.26

LUNA: Care and Defiance, Artist talk and party, 5pm @ Centrala

Seema Mattu: Local Superstar exhibition launch, 12pm-5pm @ Eastside Projects

Dubstep Digbeth, 9pm-4am @ Suki10c

MusikLAB Livestream, 7pm-3am @ Komunal

Beauty and the Beast exhibition launch, 6pm-8pm @
Seventh Circle

Hot Plate: Soup PtVIII - Curated Open Studios, 5:30pm-8pm @ Stryx

Flatpack Festival Zine Launch, 5:30pm-8pm @ Pan-Pan

Horses!, 6pm-8pm @ Grand Union

White Lines Exhibition launch & Silver Dollar Reggae, 7pm-Late @ The Edge

#birmingham #digbeth #creative

Access Information: ‘HORSES!’, May Digbeth First Friday ⭐️⁠
⁠
🗓 Friday, 1 May⁠
⏰ 6-8pm⁠
📍 Grand Union, Minerva Works, B5 5RS⁠
⁠
📌 Ahead of ‘HORSES!’ tomorrow evening, we’re providing some detailed access information to ensure your visit is as comfortable as possible, and to help you decide if this event is right for you. ⁠
⁠
Grand Union is located up two flights of stairs (40 steps), and we do not have a working lift. Visitors can arrive from 6pm, and there will be a pay bar serving alcoholic and soft drinks. 🥤⁠
⁠
🎬 6:15pm: ’Stepney Western’ (2025) by Harry Lawson (approx. 40 mins). There will then be a 15-minute break while we set up the following film.⁠
⁠
📽 7:10pm: ’HORSES!’ (2026) by Linda Stupart (approx. 15 mins). Please note that ‘HORSES!’ contains scenes which may trigger photosensitive epilepsy.⁠
⁠
We then encourage visitors to head downstairs to the Grand Union Canal, by Centrala. ☔️⁠
⁠
🐎 7:40pm: Linda will be delivering a live performance by the Canal. Please note that this 20-minute performance will feature a horse.⁠
⁠
Please get in touch via DM, email at info@grand-union.org.uk, or by phone at 0121 643 9079 for any questions or to discuss access further.⁠
⁠
🔗 To view our access information in full, please head to the link in our bio.⁠
⁠
@digbethfirstfri⁠
@flatpackfestival⁠
@harrylaws.on⁠
@lindastupart⁠
⁠
📸 Image: ‘Stepney Western’ (2025) dir. Harry Lawson. Image courtesy of Harry Lawson.⁠
⁠
[Image description: A silhouette of a cowboy on a horse, stood to attention against a warm, orange sunset. In the distance is an electrical tower, erected in the centre of a tumbling, grassy field. The sky is umber, with rolling clouds overhead.]

🐎 Join us for Digbeth First Friday this week, where we are delighted to present the first iteration of 'HORSES!' 🐎⁠
⁠
🗓 Friday, 1 May⁠
⏰ 6-8pm⁠
📍Grand Union, Minerva Works, B5 5RT⁠
⁠
‘HORSES!’ is a special event co-curated with artist, educator, and equestrian Linda Stupart and Flatpack Festival at Grand Union. Reflecting Grand Union’s social and environmental work, 'HORSES!' explores the therapeutic connections between urban landscapes and the power of equine energy. 🏙️⁠
⁠
‘HORSES!’ is a new experimental 16mm film and performance event building on Stupart’s long-term research into horse-human relationships. The DIY film is comprised of found 16mm footage and 16mm documentation of the artist’s earlier performances with horses: images are destroyed; shifted and made malleable via embodied, dirty, imprecise and often abject interventions. The performance builds on their previous intervention into the geography and history of the Grand Union Canal. Projectionist and 16mm documentation by James Holcombe. Horse provided by Nicole Sherwood. 🌀⁠
⁠
Alongside we will be screening ‘Stepney Western’ (2025) by artist and filmmaker Harry Lawson, an experimental documentary made with a group of young inner city horse riders from Stepney Bank Stables in Newcastle. It is loosely centred on their Alternative Provision programme – a unique alternative for teenagers who struggle in mainstream education settings. 🏇⁠
⁠
ACCESS INFORMATION: ⁠
⁠
All films will be captioned or subtitled.⁠
⁠
Grand Union is located up two flights of stairs with no lift access.⁠
⁠
Access to the horse will be at ground level outside.⁠
⁠
Expect mixed lighting and sound levels within the space.⁠
⁠
There is a spacious gender neutral bathroom on site with no mobility aids.⁠
⁠
There will be a pay bar serving alcoholic and soft drinks.⁠
⁠
Photography will be taking place on site for documentation purposes and these images may be used on our social media, website, in reporting, and other places.⁠
⁠
📸 Video courtesy of Linda Stupart, 2026.⁠
⁠
Find out more about this event at the link in our bio 🔗 ⁠
⁠
@Lindastupart⁠
@harrylaws.on⁠
@flatpackfestival⁠
@digbethfirstfri

Here are the first few moments from Body-In-Play. The full 24-minute performance is out now on mine and Eastside Projects’ YouTube channel: Link in bio. This was a magical day and evening, so I wanted to share the full documentation with you. I love art, it’s the best thing ever, ever ever, ever ever.

“Body-in-Play was a practice-based performance that sought to nurture the “self in context.” Informed by Taoist philosophy, it explored the dynamic body–landscape in resonance with Marley Starskey Butler’s exhibition Compensare: For the Swallows We Weigh at Eastside Projects.

Through relational play and embodied response, movement artists Kim Bormann @kimjbormann , Seraina Dejaco @serainadejaco ,Sarah Butler @sarahsebbutler , and Dawn Reeves @futuredawnreeves alongside artist Marley Starskey Butler, who generated live sonic material in dialogue with the moving bodies, reflected on, responded to, and remixed the exhibition’s sonic and visual textures, interacting playfully through the conversational body.

Conceived within 24 hours of its presentation, it unfolded as a shared moment in time. The work developed through both private and public collaboration. Development, testing, and rehearsals were open to the public from 12–5pm, followed by a performance at 7pm as part of @digbethfirstfri on 3 April 2026.”

This performance commission was a collaboration between @eprjcts and @fabric.dance

Here’s a sneak peek of ‘Body in Play’ rehearsals 👀
⚡️Performance is on tonight at 7-7:30pm!!!⚡️

Make your way here on your Digbeth First Friday stroll🚶‍♀️

Also last couple days to catch our current exhibitions– Compensare: For the Swallows We Weigh by @marleystarskeybutler and NAR MARRATU by @ssaarraahj 🌷

We’re open 6-8 tonight, bars are stocked and samosas are hot, don’t miss it! 😉

Here’s a sneak peek of ‘Body in Play’ rehearsals 👀
⚡️Performance is on tonight at 7-7:30pm!!!⚡️

Make your way here on your Digbeth First Friday stroll🚶‍♀️

Also last couple days to catch our current exhibitions– Compensare: For the Swallows We Weigh by @marleystarskeybutler and NAR MARRATU by @ssaarraahj 🌷

We’re open 6-8 tonight, bars are stocked and samosas are hot, don’t miss it! 😉

💖 Access information for 'Endangered Pudding' 💖⁠
⁠
🗓 Friday, 3 April⁠
⏰ 6-8pm⁠
📍Grand Union, Minerva Works, B5 5RT⁠
⁠
Ahead of 'Endangered Pudding' tomorrow, we wanted to share some detailed access information to make sure your visit is as comfortable as possible and to help you decide if this event is right for you. 🌟⁠
⁠
⏰ Faye Matloub will present ‘Ode to the Date’ from 6.15-7.00pm and Harmanpreet Randahawa will present ‘Atte di Chiri (Sparrow of dough)’ from 7.15-8pm. ⁠
⁠
🍽️⁠ 'Ode to the Date' includes the serving of food. Menus detailing ⁠the full ingredient list will be present on site, but the food served will contain allergens (sesame and walnuts). There will also be a captioned film presented in the performance. ⁠
⁠
🌾 ‘Atte di Chiri (Sparrow of dough)' will involve a large amount of wheat flour, which may become airborne during the performance. ⁠
⁠
👣 Grand Union is located up two flights of stairs (40 steps), and we do not have a working lift. ⁠
⁠
🚻 We have a large gender-neutral bathroom on site, with no mobility aids inside. ⁠
⁠
😷 There will be masks and hand sanitiser at the entrance to Grand Union available for your use. ⁠
⁠
🌇 Expect mixed lighting and sound levels within the space. ⁠
⁠
🥤 There will a pay bar serving a variety of alcoholic and soft drinks. ⁠
⁠
💖 Digbeth First Fridays can become busy and crowded. If you are in need of a quiet space across the evening, please speak to a member of staff. ⁠
⁠
📸 Photography will be taking place on site for documentation purposes and these images may be used on our social media, website, in reporting, and other places. ⁠
⁠
Please get in touch via DM, email at info@grand-union.org.uk, or by phone at 0121 643 9079 for any questions or to discuss access further.⁠
⁠
You can find out more about 'Endangered Pudding' at the link in our bio 🔗⁠
⁠
@digbethfirstfri⁠
@h_a_r_m_a_n_art⁠
@edible.mediums⁠
@intro_jam⁠
@leahrhickey⁠
@beth_exley⁠

🍏 April Digbeth First Friday: ‘Endangered Pudding’ with Faye Matloub and Harmanpreet Randhawa 🍏⁠
⁠
🗓 Friday, 3 April⁠
⏰ 6-8pm⁠
📍Grand Union, Minerva Works, B5 5RT⁠
⁠
'Endangered Pudding' is right around the corner, and we can't wait for Faye Matloub to join us here at Grand Union, where she will be presenting 'Ode to the Date'! 🍽️⁠
⁠
Faye is a British-born Iraqi artist and chef based in London. In 2023, she graduated from Central Saint Martins with a degree in Sculpture. 🌟⁠
⁠
Following her studies, her artistic practice gradually transitioned toward the medium of food. As her work moved beyond the confines of the studio and onto the plate, she began to define this evolving body of work as Edible Mediums. 🍝⁠
⁠
Edible Mediums encompassed a diverse range of formats, including workshops, community engagement projects, supper clubs, and written work. As a second-generation Iraqi, Faye uses food to engage with different communities, learn from them, and conduct research on the preservation of migrant identity – emphasising the importance of creating accessible language for first and second generation immigrants like herself in a creative context. 💚⁠
⁠
Find out more about ‘Endangered Pudding’ at the link in our bio 🔗 ⁠
⁠
@digbethfirstfri⁠
@edible.mediums⁠
@intro_jam⁠
@leahrhickey⁠
@beth_exley⁠
⁠
[image description - A portrait image of Faye Matloub. Faye looks directy at the camera, holding a small white book in her hands. Faye wears a bolack shiny skirt and a mesh leopard print top with metal bangles adornign her wrist. Her long dark hair is worn down and curly.]

🍏 April Digbeth First Friday: ‘Endangered Pudding’ with Faye Matloub and Harmanpreet Randhawa 🍏⁠
⁠
🗓 Friday, 3 April⁠
⏰ 6-8pm⁠
📍Grand Union, Minerva Works, B5 5RT⁠
⁠
We are delighted that Harmanpreet Randhawa will be joining for April's Digbeth First Friday, where they will present ‘Atte di Chiri (Sparrow of dough)’ as part of ‘Endangered Pudding’. 💖⁠
⁠
Harman is an artist and artist-curator working across drawing, performance, sculpture, writing, and curation. Informed by material semiotics, postcolonial thought, and lived experience, their practice gestures toward the limits of dominant Euro-American knowledge systems, particularly the ways these frameworks render other ways of knowing and being irrational or illegible. 🌾⁠
⁠
Attending to the complex relationships between language/words, culture, knowledge, identity, and the body, their work advances a mode of narration that privileges pluralism, abstraction and opacity, resisting linear and readily visible forms of meaning. 🌟⁠
⁠
Find out more about ‘Endangered Pudding’ at the link in our bio 🔗 ⁠
⁠
@digbethfirstfri⁠
@h_a_r_m_a_n_art⁠
@leahrhickey⁠
@beth_exley⁠
⁠
📸 ‘NaMa Lum / The one who does not know’, performances by Harmanpreet Randhawa, 2024, The Old Fire Station, Oxford. Image by Mark Devereux.⁠
⁠
[Image description - A portrait image of Harmanpreet Randhawa performing at the Old Fire Station in Oxford. They are illuminated in a blue-toned purple light as they kneel on the ground, topless in front of a pale curtain. Harman holds their hand up to their face, obscuring most of their features in a soft gesture, pressing between their eyebrows. A silver bangle glints on their wrist. A fully clothed figure sits cross-legged behind them, watching the performance.]

🍏 April Digbeth First Friday: ‘Endangered Pudding’ with Faye Matloub and Harmanpreet Randhawa 🍏⁠
⁠
🗓 Friday, 3 April⁠
⏰ 6-8pm⁠
📍 Grand Union, Minerva Works, B5 5RT⁠
⁠
Join us on Friday, 3 April for ‘Endangered Pudding’, an evening of performance exploring memory, preservation and loss of oral tradition through food, spoken word and movement. 🌟⁠
⁠
Faye Matloub and Harmanpreet Randahawa will respond to the idea of food heritage in danger of being forgotten or overlooked. Inspired by the specificity of puddings declared ‘at risk’ by English Heritage, both artists have drawn on their personal relationships to recipes and ingredients to explore the importance of food as a universal, sensory language. 🥮⁠
⁠
‘Endangered Pudding’ unearths the knowledge which lies between the lines of the recipe, and the words spoken between spoonfuls. 🍮⁠
⁠
To learn more about ‘Endangered Pudding’ click the link in our bio to visit our website 🔗 ⁠
⁠
ACCESS INFORMATION: ⁠
⁠
Exact timings will be confirmed soon and shared via our website and social media channels.⁠
⁠
Access to Grand Union is up two flights of stairs (40 steps), and we do not have a working lift. ⁠
⁠
We have a large gender-neutral bathroom on site, with no mobility aids inside. ⁠
⁠
Expect mixed lighting and the use of wheat flour within the performances.⁠
⁠
@digbethfirstfri⁠
@h_a_r_m_a_n_art⁠
@edible.mediums⁠
@intro_jam
@leahrhickey⁠
@beth_exley⁠
⁠
[image description - A portrait image of white flour scattered on a dark grey floor from one of Harman’s performance explorations. The flour is smeared around in places and imprinted with the marks of hands and feet, as if someone had crawled through the space. Pale pink text of various sizes is overlaid on the image that reads: ‘April Digbeth First Friday; Endangered Pudding with Faye Matloub & Harmanpreet Randhawa; 03/04/2026; Grand Union’.]

Come through for Body-in-Play on 3rd April!
Led by movement artist Kim Bormann, this practice-based performance is in resonance with my work Compensare: For the Swallows We Weigh, exploring the “self in context.”

Through relational play and embodied response, Kim, Seraina Dejaco, Sarah Butler, Dawn Reeves, and I reflect on, respond to, and remix the exhibition’s sonic and visual textures, interacting playfully through the conversational body—a practice informed by Taoist philosophy that explores the dynamic body–landscape.

Conceived within 24 hours of its presentation, the work unfolds as a shared moment in time.

We’ll be developing the performance through both private and public collaboration. Development, testing, and rehearsals are open to the public from 12–5pm, with the performance at 7pm as part of Digbeth First Friday.

@eprjcts Performance commission in collaboration with @fabric.dance

📅 3rd April
🕒 7–7:30pm
📍 Eastside Projects / @eprjcts
🎟️ Free as part of @digbethfirstfri

Everyone is welcome to join us on Friday 6 March at our Vivid Projects space and the @brigcafe from 6-8pm for @digbethfirstfri !

You’ll have the opportunity to take a look at excerpts from the media archive collection 📼 see behind the scenes of our digitisation process, and enjoy early previews of work by BMAP Professional Placement holders @charlottewithstudios and @jaynemurrayartist 🤩

Staff and artists will be avaliable to answer questions about the Birmingham Media Archive Project & share more about the topics that will be explored in our forthcoming exhibition at @birmingham_mag which opens on 18 April.

Birmingham Media Archive Project: The First Decade is supported by @britishfilminstitute Screen Heritage Fund, awarding funds from the National Lottery🤞

Image: Still from Maire O’Shea is Innocent, campaign film, 1985

#BMAP #VividProjects #BirminghamHistory #ScreenHeritage #CommunityMedia

I had the pleasure of capturing two wonderful new exhibitions for @eprjcts the other day: @ssaarraahj’s ‘NAR MARRATU’ (Bitter River) and @marleystarskeybutler’s ‘Compensare: For the Swallows We Weigh’.

Make sure you explore them too on your @digbethfirstfri gallery crawl! Also, excited to see both exhibitions again for @luna.photobham social this Friday (06/02)! 📸 ✨

#DigbethFirstFriday #0121 #InDigbeth #NewArt #IgersBirminghamUk

I had the pleasure of capturing two wonderful new exhibitions for @eprjcts the other day: @ssaarraahj’s ‘NAR MARRATU’ (Bitter River) and @marleystarskeybutler’s ‘Compensare: For the Swallows We Weigh’.

Make sure you explore them too on your @digbethfirstfri gallery crawl! Also, excited to see both exhibitions again for @luna.photobham social this Friday (06/02)! 📸 ✨

#DigbethFirstFriday #0121 #InDigbeth #NewArt #IgersBirminghamUk

I had the pleasure of capturing two wonderful new exhibitions for @eprjcts the other day: @ssaarraahj’s ‘NAR MARRATU’ (Bitter River) and @marleystarskeybutler’s ‘Compensare: For the Swallows We Weigh’.

Make sure you explore them too on your @digbethfirstfri gallery crawl! Also, excited to see both exhibitions again for @luna.photobham social this Friday (06/02)! 📸 ✨

#DigbethFirstFriday #0121 #InDigbeth #NewArt #IgersBirminghamUk

I had the pleasure of capturing two wonderful new exhibitions for @eprjcts the other day: @ssaarraahj’s ‘NAR MARRATU’ (Bitter River) and @marleystarskeybutler’s ‘Compensare: For the Swallows We Weigh’.

Make sure you explore them too on your @digbethfirstfri gallery crawl! Also, excited to see both exhibitions again for @luna.photobham social this Friday (06/02)! 📸 ✨

#DigbethFirstFriday #0121 #InDigbeth #NewArt #IgersBirminghamUk

I had the pleasure of capturing two wonderful new exhibitions for @eprjcts the other day: @ssaarraahj’s ‘NAR MARRATU’ (Bitter River) and @marleystarskeybutler’s ‘Compensare: For the Swallows We Weigh’.

Make sure you explore them too on your @digbethfirstfri gallery crawl! Also, excited to see both exhibitions again for @luna.photobham social this Friday (06/02)! 📸 ✨

#DigbethFirstFriday #0121 #InDigbeth #NewArt #IgersBirminghamUk

I had the pleasure of capturing two wonderful new exhibitions for @eprjcts the other day: @ssaarraahj’s ‘NAR MARRATU’ (Bitter River) and @marleystarskeybutler’s ‘Compensare: For the Swallows We Weigh’.

Make sure you explore them too on your @digbethfirstfri gallery crawl! Also, excited to see both exhibitions again for @luna.photobham social this Friday (06/02)! 📸 ✨

#DigbethFirstFriday #0121 #InDigbeth #NewArt #IgersBirminghamUk

I had the pleasure of capturing two wonderful new exhibitions for @eprjcts the other day: @ssaarraahj’s ‘NAR MARRATU’ (Bitter River) and @marleystarskeybutler’s ‘Compensare: For the Swallows We Weigh’.

Make sure you explore them too on your @digbethfirstfri gallery crawl! Also, excited to see both exhibitions again for @luna.photobham social this Friday (06/02)! 📸 ✨

#DigbethFirstFriday #0121 #InDigbeth #NewArt #IgersBirminghamUk

I had the pleasure of capturing two wonderful new exhibitions for @eprjcts the other day: @ssaarraahj’s ‘NAR MARRATU’ (Bitter River) and @marleystarskeybutler’s ‘Compensare: For the Swallows We Weigh’.

Make sure you explore them too on your @digbethfirstfri gallery crawl! Also, excited to see both exhibitions again for @luna.photobham social this Friday (06/02)! 📸 ✨

#DigbethFirstFriday #0121 #InDigbeth #NewArt #IgersBirminghamUk

I had the pleasure of capturing two wonderful new exhibitions for @eprjcts the other day: @ssaarraahj’s ‘NAR MARRATU’ (Bitter River) and @marleystarskeybutler’s ‘Compensare: For the Swallows We Weigh’.

Make sure you explore them too on your @digbethfirstfri gallery crawl! Also, excited to see both exhibitions again for @luna.photobham social this Friday (06/02)! 📸 ✨

#DigbethFirstFriday #0121 #InDigbeth #NewArt #IgersBirminghamUk

I had the pleasure of capturing two wonderful new exhibitions for @eprjcts the other day: @ssaarraahj’s ‘NAR MARRATU’ (Bitter River) and @marleystarskeybutler’s ‘Compensare: For the Swallows We Weigh’.

Make sure you explore them too on your @digbethfirstfri gallery crawl! Also, excited to see both exhibitions again for @luna.photobham social this Friday (06/02)! 📸 ✨

#DigbethFirstFriday #0121 #InDigbeth #NewArt #IgersBirminghamUk