Since developing CBC’s pilot project ENTER as part of Cultural Bridge in 2021, a partnership programme between UK and Germany, CBC have been rediscovering the importance of building European relationships in the Black Country, and how we do this differently.  

In December, for the Winter Solstice on the 21st, Culture Central asked artists and organisations from across the West Midlands to produce and commission pieces of work that could be shared across social media platforms, lasting no more than 60 seconds each.

Black Country Touring have been honoured with the Queen’s Award for Voluntary Service, the highest award a voluntary group can receive in the UK.

The independent cafe, fashion and grocery store, hairdresser and beauty salon, tailor, market stall, and takeaway are regular sights in Black Country towns and this September they are being celebrated and used as inspiration for a new set of performances.

For the fourth year Creative Black Country is partnering with the annual Ola Sandwell & Birmingham Mela in association with Lidl, to bring its biggest Art Village to date to the event, which returns to Victoria Park, Smethwick this weekend (20-21st July).

With phase 2 of our Creative People and Places project well underway we’ve been busy with some great projects over the last 18 months. Here’s a few headline highlights from our work…

Here’s a short video of the performance piece we brought to the ZEE Sandwell & Birmingham Mela this year.

Multistory are hosting a number of events over the next few weeks to celebrate collaborations, book launches and their new festival BLAST!

We had a very busy weekend at the ZEE Sandwell and Birmingham Mela this weekend.

With plenty of hands-on workshops and performance over 10,000 people visited us at the Arts Village during Saturday and Sunday.

Following a succesful premier in Chandigarh, Girl Gaze: Journeys through the Punjab and the Black Country, heads to Jalandhar for its next exhibition.

Jennifer Pattison’s interest in magical worlds finds expression in the rich traditions of the Punjabi lori. Her fine art photographs, titled Rice Pudding Moon & The River of Dreams, are inspired by songs that sing of a mother’s love and of a land of dreams. The artist is interested in how lullabies are passed down the generations from grandmother to daughter to grandchild.

Photographic artist Andrea Fernandes is drawn to the personal heroism of others and their attempts to articulate life through performance.

With an ever-evolving photographic style, Uzma Mohsin’s rich and textured work, Love & Other Hurts, seeks to breathe new life into the personal histories of Punjabi women in the Black Country.

Creative Black Country, alongside Multistory and the Nazar Foundation is pleased to announce the launch of Girl Gaze: Journeys Through the Punjab & The Black Country, UK a photographic exploration of the Punjab and diaspora communities in the West Midlands through the voices of young girls and women. 

Jocelyn Allen’s You Will Live in This World as A Daughter is a series of playful portraits of girls and young women that explores what it is to be born a daughter of the Punjab. Behind her playful portrayals is a meaningful enquiry into their visibility within traditionally patriarchal communities.

Enter… The Ramshackle House. What will the coming Winter be like for the family that calls this rickety house their home? Will it be ready in time for the Christmas festivities?   

70,000 people turn out to the largest Asian music festival in the UK each year which takes place over the weekend of the 1 and 2 July at Victoria Park in Smethwick.

A brand new show premiering in July 2017 through a partnership between Black Country Touring and So Festival in Skegness. The show will draw on stories of seasonal visitors and year round residents.