Wolves PhotoFest was created in direct response to headlines and polls claiming Wolverhampton to be a miserable and uncultured place to live.

The new Desi Pub Catalogue has arrived and we’re offering a small number for a price of £5.

The catalogue features stories and archive images from the Desi Pub landlords about their lives and journey to the Black Country as well as images of the commissioned artworks and the Desi Pub project that has been running since 2016.

A new set of performances ‘Back in 10’, produced by Black Country Touring, will be taking place during Black Country Living Museum’s Summer Evenings this month using the museum’s famous shops as a backdrop.

The University of Wolverhampton, in collaboration with Wolverhampton Art Gallery and Creative Black Country present Slaves of Fashion: Symposium at Wolverhampton Art Gallery, Lichfield Street, WV1 1DU on Saturday 18 August from 10am-4pm.

We went to the launch of The Singh Twins latest exhibition ‘Slaves of Fashion’ New works by The Singh Twins, on Friday 20th July to find out what people there thought of it.

The exhibition runs until the 16th September at Wolverhampton Art Gallery.

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.

From 25 May to 2 September 2018 a new major solo exhibition of the figurative portrait painter Andrew Tift will be showing at New Art Gallery Walsall.

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.

Allan Ahlberg, the renowned and much loved children’s author, is a former pupil of Rood End Primary School, Langley. He’s the inspiration behind an exciting new augmented reality poetry project.

People Place Power is a two-day event (14-15 June in Wolverhampton) organised by the Creative People and Places (CPP) network to provoke, challenge and move forward inclusive approaches to arts engagement.

Back in November we hosted the Festival of Masters – a day-long event that showcased our 100 Masters through exhibitions, installations, talks, workshops and performances.

Well, what a year 2017 turned out to be for Creative Black Country. We started with plans for a new comedy festival, asking people to nominate talented individuals who were great and what they do and beginning to pull together a book featuring the work we’d commissioned with our Desi Pub landlords.

Want to know who made the list of 100? Then take a look. We’ve listed ALL of our masters, what they do and where they are from.

In today’s Express & Star you will find the 100 Masters supplement listing all 100 of our fabulous masters in celebration of the Festival of Masters event, taking place next Saturday (25 Nov) at the Starworks Warehouse in Wolverhampton! As well as reading about the masters and the festival, you can also watch Juneau Projects illustrations come alive with augmented reality when you use the Layar app on your phones or tablets.

Why not join us on Saturday 25th November at Starworks Warehouse in Wolverhampton as we celebrate our 100 Masters at a special pop-up event.