The Public at West Brom

Above is a photo of The Public at West Bromwich. West Bromwich is NW of Birmingham and was very industrial.  For those readers who live outside the West Midlands, I should explain that it is a controversial Arts Centre/Gallery/Theatre/you name it and it is in the very centre of West Bromwich. When it was unveiled a few years ago, there was an uproar. The locals thought it was a waste of money and no-one in the architectural world had a good word to say for it. The inside is even more magnificent (from which adjective, you can gather my views on it). The inside is impossible to photograph,  curves everywhere. When I walked in, I saw a ramp and thought it went to first floor. After a few minutes, I thought, 'it doesn't go anywhere'. Nor it does, you just look down on the main entrance hall from it.

 

Monday afternoon and it was bitterly cold with a biting wind- and The Public was very busy. I have been thinking about why it is such a success and I think that it is because no-one can be frightened of a  building with odd windows and painted pink. Most modern Arts Centres are all glass and four-square and look like posh business buildings.  Amongst all the things going on, there was a group t in teh entrance hall teaching others to braid their hair!

 

 I was there to pick up my exhibits from the Midlands Textile Forum Exhibition that has just finished - and to attend an MTF meeting. The exhibition went off very well and we were meeting to discuss the next few exhibitions which are

Craven Arms Discovery Centre, 11th May to 4th June 2013
Needle Forge Mill Museum, Redditch, 6th to 21st July
Ardvaark Books, Brampton Bryan (near Hereford) 16th to 29th Sept 2013
Nature in Art, Twigworth (near Gloucester) 8th to 21st April 2014.

I intend to do some special weaving for the Craven Arms one which has the title ' Stretching Boundaries' . I intend to weave these on the NorthWest loom and had better get on with it!

So first to finish the current project which is weaving a length for me on one of the 12 shaft looms - the rhubarb one. The warp is rhubarb pink and green. The lowest sample has  a fine maroon wool and a yellow 16/2 cotton. The next is maroon wool and mid-blue cotton and the top one is maroon wool and silver-grey 16/2 cotton.   I like the last one best and am making good progress with weaving a length. I have done several repeats and it does look good.  I intend to make a bag out of it.