The Poetry of Drawing

Last week I was fortunate to attend the opening of ‘The Poetry of Drawing: Pre-Raphaelite Designs, Studies and Watercolours’ at Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery, curated by Colin Cruise. The exhibition was opened with a short speech from Martin Mullaney, Cabinet Member for Leisure, Sport and Culture, reminding us of the significance of the arts in these straitened times. As usual at such events, I only managed a brief look at the exhibition and will be returning for more, but I was impressed. I really like drawings anyway – whether they are detailed drawings intended to be the finished piece, or whether they are sketches for future paintings, they give a different insight into the skill of the artist. BMAG’s website gives a taster:

“The Poetry of Drawing includes works by all the leading figures of the movement, including the original Brotherhood, their mentor John Ruskin, Elizabeth Siddal, and the ‘second generation’ of Pre-Raphaelites including Edward Burne-Jones, Frederick Sandys and Simeon Solomon. It also displays work by later artists influenced by the Pre-Raphaelites, such as Aubrey Beardsley. There will be a rare chance to compare textiles, stained glass and ceramics by designers such as William Morris, William de Morgan and Florence Camm with their original working drawings, and the opportunity to see watercolours and drawings never exhibited before, including examples by Rossetti, Arthur Hughes and Burne-Jones.” 

Insanity and the Lunatic Asylum

Insanity and the Lunatic Asylum in the Nineteenth Century

A one-day conference on Friday 13^th May 2011 hosted by Birmingham City University

I always had a desire to know asylum life more thoroughly – a desire to be convinced that the most helpless of God’s creatures, the insane, were cared for kindly and properly. Nellie Bly

“And Something’s odd – within -
That person that I was -
And this One – do not feel the same -
Could it be Madness – this?”  Emily Dickinson

The place where optimism flourishes most is the lunatic asylum. (Havelock Ellis)

This interdisciplinary conference will address a range of issues concerning the perception of insanity and madness in the nineteenth century, its manifestations and treatments, and the patients themselves. The conference will take place on Friday 13^th May, 2011, in the chapel of the Birmingham Lunatic Asylum, an impressive building used to restrain and treat patients from 1862 until 1964.

We invite papers on a range of subjects related to this theme. Please submit an abstract of 350 words to serena.trowbridge@bcu.ac.uk by 25^th March, 2011. Subjects covered might include:

•  The life of patients in lunatic asylums
• The literary treatment of madness and lunatic asylums
• Early psychiatry in the asylum
• The architecture and physical space of the lunatic asylum
• Artists and writers and insanity
• Poetry and madness
• Insanity and/or the asylum in the nineteenth-century novel

City of Culture 2013

I’m pleased to see that Birmingham is in the running for City of Culture 2013. I was disappointed when they lost out to Liverpool in 2008, though Liverpool has made the most of it and it’s clearly been a successful venture. Actually, the UK is not due to host another City of Culture until 2032 (because of the expansion of the EU), but the Department for Culture, Media and Sport has decided to “bring the competition closer to home”, as well as to emphasise that “excellence and innovation in the arts does not begin and end inside the M25”. The UK is good at celebrating its culture, generally speaking, and has some amazing arts events to offer, so anything that encourages and supports this seems like a good thing.

The shortlist for City of Culture 2013 includes Barnsley, Carlisle, the whole of Cornwall, Durham, Sheffield and Derry. Obviously I can’t comment on the relative merits of these places (though having the whole of Cornwall up against some quite small cities seems unfair!) But Birmingham, I hope, is well-placed, both geographically and in terms of its commitment to the arts. The Birmingham Repertory Theatre is about to undergo a major facelift along with the building of a spectacular new public library; the Rep puts on a wonderful programme of plays and other events every year, while the library is fantastically well-stocked and has informative and helpful staff. We have other theatres, of course – from the Alexandra, which has a lot of big musicals etc, to the Hippodrome, home of Birmingham Royal Ballet, and the Crescent, which puts on smaller plays, not always professional but always interesting.  There are some brilliant concert venues here in Brum, and, of course, Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery, with a wonderful collection of Pre-Raphaelite paintings.  If to these amenities was added a further range of public cultural and artistic events, Birmingham would become an even more exciting place to be. I’m looking forward to seeing what happens next, and what moves the council makes to ensure our bid is successful.

There is a website with more information about Birmingham’s bid for City of Culture, where you can have your say – have a look at http://www.birminghambigcityculture.com/.