Gallery 37 was pioneered in Chicago and came to Birmingham in 1998. Since this time the project has been replicated in many other cities around the world, and, following the launch of Gallery 37 Plus, across the UK. Its innovative approach to education through the arts has travelled as far afield as Australia.
Gallery 37 Birmingham has used its links with other cities to extend this principal of international exchange through a number of exciting projects:
Leipzig – Germany
In May 1999 a group of five young people from Birmingham who participated in the 1998 programme where selected to work for six days with professional artists and young people from Leipzig on intensive arts workshops in the village of Dreiskau-Muckern. There were four different disciplines; photography, printmaking, painting and sculpture. In addition to learning advanced techniques in all of the disciplines, the young people also shared common German and English phrases in order to communicate with each other. The Lord Mayor of Leipzig attended the final exhibition of work.
Leipzig sent an equivalent group of young people to participate for a week on Gallery 37, where they joined the ceramics, textiles and performance programmes.
Lyon – France
Birmingham City Council’s European Division already has an established relationship with various organisations that are home to our twin city of Lyon - France. One of these organisations is Aralis. One of the projects that Aralis works with is the Biennale de la Danse – this is a dance / carnival that takes place in the streets of Lyon and occurs every two years.
In preparation for the visit all apprentices where given French tuition through the Brasshouse Language Centre. In August 2000 the ten apprentices accompanied by an interpreter and two support workers, started their stay in Lyon.
The group worked extremely hard in achieving a stunning performance. The rehearsals were both intensive and demanding. The results spoke for themselves, the Villeurbanne group was quoted by the Director of the Biennale de la Danse as being one of the three best groups out of the twenty-nine that took part, they also hit the front page of a regional newspaper. 200,000 people attended the event.
Frankfurt – Germany
In August 2003 Gallery 37 participated in an international, multi-lateral youth arts exchange in Germany. The project took place in Feriendorf Eisenberg, a holiday village, in a rural location, approximately 45 minutes journey by coach to the nearest major town of Bad Hersfeld.
Ten young people from Birmingham’s 2003 summer programme participated in the 10 day exchange, working, in variety of art forms, with professional artists from around the world.
The young people from Birmingham were joined by groups from Italy, Germany and Lithuania. The chosen art forms for the project were percussion, drama, dance, acrobatics and visual arts.
The project culminated in an exhibition and spectacular performance at a converted, former monastery in a nearby town, to which the public and local press were invited.
The exchange offered an excellent opportunity for Gallery 37 participants to engage with other cultures, build confidence and learn new skills. It was also an ideal platform for promoting and strengthening Gallery 37’s links internationally and in particular with Birmingham’s partner city Frankfurt (the home city of lead organisation, Falkenheim Gallus).
Chicago – USA
As part of 2003’s film project ’20:20 Vision’, Apprentice Artists from Gallery 37 Chicago auditioned via videotape to visit the UK project and take part in the film making project.
Apprentice Artists from the UK project chose Katie, who joined the group for the last week of the project. An audition tape was then sent from Birmingham to the Apprentices in Chicago, who chose Mohibun to travel back with Katie, show the ’20:20 Vision’ film and make a short speech at the closing ceremony.