The Birmingham Press

Grand Union celebrates fifth anniversary

Milestone comes as Arts Council England confirm six-figure investment.

Grand Union, the contemporary art gallery and artist studios in Digbeth, Birmingham, celebrates its 5th anniversary on 27th March 2015.

The milestone comes as Arts Council England confirm a new £122,800 investment in the organisation, which will secure its future until 2017.

Grand Union have played an instrumental part in the recent regeneration of Digbeth as Birmingham’s ‘creative quarter’. In addition to providing an exhibition space for emerging contemporary artists and curators, Grand Union is home to some of the city’s best artist studios and currently hosts internationally-known artists including Stuart Whipps and Juneau Projects.

Over the last five years, Grand Union has shown 28 exhibitions, worked with over 200 artists and commissioned the same number of new artworks.

The gallery has welcomed 10,000 visitors, who have visited shows such as And The Heavens Cried, a retrospective of the artist Bob Parks which was named by Frieze magazine as a highlight of 2013.

Grand Union has also worked extensively with Birmingham’s artistic community to profile the city’s contemporary art scene.

Director Cheryl Jones founded the Birmingham Art Map with Ruth Claxton, Associate Director at Eastside Projects, which profiles the city’s galleries to art-lovers and visitors, and has helped to make the monthly late-night opening night Digbeth First Friday into the highly-popular event that it is today, attracting over 8000 visitors in 2014.

Confirmed projects for 2015 include a new collaboration with Leipzig arts organisation Halle 14 and a solo exhibition by artist Emma Hart following her recent presentations at the Folkestone Triennial and Camden Arts Centre.

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