The Birmingham Press

Artists take over coffin furniture factory

Museums at Night at the Coffin Works.

On Saturday 16th May from 6pm to 10pm Transient-Art are exhibiting new art and design work amongst the coffin handles and shrouds in an evening opening of the Newman Brothers Coffin Works in Birmingham’s Jewellery Quarter as part of the national Museums at Night programme.

The GAME OVER art work, inspired by the historic factory which made coffin furniture for over 100 years, will embrace the nature and thematic of the museum, juxtaposing history with contemporary examination. The courtyard will also play host to a live fashion show, showing work produced by fine art and fashion students from Birmingham Metropolitan College.

Suzanne Carter from Birmingham Conservation Trust, the charity behind the restoration of the Newman Brothers Fleet Street Works and reopening the factory as a museum says, “We are really excited to have our first Museums at Night event next Saturday and looking forward to welcoming visitors with a passion for art who might not usually visit a museum. I’m especially looking forward to watching the fashion show in the Courtyard. I wonder if they will be clothes to die for, or clothes you wouldn’t be seen dead in?”

Jon Wilkes, the curator of the GAME OVER exhibition, which is running in the museum’s gallery until the end of July, says; “Each of the fifteen artists and students taking part in the event came on a tour of the factory and left inspired by what they saw and heard. All the work responds to the museum and for one night only, actually becomes a part of the museum”.

Tickets on the door priced at £3 for adults, £1 young adults and children go free. For details about the venue visit www.coffinworks.org

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