THIS CITY MAKES ART.
OPEN THE DOOR AND FIND IT.
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For centuries, artists have needed somewhere to make things.
During the Renaissance, the bottega was the working workshop where masters, apprentices and assistants learned, experimented and made stuff together. Alongside it was the studiolo, a more private space for study, reflection and creativity.
The artist’s studio has taken many forms since. Grand purpose-built spaces, private rooms, communal workshops, converted factories and, increasingly, whatever corner of a home can be persuaded to surrender itself to paint, clay, tools, canvases and creative chaos.
Because a studio doesn’t have to look like a studio.
In Birmingham, you might find one in a spare bedroom, garage, garden shed, kitchen or shared workshop. It might even be behind the front door of a house you’ve walked past hundreds of times without ever wondering what on earth is being made inside.
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It’s a chance to discover the people quietly making Birmingham a seriously creative city and, better still, poke your nose into the places where they actually do it.
You can meet artists, hear the stories behind their work, see their tools and materials, watch demonstrations and encounter half-finished pieces before they become the polished things you see in galleries. And if something catches your eye, you can buy it directly from its maker, with every penny going to the artist.
Former BOS artist Cheryl Homer described one of her favourite things about the event as being able to get right to the heart of someone’s studio and “have a go” — seeing the tools, materials and processes behind the finished work.
And that’s what separates BOS from an art market, gallery or museum. The artwork isn’t the only thing on display. The place where it was made becomes part of the experience, and the makers themselves take centre stage.
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Birmingham Open Studios began in 2017 on a considerably smaller scale. Founder Owen de Visser had noticed that some of his artist friends were very good at making art and considerably less good at telling anybody about it. He created ArtsBrum in 2015, an Instagram account designed to help Birmingham artists get their work seen, and from that came Birmingham Open Studios.
The idea was pleasingly simple: instead of expecting people to somehow find Birmingham’s artists, give them a way to find the artists where they actually work.
Artist Mitch Schofield joined Owen in 2019, helping with marketing as the event expanded across the city. In 2025 BOS became a Community Interest Company, with artist Melissa Reynolds-Lawrence joining Owen and Mitch as a director as the organisation looked to secure funding and grow further.
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Today it is Birmingham’s biggest art trail — albeit an art trail with a difference.
There is no single building containing the exhibition. Birmingham is the exhibition space.
The 2026 trail stretches from Cradley Heath to Shirley and Erdington to Barnt Green, with plenty in between. Painting, jewellery, sculpture, glass, textiles, doll-making, encaustic wax painting and traditional blacksmithing are among the practices represented, with artists demonstrating techniques that usually happen safely away from the prying eyes of the public.
And those open doors matter.
Much of the art made in Birmingham happens unseen. We encounter the finished painting, sculpture, print, necklace or peculiar ceramic thing we immediately decide we need in our lives, but rarely the messy, fascinating business of making it.
Open Studios changes that.
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"BIRMINGHAM’S CREATIVE COMMUNITY DOESN’T EXIST IN ONE NEAT, EASILY SIGNPOSTED PLACE.
IT’S IN BEDROOMS AND WORKSHOPS, INDUSTRIAL UNITS AND LIVING ROOMS, COMMUNITY SPACES AND SHEDS."
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It also removes some of the distance that can exist between artist and audience. Here, the person who made the thing might be standing next to you, explaining why they made it, showing you what they made it from or demonstrating a technique you didn't know existed five minutes earlier.
For artists, that direct connection matters too. They can talk about their practice, meet potential buyers, make sales and hear what people actually think when encountering their work.
Crucially, BOS takes no commission. Artists keep every penny they make.
So while it’s an exhibition, it’s also a practical way for artists to grow their creative businesses, build networks and make connections that can last considerably longer than the four days of Open Studios itself.
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BOS is deliberately broad about what constitutes both an artist and a studio. Established makers appear alongside people much earlier in their creative careers, while artists can exhibit from homes and studios or band together in shared and community spaces.
This year’s programme includes more disabled artists and artists from low-income households, with financial support helping people who might otherwise struggle to participate. Educational organisations and community groups are joining the trail too.
That matters because Birmingham’s creative community doesn’t exist in one neat, easily signposted place.
It is scattered everywhere.
It’s in bedrooms and workshops, industrial units and living rooms, community spaces, sheds and purpose-built studios. It belongs to people who have made art professionally for decades and others who have only recently given themselves permission to use the word “artist”.
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Birmingham Open Studios gives those people a way to be found. More importantly, perhaps, it gives the rest of us a reason to go looking.
From its modest beginnings, BOS now attracts thousands of visitors, while its geographical reach continues to grow. The organisation remains entirely volunteer-run and its three directors are artists themselves.
But the organisers aren’t really the point. The artists are.
Which perhaps explains why BOS ambassador — and artist himself — Joe Lycett sums up the appeal as getting to nose around people’s studios, homes, print presses and sheds to see the “incredible (and sometimes quite weird)” things they’ve made.
That’s really all the qualification you need.
You don’t need to know your abstract expressionism from your elbow. Pick up a guidebook, download the app, choose an area and follow a trail. Or just see where the day takes you.
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You might discover an artist whose work you love. You might learn how something is made. You might buy something. You might even have a go yourself.
Or you might simply find yourself standing in a Birmingham garden shed, staring at something extraordinary that somebody has spent weeks, months or years making, wondering how you never knew it was there.
For two weekends, Birmingham’s hidden creative geography becomes visible. The city becomes one enormous open studio, and the doors are there to be opened.
This city makes art. Go and find it.
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Birmingham Open Studios takes place Sep 26–27 and Oct 3–4, 2026. Entry is free. The BOS app includes a live map, artist biographies, locations and filters for planning your route. Words: Mitch Schofield
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STRICTLY COME DANCING LIVE IS BACK
Birmingham will get first dibs on the sequins when Strictly Come Dancing Live begins its 2027 UK tour at Utilita Arena Birmingham on January 22.
Shirley Ballas, Anton Du Beke and Craig Revel Horwood will reunite behind the judges’ desk, while former Strictly professional Janette Manrara returns as host. Craig is also directing the arena spectacular, presumably while finding time to describe things as “fab-u-lous” at legally required intervals.
Birmingham hosts the first five of 29 performances (Utilita Arena Birmingham, January 22 to 24) before the tour cha-cha-chas through Sheffield, Newcastle, Glasgow, Liverpool, Leeds, Manchester and Nottingham, finishing at London’s O2 on Valentine’s Day. Romantic, provided your relationship can withstand differing opinions on a celebrity samba.
The line-up of celebs and professional dancers will be revealed later. Audiences can expect two hours of group numbers, elaborate costumes, live music from the Strictly band and singers, plus routines considerably more polished than anything attempted in your kitchen after two proseccos.
The judges will deliver their scores and verdicts, but each show’s winner will be decided by the audience voting on their phones. Every performance will also feature a British Sign Language interpreter, shown on two large screens beside the stage. Tickets go on presale today (September 24 at 10am) and on general sale tomorrow (September 25) at 9am.
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WHEN THE ALGORITHM
DROPS
A rave at Birmingham Museum & Art Gallery’s historic Tearoom already sounds like somebody has misunderstood the venue-hire form. Add computer programmers making the music live and things become wonderfully weird.
Algorave returns to Birmingham on October 15, bringing an evening of live-coded music and visuals to one of the city’s more unexpectedly danceable rooms. Short for “algorithmic rave”, the format sees artists write and alter computer programs in real time, with the code generating the sounds and images around them. The instructions are often projected onto the walls, allowing audiences to watch the music being constructed while dancing to it. Like peering inside the DJ’s brain, only with more brackets.
Since beginning in 2012, Algorave has grown into a global community built around experimentation, home-made software and finding out whether a line of code can make a roomful of people lose their minds. The Wire describes the experience as “coding as improvisation and experiment”, while The Guardian went with the more immediately useful “loud, disorientating and brilliant”.
Doors open at 6pm, giving visitors time for a drink and a pre-rave wander through BMAG’s Level 2 galleries. The performance starts at 6.30pm and lasts 3.5 hours. Early bird tickets are £12 for adults and £10 for concessions. That rises to £15 and £11.25. Over-18s only; flashing lights and strobes may (will) feature. Tickets
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20% OFF THE ROCK ORCHESTRA TICKETS
Birmingham, birthplace of heavy metal and therefore legally obliged to host anything involving fire, guitars and big-time noise, welcomes The Rock Orchestra to Utilita Arena on Friday, Oct 23.
And there’s a well-timed payday offer: all tickets are 20% off from today (Sep 24), until Thursday, Oct 1 when booked using this specific link. With standard prices starting at £47.15 (before the discount), this is your cue to spend the wages before they disappear into direct debits and meal deals.
The touring collective’s new Arena of Fire show promises two hours of rock and metal classics reimagined on a genuinely enormous scale. Expect a full orchestra, choir, dramatic lighting, large-scale visuals and enough pyrotechnics to make the front rows check their eyebrows.
The set draws on The Rock Orchestra’s chart-topping debut album, Classics Vol.1, with dark, cinematic versions of Zombie, Bring Me To Life, Nothing Else Matters and Paint It Black. Motörhead, AC/DC, System of a Down, Linkin Park and Iron Maiden also receive the symphonic treatment.
Birmingham, of course, is sacred ground for heavy music, so bringing this particular spectacle to the city feels more like a pilgrimage than another tour date.
Creative director Nathan Reed calls Arena of Fire the ensemble’s “most explosive” production yet, combining orchestral arrangements with rock performers, a full choir and appearances from The Fuel Girls, pictured.
Having played more than 400 shows for over half a million people worldwide, The Rock Orchestra is now going bigger, louder and considerably more flammable. Arena of Fire is at Utilita Arena Birmingham on Friday, Oct 23. The 20% payday discount runs from Thursday, Sep 24 to Thursday, Oct 1, across all tickets. Book with that deal, here.
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FLYING HOME FOR CHRISTMAS
Birmingham Rep is going big on family theatre this festive season, with three productions spanning snowmen, Neverland and one particularly determined duckling.
First up is The Snowman™ (Oct 20 to Nov 1), returning to The Rep in a completely new production. Director and choreographer Will Tuckett has refreshed the show with new sets, costumes and video work, all designed to make the famous flight of the Snowman and the boy even more magical. Howard Blake’s unforgettable score remains firmly in place, while Olivier Award-winning Tahra Zafar – whose credits include Paddington Bear, Star Wars and the late Queen’s skydiving double – creates the costumes.
The main-house Christmas production is Peter Pan (Nov 18 to Jan 17), a brand-new adaptation of JM Barrie’s classic directed by The Rep’s Artistic Director Joe Murphy. Made in Birmingham, and carrying The Rep's hallmark of quality, this is your magical Christmas alternative to panto. Performed by actor musicians, and packed full of adventure, this family production features original songs and music, a ticking crocodile and a mischievous fairy. Plus, of course, no production of Peter Pan would be complete without flying.
Meanwhile, The Door welcomes The Ugly Duckling (Dec 3 to Jan 10), created especially for children aged three to six. Katherine Chandler’s adaptation follows one brave little duckling on an extraordinary mission to find somewhere they truly belong. Directed by Caroline Wilkes, following the success of The Door's Jack and the Magic Beanstalk and Little Red Riding Hood, it’s a warm, playful and reassuring introduction to theatre for the smallest members of the family.
Three shows, three spaces and considerably more flying than the average Birmingham Christmas.
(The Snowman - The stage show is based upon the iconic wordless picture book by Raymond Briggs and its magical film adaptation directed by Dianne Jackson and produced by John Coates. By arrangement with Snowman Enterprises Limited and Chester Music Limited. With Music & Libretto by Howard Blake. Illustration by Raymond Briggs © Snowman Enterprises Limited 2026 THE SNOWMAN™ Snowman Enterprises Limited Peter Pan - “Peter Pan” is presented by arrangement with Great Ormond Street Hospital Children’s Charity and Concord Theatricals Ltd. on behalf of Samuel French Ltd. www.concordtheatricals.co.uk)
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T-SHIRTS FOR A TENNER
International Day of Birmingham is taking some liberties with the word “day” this year, staging a two-day takeover of Council House today (Thu Sep 24) and tomorrow (Fri Sep 25). Thanks to Birmingham Artisan Markets, I Choose Birmingham merch will be there with some frankly irresponsible offers.
The infamous CHOOSE BRUM T-shirt will be reduced from £18 to £10 (say what?), while every ICB pin badge will also be £10, down from £12. The Ozzy the Bull pendant – usually £18 – drops to a tenner, too. It's tenner madness over there. And because not everyone can bunk off work to buy civic-themed jewellery, all offers will extend to the ICB online store for the full two-day slobberknocker.
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The wider event, titled The House That Brum Built, hands ten Council House rooms to different parts of Birmingham’s cultural life, spanning food, music, film, comedy, poetry, art, history and more.
The Heath Bookshop will host events inside the Council Chamber, The Mockingbird Cinema brings Brummie films and pick ’n’ mix to the Chamberlain Room, and Birmingham Botanical Gardens will turn the Glass Corridor green. Birmingham Artisan Markets will create a Brummie Bazaar in the Names Room (where you'll find our merch), while Nortons Digbeth runs the pop-up bar. Democracy, but with pints.
Visitors receive a Brummie Passport, collecting stamps from each room to earn True Brummie status and entry into a prize draw. Most of the building is free to explore, although some individual events require tickets or advance registration. Buy
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THE ART OF THE OVERLOOKED
A Birmingham car park and the demolished Wholesale Markets might not scream “landscape painting”. Then again, Constable never had the Bullring’s multi-storeys to work with.
A new free exhibition in Solihull is celebrating ten West Midlands artists who find the extraordinary in overlooked corners of the region. VISTA: Midlands Landscape Painting Today brings more than 30 works to The Courtyard Gallery at The Core from now to October 10.
Among them are Graham Chorlton’s nocturnal paintings of Birmingham car parks, where concrete, road markings and artificial light become strangely cinematic. Empty of cars and people, his familiar urban spaces hover somewhere between peaceful and faintly unsettling.
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“As we move through these spaces, it is the overlooked, the liminal, the peripheral which are important,” says Chorlton. “In moments of stillness, a new world is created.”
Paul Newman, meanwhile, turns his attention to the former Birmingham Wholesale Markets. His major diptych, Birmingham Wholesale Wastelands: Dusk till Dawn, captures the sprawling aftermath of the historic markets’ demolition in dusty pinks and muted purples. Rubble and ruins become an almost surreal panorama: part Birmingham archaeology, part science-fiction film set.
Curated by art historian Ruth Millington, VISTA explores how contemporary painters are reworking the landscape tradition through industrial edgelands, abandoned structures, suburban spaces and the natural world.
“I want people to look beyond London,” says Millington, “and find, here in Birmingham, an exciting group of painters who are reinterpreting the conventions of landscape painting as contemporary, radical and unexpected.” More
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Mariah Carey brings her Christmas spectacular to Utilita Arena Birmingham, packing in festive favourites, global hits and, inevitably, All I Want For Christmas Is You. Tickets go on general sale tomorrow (Sep 25) at 10am here.
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Game season lands at The Wildmoor Oak (Bromsgrove), Oct 15 to 17, with venison Wellington to share, rabbit and ’nduja terrine, pheasant cassoulet and roast mallard. Pre-order the Wellington when booking. More
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Passing Fancies welcomes bartenders from six brilliant bars tonight (Sep 24), each getting 90 minutes to serve award-winning cocktails across two floors. Soon-to-be neighbours Adian’s provide an exclusive food menu. Details
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Koba Ko ramen returns to Blow Water in Kings Heath on Sunday (Sep 27), serving noodles from noon until 6pm — or whenever they sell out. Book ahead.
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Also on Sunday Birmingham Artisan Markets will be at St Paul's Market in the JQ as part of the food hall's first birthday celebrations. Prove it!
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Houblon (Kings Heath) welcomes Coated Pottery for Pottery Painting & Pints on Wednesday, Oct 7. Tickets cost £24, including two tiles, all materials, a pint and crisps. Book at the bar. More
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This Saturday (Sep 26) Warma Sauna in Digbeth will host a sauna party: sauna, music, art and freshly made pasta. Details
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Bag 20% off at new Brindleyplace sushi spot Panko & Sushi when it opens on Tuesday (Sep 29).
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Brindleyplace’s lunchtime street-food market, East Streat, returns today (Sep 24) from 11am to 3pm, with Spice Fever, Marshall & Co, Cinnabox, Just Bread Bakery, Micci’s Biccies, Good Food Cartel, Poutine Punks and more.
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Sustainable Fashion Week returns from Sep 26 to Oct 4. Birmingham events, held at The Old Print Works, Balsall Heath, include skills-sharing sessions and Birmingham City University’s Creative Carousel, focused on circular fashion. Under the Threads of Resistance theme, communities will repair, swap, rewear and upcycle clothes to challenge fast fashion.
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