439:, which had never before seen in the UK – and it continued after the programmes in most other media went into decline from 1980 onwards. The reputation of the Arts Lab's Tower Street venue as "the world's most uncomfortable cinema, the silence only broken by the accompaniment of some thrasher on the piano and the timpani of scurrying rats" was partly explained by the fact that the seating had been bought second-hand from a local cinema. In addition to its regular programme the Arts Lab held an annual Film Festival from 1972, focussing on particular themes including film makers such as
204:'s experiments in improvised theatre, but had become frustrated at what they saw as the bureaucracy and obstructionism of the centre's management. The group resolved to start a breakaway venue to "provide a centre for experimenting in the Arts; be a community of creative people, self-aware and self-supporting; participate creatively in the life of the City; and present work of both its members and visiting groups and individuals"
52:
232:, recalled "When I first found my way to the Arts Lab, it did not resemble an arts centre so much as a night club with a rather different ambience to other places in town. Nothing happened except at weekends, and not much happened then either, except that music was played, coloured lights were projected and people ate vegetables and brown rice and drank instant coffee."
305:
had previously been a popular, thriving, live performance arts venue) as a venue focussing primarily on cinema and photography, and in 1983 the Arts Lab's premises reopened as a new Arts Centre called the
Triangle Media and Arts Centre. Funding for this was removed in 1987, however, and the cinema finally closed in 1994.
304:
left to pursue freelance work. The Arts Lab's programme began to focus increasingly on film to the exclusion of other media. In 1982 West
Midlands Arts sponsored a move to combine the Arts Lab with Aston University's own Centre for the Arts (with the resultant demise of the Centre for the Arts, which
576:
in 1998. They moved to London and John Angus took over for a year before moving to
Lancaster. Ernie Hudson was particularly renown for his revolutionary multiple colour silk screen prints produced during this time. Although few posters remain, those that do are archived in Birmingham Museum and Art
587:
press on loan from a local cash and carry operation (in return for printing the company's price list for free) and in 1972 Ernie Hudson bought a secondhand press of its own. Initially intended to print flyers and price lists the purchase of its own press meant the offset operation was dedicated to
240:
The Arts Lab was open full-time from April 1969. Initially occupying only a single room on the top floor of the building but quickly expanding to occupy the whole first floor (with the gymnasium becoming the main theatre and performance space), and eventually to occupy the entire building with the
292:
The Arts Lab's earlier chaotic, co-operative organisation was increasingly challenged by funders from 1975 onwards, with a formal Board of
Management being established in 1976. August 1977 saw the Arts Lab move completely from Tower Street to new, much larger premises in a former brewery on the
256:
The Arts Lab was initially run along the lines of a club for members and guests. Although it never had a drinks licence (due to constant friction with the local licensing authorities) it had a coffee bar, beneath which was a void between the floors in which several members intermittently lived.
393:- based at the Arts Lab but touring internationally - produced a range of shows that combined dance, film, text, poetry, electronics and ambient music; declaring "Total Theatre, Mixed or Multimedia, Compound Theatre are all terms we use in this connection", and from 1976 the
997:
You know, people say alternative started in '79, but there were people like
Victoria Wood and John Dowie who were both coming out of the Arts Lab in Birmingham. Dowie was doing what you would recognise as modern stand up in a decade when it was not wanted at
297:, with a bookshop, studios and exhibition spaces. Shortage of funds meant that not all of the planned facilities were finished, however, and the new more orderly surroundings were felt by some to have compromised the Arts Lab's uniquely liberating culture.
567:
for the Arts Lab – emphasising simultaneous colour contrasts and the dynamic integration of hand-painted text with manipulated photographic imagery – were especially notable, being the subject of an international touring exhibition by the
241:
ground floor providing artist studios. Within its first year it established a cinema programme organised by Tony Jones and Pete Walsh, and theatre programme organised by Pete Stark, and two experimental arts festivals –
550:
The Arts Lab had a printing operation from its establishment in 1969, set up by Bryan Brown and Simon
Chapman whose work was influenced by the psychedelic imagery of the West Coast of America. It initially used
463:
The Arts Lab's music programme was defiantly aimed at "presenting contemporary music in
Birmingham on a regular basis, regardless of the support it may or may not receive", starting off with a then-unusual
318:
The Arts Lab's theatre programme was controversial from its start in 1969, with a nude open-air performance on the Arts Lab's roof by the theatre company
Sweetness and Light attracting headlines in the
1059:
Edmonds, Richard (7 May 1998). "Memory of unique
Birmingham experiment. Richard Edmonds visits the Museum and Art Gallery's exhibition about Birmingham's 1970s experimental arts centre, the Arts Lab".
264:
The Arts Lab started with no formal organisation, but with Peter Stark as unofficial administrator. Stark left in 1970 and was replaced by Simon
Chapman, who left in 1972 to become the Director of the
83:
from 1968 to 1982 – an "arts and performance space dedicated to radical research into art and creativity". Loosely organised and biased towards the obscure and avant-garde, it was described by
196:
The genesis of the Birmingham Arts Laboratory can be traced to a meeting on 8 September 1968, of five figures (Mark Williams, Fred Smith, Dave Cassidy, Tony Jones and Bob Sheldon) from the
55:
The front of the former Delicia Cinema, and later the Aston University Centre for the Arts. 12 Gosta Green, Birmingham, which Birmingham Arts Lab turned into the Triangle Arts Centre
280:, during which he transformed it "from a club for the self-absorbed of Kensington to a roaring popular venue" and paved the way for its important role in the early years of British
261:
later recalled that "it was no surprise to discover a badly-smelling playwright or drink-wrecked mime artist emerging between your legs from a priest hole below the floorboards".
1132:
651:
I have archived programmes from the original Birmingham Arts Lab (at Tower Street) through incarnations as the Triangle Media and Arts Centre to the Triangle Cinema here:
632:(the first British women's comic), Ar:Zak was to become an important part of the history of underground British comics, a position reinforced when the Arts Lab held
1117:
1127:
219:(whose fundraising efforts saw him became the Arts Lab's first life member), during which a local charity offered the group the use of a first floor room in its
1122:
115:
The Birmingham Arts Lab had a wide influence across numerous art forms. Figures involved with the Arts Lab, often early in their careers, included cartoonists
421:, who later became comedy character Mrs Barbara Nice, performed at Tower Street in a piece directed by John Dowie from a Hunt Emerson cartoon "Dog Man".
559:
for Arts Lab events, and raising funds by producing posters for local Student Unions and music promoters. The posters operation was later taken over by
346:
A regular Theatre Workshop was established from 1973, and the following years saw a series of plays written specifically for the Arts Lab including
21:
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750:
573:
539:
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Grimley, Terry (3 February 1998). "Looking back on good old 70s: The Arts Lab was a great launching platform, says Terry Grimley".
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in 1977, before financial problems and pressure from the arts establishment forced it to amalgamate with and take over
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provided an outlet for the professional production of work by young local writers. The Arts Lab was also notable as a
200:, who had been promoting avant garde music performances at the centre's outdoor auditorium and had been involved in
588:
the manufacture of the Lab's cinema programme and art related projects. The take-over of the printing operation by
336:
120:
207:
There followed five months of fund-raising events around the city called Strange Days and featuring bands such as
100:, and was accessible from the street only via a metal fire escape. It moved to a former brewery on Holt Street in
601:
332:
124:
92:
The Arts Lab was originally based in a run-down youth centre run by The Birmingham Settlement on Tower Street in
300:
The first signs of problems became apparent in 1980 when two members of the music staff were made redundant and
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by Jolyon Laycock, which produced a series of experimental sound performances throughout the 1970s involving
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272:. Little was to be artistic director through to 1982, apart from a two-year spell as head of the
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in 1974 saw the Arts Lab move into comic art, producing a series of publications under its own
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The Arts Lab's cinema programme was established by Tony Jones – the first film shown being
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Youth Centre as a venue. The Arts Lab opened in January 1969, initially only at weekends.
508:, often touring through Europe and North America. Notable premieres included Wishart's
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323:. By 1971 there was a regular programme of visiting theatre companies - mainly radical
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from 1971 secured its future and saw it begin to employ those working there.
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413:'s work at the Arts Lab as being one of the earliest roots of the later
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80:
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ensemble of the mid-seventies, to later collaborative performances at
455:. Jones left the Arts Lab in 1978 to join the Cambridge Film Theatre.
277:
108:'s Centre for the Arts on Gosta Green to form the more conventional
519:
The Arts Lab also developed a reputation as a centre of improvised
339:- together with performances by the Arts Lab's own theatre company
50:
89:
in 1997 as "one of the emblematic institutions of the 1960s".
608:– and eventually branching out such varied publications as
810:. Birmingham: Birmingham Museums and Art Gallery. 1998 .
372:
Stella Superstar and Her Amazing Intergalactic Adventures
1011:"Trevor Wishart – Beach singularity/Menagerie/Vocalise"
862:
Crace, Jim (1998). "Birmingham Arts Lab: Remembered".
1040:. Birmingham: Birmingham Museums & Art Gallery.
779:
Skinn, Dez (2004). "Hunt Emerson and Ar:Zak Comix".
1036:Sidey, Tessa (1998). "Bob Linney and Ken Meharg".
866:. Birmingham: Birmingham Museums and Art Gallery.
857:
855:
853:
646:Archived programmes from 1970s to closure in 1994
492:, in regular collaboration with artists such as
977:"Simon Munnery and Stewart Lee in Conversation"
740:
738:
736:
734:
732:
226:Terry Grimley, later arts correspondent of the
806:"Published aims of the Arts Lab (reprinted)".
531:in the late 1960s, through the Arts Lab's own
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667:
8:
1133:Former theatres in Birmingham, West Midlands
841:
839:
837:
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833:
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827:
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572:between 1981 and 1985, and an exhibition by
1079:Birmingham Arts Lab: the phantom of liberty
1038:Birmingham Arts Lab: the phantom of liberty
887:UP THE FIRE ESCAPE AND THROUGH THE KITCHENS
864:Birmingham Arts Lab: the phantom of liberty
808:Birmingham Arts Lab: the phantom of liberty
747:Birmingham Arts Lab: the phantom of liberty
705:"Edward Barker: Lines from the underground"
504:and various ensembles associated with the
249:organised by Pete Stark. Funding from the
1063:. Mirror Regional Newspapers. p. 14.
924:. Mirror Regional Newspapers. p. 15.
785:. Collins & Brown. pp. 193–194.
713:. Guardian News and Media. Archived from
774:
772:
770:
768:
745:Grimley, Terry (1998). "Introduction".
663:
653:https://archive.org/details/@steveparry
1118:Arts organizations established in 1968
1128:English artist groups and collectives
596:imprint. Starting with Emerson's own
7:
1123:Culture in Birmingham, West Midlands
845:
703:Hutchinson, Roger (19 April 1997).
574:Birmingham Museum & Art Gallery
540:Birmingham Museum & Art Gallery
1083:Birmingham Museums and Art Gallery
751:Birmingham Museums and Art Gallery
155:; comedian and performance artist
16:Arts centre in Birmingham, England
14:
782:Comix: The Underground Revolution
580:In 1970 the Arts Lab obtained an
472:. 1970 saw the foundation of the
944:. Nick Hern Books. p. vii.
638:Konvention of Alternative Komix
245:organised by Simon Chapman and
674:Fox, John (6 September 1999).
600:– which also featured work by
274:Institute of Contemporary Arts
179:and composer and sonic artist
175:, film maker and photographer
159:; photographer and journalist
1:
337:John Bull Puncture Repair Kit
386:and still widely performed.
360:Confession of Jon-Jak Crusoe
1149:
684:. Newspaper Publishing PLC
546:Art, comics and poster art
389:Between 1972 and 1976 the
368:Bruce Lacey and Jill Bruce
61:Birmingham Arts Laboratory
333:Pip Simmons Theatre Group
938:(1989). "Introduction".
506:University of Birmingham
395:Writers' Theatre Company
309:Activities and influence
163:; the psychedelic group
96:on the northern edge of
1113:Arts centres in England
474:Arts Lab Sound Workshop
314:Theatre and performance
470:Lindsay String Quartet
362:and his rock operetta
98:Birmingham City Centre
56:
889:. : COMPLETELYNOVEL.
486:amplification effects
451:, or 1976's focus on
54:
885:CLIFF., DIX (2015).
268:and was replaced by
247:Gathering Number One
198:Midlands Arts Centre
110:Triangle Arts Centre
67:was an experimental
553:silkscreen printing
523:, running from the
445:Josef von Sternberg
382:, later revived as
327:groups such as the
243:Cybervironment Plus
33: /
1108:Artist-run centres
490:liquid light shows
415:alternative comedy
151:; writer and poet
57:
975:(November 2007).
717:on 14 August 2007
391:Performance Group
374:and most notably
73:artist collective
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1017:. Paradigm Discs
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987:on 11 March 2012
983:. Archived from
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494:Cornelius Cardew
482:electronic music
295:Aston University
147:; film director
106:Aston University
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37:52.491°N 1.900°W
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1019:. Retrieved
1014:
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989:. Retrieved
985:the original
980:
973:Lee, Stewart
967:
955:. Retrieved
940:
936:Edgar, David
930:
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886:
880:
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746:
719:. Retrieved
715:the original
710:The Guardian
708:
698:
686:. Retrieved
679:
676:"Ted Little"
650:
644:
642:
637:
636:– the first
633:
629:
621:
613:
606:Bryan Talbot
597:
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590:Hunt Emerson
579:
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514:Audio Movies
513:
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498:David Panton
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401:venue, with
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177:Pogus Caesar
129:Bryan Talbot
117:Hunt Emerson
114:
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1021:21 November
991:23 November
957:21 November
688:20 February
618:David Edgar
555:to produce
525:psychedelia
432:Medium Cool
403:Stewart Lee
376:David Edgar
356:Gareth Owen
329:People Show
288:Holt Street
173:Ruby Turner
167:; novelist
153:Gareth Owen
149:Mike Figgis
141:David Edgar
102:Gosta Green
69:arts centre
40: /
1102:Categories
658:References
626:Suzy Varty
610:Steve Bell
565:Ken Meharg
561:Bob Linney
529:Bachdenkel
417:movement.
411:John Dowie
405:crediting
352:Stillsmith
348:John Dowie
302:Ted Little
293:campus of
270:Ted Little
202:Mike Leigh
165:Bachdenkel
157:John Dowie
145:David Hare
137:Suzy Varty
133:Steve Bell
77:Birmingham
25:52°29′28″N
905:972394445
846:BMAG 1998
640:in 1976.
577:gallery.
536:jazz-rock
533:Amphioxus
510:Menagerie
259:Jim Crace
217:John Peel
213:Colosseum
171:; singer
169:Jim Crace
112:in 1982.
75:based in
28:1°54′00″W
1091:60370741
1085:. 1998.
1046:60370741
1015:Releases
872:60370741
816:60370741
759:60370741
614:Big Foot
65:Arts Lab
1072:Sources
721:21 June
630:Heroine
557:posters
221:Newtown
215:and DJ
192:Origins
187:History
94:Newtown
81:England
1089:
1044:
948:
903:
893:
870:
814:
789:
757:
594:Ar:Zak
582:offset
466:Bartók
425:Cinema
399:comedy
364:Rupert
278:London
585:litho
488:and
459:Music
1087:OCLC
1042:OCLC
1023:2008
993:2008
959:2008
946:ISBN
901:OCLC
891:ISBN
868:OCLC
812:OCLC
787:ISBN
755:OCLC
723:2008
690:2016
624:and
604:and
563:and
521:rock
512:and
464:all-
409:and
335:and
282:punk
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998:all
634:KAK
628:'s
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692:.
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