Birchfield Light Night
‘Birchfield Light Night’ neon sign shone bright on the Grosvenor Road Studios. The 60’s-style Solar Lighting was chosen to reflect the history of the building (formerly known as Hollick & Taylor Studios), while the Art Deco Metro font for the pink neon sign was selected to echo the Art Deco style balconies in Lyndon Close.
About Birchfield Light Night
Light Night is Birchfield’s first-ever lantern parade, bringing together young and old to enjoy and celebrate the cultural diversity and heritage in Birchfield through light-based artworks co-created with members of the local community.
Video / Lighting Artist Scylla Magda and Community Artist Sophie Handy, from Handsworth-based artist collective Crafting Community, have been delivering workshops and designing, creating & installing a variety of outdoor installations & projections in the Birchfield area to promote community cohesion, culture and a collective voice.
Birchfield Light Night has been commissioned as a part of Gallery37, a creative development programme investing in North Birmingham.
Lantern Parade
Gallery
If you didn’t get a chance to see the lantern parade for yourself, or if you want to re-live it, we would love to take you through the magical Lantern Parade - where lanterns, light installations and projections revealed hidden pockets of beauty in the local area.
Grosvenor Road Studios
Community artist, Sophie Handy from Handsworth-based artist collective Crafting Community kicked things off at Grosvenor Road Studios.
Lantern Parade took to the streets
Over 200 people joined us for Birchfield Light Night, over the two days, on Friday 29th & Saturday 30th October.
Dominoes at Westerings
The Dominoes outdoor installations were inspired by the Afro-Caribbean communities in Birchfield, who gather, laugh and relax over games of Dominoes. The artists wanted to pay respect and capture the local community spirit.
Concert Performance
Light Night turned a shared garden area between two local flats in Birchfield (where communities often have barbeques) into an interactive concert performance area; with performances from Violinists, Robyn Bird & Cian O’Dwyer and Saxophone players Mark ‘Chiko’ Hamilton & Xhosa Cole.
Flat residents looked down from their balconies to enjoy the concert.
Interactive Projections at Lyndon Close
Each time the guest musicians played their instruments, the sound waves were synchronized in shape & projected onto the local flats by video/lighting artist Scylla Magda.
Light trail towards the Secret Garden
Lights trailed the way towards a giant flower symbol, which acted as the entrance to the Secret Garden, a much loved, but hidden gem in Birchfield.
Warm drinks for attendees
Volunteers served hot chocolate in the Secret Garden, to warm up the 100’s of attendees who had been enjoying the evening’s events.
Neon art
Multiple artists transformed the Secret Garden into a beautiful and euphoric area, that transformed a hidden pocket of beauty in Birchfield, to an area that many people from Birchfield, and further afield, got the chance to visit for the first time.
Birchfield Street Art Sign
The legacy of the first ever Birchfield Light Night will live on forever. Every evening when it gets dark, the local mural in Birchfield's Secret Garden will now glow with UV paint.
Full Gallery
Photography by Hayley Salter
