About Make Works Birmingham
Welcome to Make Works Birmingham
About
Make Works Birmingham is being produced by Workshop Birmingham. Workshop Birmingham is run by Sean O'Keeffe and Ruth Claxton and aims to help artists, designers and makers make better use of Birmingham, the City of a Thousand Trades. By linking local manufacturers, material suppliers and fabricators with the creative sector we hope to make processes more accessible, develop new connections and unlock resources, skills, knowledge and facilities which will encourage and enable more people to prototype, make and manufacture locally. As well as developing Make Works Birmingham we are also running a pilot programme of affordable workshops, master-classes, factory tours and demonstrations for designers, makers and artists, delivered by some of the manufacturers, material suppliers and fabricators that we are meeting. To find out more about us, and everything we are up to visit [www.workshopbirmingham.org](http://workshopbirmingham.org/) You can write to us c/o Eastside Projects, 86 Heath Mill Lane, Birmingham, B9 4AR
Listings
Events
Site Visit: An Introduction to Neon fabrication.
2 November, 5–7pm. £6 per person City Neon Signs, 635 Warwick Road, Tyseley, B11 2EZ City Neon is well known in both the art world and the sign trade for the skills, expertise and specialist knowledge they have built up over 40 years. The only neon sign manufacturer in the West Midlands, they have a broad range of retail and commercial clients and regularly work with artists and designers, producing substantial public artworks for high profile sites including the Millennium Dome. During our second visit to their workshop in Tyseley, craftsmen Paul Medlicott and Laszlo Gregor will give an overview of the process and demonstrate neon fabrication, taking us through glass bending, bench work and bombarding. As always there will be plenty of opportunities for Q&A, so if you have a project in mind come along armed with queries. For more information book your ticket [HERE.](https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/site-visit-an-introduction-to-neon-fabrication-2-tickets-38743458728) Find out more about City Neon [HERE.](https://make.works/companies/City_Neon_Signs/)Projects
Birmingham Production Space & STEAMhouse
In 2015, following a period of R&D, we published a proposal which set out an ambitious plan for a new public building with workshops and space for making. You can read it [HERE.](http://workshopbirmingham.org/project/) Since 2015 we have been working with Birmingham City University and Eastside Projects to move these proposals forward as part of the STEAMhouse project. STEAMhouse Phase 1 - Funded by the European Regional Development Fund and Arts Council England - will open in early 2018 and will be a new 15,000 sq ft centre for creative innovation. Led by Birmingham City University in partnership with Eastside Projects, the facility will be free to use for SME's on its business support programmes, and will be located on Digbeth High Street with spaces to incubate new ideas and prototype new creative products. It will also house a new fabrication and production facility in the areas of digital, wood, metal, and print to assist in taking ideas forward to creation.
Production Show at Eastside Projects
Ruth is currently co-curating Production Show 2016-18 an evolving programme of exhibitions, commissions, public art projects and events which have transformed Eastside Projects into an active space of research, development, prototyping, manufacturing and display – bringing to the fore processes which are usually kept behind the scenes. Find out more [HERE.](https://eastsideprojects.org/projects/)Team
Roger Shafi, Matthew Cox & Maya Darrell Hewins - Film Makers
Roger Shafi is a film and photography enthusiast with a background in manufacturing and music. Matthew Cox is a freelance designer/maker working in Digbeth. He also produces and edits short films under the name MACO Maya Darrell Hewins is a filmmaker and film archivist, with a particular interest in the preservation and presentation of artist film and video and expanded cinema.
Ruth Claxton - Project Manager
Ruth is an artist, Associate Director at [Eastside Projects](http://eastsideprojects.org/) and co-producer of the [Birmingham Art Map](http://birminghamartmap.org/). She has made and exhibited sculpture, installations and public artworks nationally and internationally. She spent over fifteen years working in higher education, a career that began with seven years as a Sculpture Technician at Nottingham Trent and Birmingham City Universities. She is leading the Birmingham Production Space Project and is working with Birmingham City University to develop workshop facilities and an open access route for Creative and digital SME's as part of the [STEAMHouse](https://eastsideprojects.org/projects/steamhouse-phase-1/) project.
Sean O'Keeffe - Project Manager
Sean’s interests stem from a background in both commercial and fine art print. He worked at Birmingham City University for over twenty years, ultimately leading the Art and Design programmes at the School of Art before leaving in 2014 to become Project Manager at [Capsule](http://www.capsule.org.uk/) where he works on Supersonic Festival and a range of other arts projects. He creates audio-visual performances with Giant Axe Field.Funders & Partners
Arts Council England
[www.artscouncil.org.uk/](http://www.artscouncil.org.uk/)