PERMISSION TO PLAY

On a wet Saturday morning in Lozells (13th June) an irrepressible optimism was bubbling to the surface. In Haughton Road The Big Local, assisted by Midland Heart, had closed off the road to allow play to spill out from the Children’s Centre and move between the street, the Centre and the tented areas. In Lozells Methodist Community Centre the second Community Art Exhibition was in its final day, combining the work of children with that of both amateur and professional adults, and attracting many more than the 100 people who visited the event last year. The images above and below try to reflect what was going on. Unfortunately the ‘cropping’ of the pictures means that, as well as losing the top and bottom of some images, some of the names against works have been lost, so here they are: Sizwan Miah – the industrial street scene, Ruth Noah – the pictures in praise of her mum, St. Clare’s Catholic Primary School – the 11 Shakespeare characters, Shamima Akhter – the right hand drape on the wall, and Samira (and Hajera) Aktar – the panel of 8 paintings. Ashok Patel from Midland Heart gave generous support to this event as well, and the show was curated by Eddy Aigbe (http://eddyaigbe.com/).