Student Programme
The Barber is proud to sit within the University of Birmingham campus.
Our galleries are currently closed for a major building improvement project, reopening 2026.
During closure we're keeping the creativity flowing through a range of relaxed artistic workshops around campus. Upcoming student events will be advertised below.
The art library, music rehearsal spaces and foyer are currently still open as work spaces and facilities.
Student Collaborations | College of Medicine and Health (CMH)
The Barber Retreat 2025 - The Sounds that Surround Us
The Sounds That Surround Us was a four-session creative workshop designed exclusively for College of Medicine and Health students at the University of Birmingham. Musician Dan Cippico, known as Wildforms, guided students through the art of deep listening. Participants captured the campus and Winterbourne Gardens’ sonic landscapes with handheld audio recorders, creating ‘Immersion’ - a four-minute tapestry of recorded sound.
City noise and garden ambience shift to sounds captured from above and below a stream’s surface, to parakeet calls, wooden walkways, and delicate textures of tree bark.
Credits
Recording and composition:
Hadeer, Afaf, Kirsty, Han, Dan
Album artwork:
Afaf, Hadeer
Immersion - listen below
Reclaiming Narratives
An ongoing creative project between the Barber and University of Birmingham Medicine and Health students and staff that explores and celebrates the hidden voices and histories behind the College of Medicine and Health (CMH).
Reclaiming: The Report (2023)
CMH students joined poet Adrian B. Earle and artist Kirsty Clarke for a series of creative workshops to make their own micro-form protest poems and visual artworks in response to the recent Disabled Students’ Commission Report.
Disabled students at the University want to speak out and be heard!
Reclaiming: The Portrait (2022)
Students joined award-winning artist and photographer Marley Starskey Butler for a three-part portraiture workshop to capture and celebrate the lives and stories around the school, reflecting on the portraits on display around the college.
Reclaiming: The Foxglove (2021)
Students and staff from CMH joined forces with the Barber to explore herbalism's forgotten voices and tales through a series of creative workshops.