barber home

Here Comes the Sun

Here Comes the Sun: An Experimental Dance Workshop with Artist Performer Kaajel Patel Wednesday 24 March, 7 – 8:30pm Free; online via Zoom; for students at the University of Birmingham (18+). As the days start to get longer and fresh spring buds begin to appear, let’s celebrate the warmth, life and joy the sun brings and … Read more

Barber Home families: an Arty Earthy Easter

An Arty Earthy Easter: Writing Together with Sipho Eric Ndlovu Saturday 10 April, 10 – 11.30am. Free; online via Zoom. Ages 7+ This spring we welcome back spoken word artist and poet, Sipho Eric Ndlovu, for this Arty Earthy Easter online writing workshop designed especially for families. Experience creative writing together and let your imaginations … Read more

Barber Home families: Pop-up Perspectives

Pop-up Perspectives: 3D Landscape Making Thursday 15 April, 10 – 11.30am. Free; online via Zoom. Ages 7+ How does the natural world look from your perspective? Join Rosie, from our Learning and Engagement team, as we reflect on our own unique viewpoints to explore significant places in our memories. In this online family workshop we’ll create … Read more

Memento Mori: Exploring Death & Dying Through Art

Daubigny: Seascape

Memento Mori: Exploring Death & Dying Through Art Friday 14 May, 10am – 12noon. Free; online via Zoom. Artists have always explored death and dying through their art, producing both literal and metaphorical depictions of this universal human theme. Through guided looking, response and group discussion this workshop will use selected works from the Barber’s … Read more

Protest Poetry Writing Workshop with Poet, Writer and Activist Bethany Slinn

Protest Poetry Writing Workshop with Poet, Writer and Activist Bethany Slinn Wednesday 26 May, 7 – 8.30pm. Free; online via Zoom; for students at the University of Birmingham (18+). “In this present battle I see on the fascist side just the outdated forces, and on the other side, the people whose immense creative resources which will … Read more

Queering the Collection: Alexander the Great

An evening of film with CineQ & Dr Greg Salter Tuesday 27 July, 7 – 8.30pm Free; online via Zoom We are excited to welcome back CineQ for an evening of queer short film responding to the Barber’s distinctive and characterful Renaissance painting, Alexander the Great by the Master of the Griselda Legend, c.1494, examining … Read more

Drawing Workshop with Hipkiss & Graney

The Lines that Connect Us Wednesday 4 August 2 – 3.30pm (repeated on Sunday 8 August) Free; online via Zoom When we draw, we deconstruct and we contemplate. The act of drawing lets us see how we would like to shape the world… Explore Making a Mark, our summer exhibition of Dutch and Flemish drawings, with … Read more

Drawing Workshop with Hipkiss & Graney

The Lines that Connect Us Sunday 8 August, 2 – 3.30pm (also on Wednesday 4 August) Free; online via Zoom When we draw, we deconstruct and we contemplate. The act of drawing lets us see how we would like to shape the world… Explore Making a Mark, our summer exhibition of Dutch and Flemish drawings, with … Read more

Campus of Curiosity: Spring Family Festival

Campus of Curiosity: Spring Family Festival Friday 2 April – Sunday 18 April 2021. Free; online. Join the Barber, the Lapworth Museum of Geology, and Barber Concerts for a free online family festival full of campus curiosities as we celebrate nature and springtime together. Let your imagination soar above the clouds in our poetry workshop with writer Sipho Ndlovu … Read more

Barber Home: Spring Programme

Barber Home: spring programme All events are free; online via Zoom. Click the event title to find full event information and to book. Here Comes the Sun: an Experimental Dance Workshop with Artist Performer Kaajel Patel Wednesday 24 March, 7 – 8:30pm; for students at the University of Birmingham Booking required; learn more about Here … Read more

Drawing in the Dark

Barber Home – online workshop As we draw closer to the shortest day of the year, find comfort in the dark and harness its power as a tool for contemplation. Close your eyes, take a breath and join artist and Student Engagement Coordinator Kirsty Clarke for a relaxing and introspective drawing workshop, asking how we … Read more

Creative Horror Writing

A detail of Goya's print, showing people in sackcloths in darkness; Adrian speaking on stage, reading from his pamphlet.

Barber Home – online workshop As the winter nights start to draw in, revel in darkness. Join spoken word artist, poet and writer Adrian B. Earle for a thrilling horror writing workshop, as he leads us into the shine-chilling and inky depths of Francisco Goya and his prints that call the Barber home. Using words … Read more

Worm: art +ecology

Worm Art + Ecology logo

Barber Home – online workshop Facilitated by Angela Chan (curator, researcher and artist, also Worm: art + ecology), 7 December 2020. Angela Chan of curatorial project Worm Art +ecology investigated climate and environmental issues throughout art history in the Barber’s own collection. Angela hosted a guided workshop on how we might view and discuss painting, … Read more

Barber Home – Recovery

The tops of colourful pencils; they stand in a brown circular container.

Barber Home – online workshop Recovery Galleries are a space where exchange can take place between artists and audiences, space and materials. Earlier this year, our team explored how we might come together safely when Covid-19 enforced physical and mental restrictions on us all. Join us – with our Recovery Art artist facilitator Ruth Turnbull … Read more

Myth Personas: Visual Poems with Holly Hunter

A tumultuous scene- Apollo and Diana attack with bows from the top left; people scrabble to escape in vain.

Barber Home – online workshop Myth Personas: Visual Poems with Holly Hunter Inspired by the ink drawing The Death of the Children of Niobe by Conrad Martin Metz, in our prints and drawings collection, this workshop aims to bring voice to lesser known characters in Greek Mythology through playful interpretation. Artist and writer Holly Hunter will guide … Read more

Writing Together with Sipho Ndlovu

Edward Lear for Families – Writing Together with Sipho Ndlovu Get ready to jumble and tumble over words and create your own family tales, stories and poems. Join spoken word artist and poet, Sipho Ndlovu, for an online Zoom workshop designed especially for families. Be inspired by our 19th-century print ‘Tabuan Parakeet’ and the work … Read more

Welcome Week

Welcome Week 2020 We’re looking forward to welcoming new and returning students to the University of Birmingham. Tuesday 22 September, 2 until 3.30pm; free via Zoom: The Expanded Portrait: Online Poetry Writing Workshop with poet Jasmine Gardosi. Join the Barber and local spoken-word artist and poet Jasmine Gardosi for an experimental and collaborative poetry writing workshop! Meet other like-minded students in this relaxed session … Read more

Mengxia Liu – Illustrated Zoom Background

Barber Home – Illustrated Zoom Background We’re looking forward to welcoming new and returning UoB students this September! To celebrate, we’ve invited Mengxia Liu, a Birmingham-based artist, to create an illustration that captures the life and energy of the Barber and its beautiful original 1930s Art Deco foyer. Mengxia was inspired by contemporary movement duo, … Read more

Still Life Drawing

Barber Home – family Our homes have given us so much in the past few months, and we’re sure you’ve spent a lot of time looking at the objects that live in your space! How would you make an artwork about them? Create your own still life with artist Benny Semp using our downloadable art … Read more

Overhear with Jacqui Rowe

Barber Home – creative writing Where sky meets the white sea there is a fishing boat, bending against the breeze. We watch it sail past. We watch every night. Writer and poet Jacqui Rowe has hosted creative writing workshops in our galleries since 2013. Be inspired by Jacqui’s original poems and find out what she’s … Read more

Women in Hospitality Birmingham

Barber Home – online resource Inspired by Hendrik Goudt’s beautiful etching The Mocking of Ceres (1610), Chloë Qureshi, founder of Women in Hospitality Birmingham, has written a series of delicious, mouth-watering recipes. Chloë celebrates the Goddess Ceres and the four seasons through the mystical elder tree, with its fresh, zesty flowers of spring to the … Read more

The queer gaze: emotion and erasure

Barber Home – online talk What is queer historical erasure? Arts Educator Jon Sleigh reveals powerful queer coded messages, alongside sitters’ known histories, in this emotive journey through two of our 18th-century portraits. Portrait of Countess Golovina (about 1797/1800) by Élisabeth Vigée-Lebrun and A Portrait of Giusto Ferdinando Tenducci ( about 1773) by Thomas Gainsborough are two … Read more

The Barber Collective

Barber Home – digital showcase Celebrate the Barber Collective and its collaborators! Find out more about the Barber’s youth programme for 16 – 21 year olds and what they’ve been discovering, thinking about and creating. We showcase two projects with artists Navi Kaur and Hipkiss & Graney which explore far-reaching themes including colonialism, reclaiming histories, … Read more

Create a Camera Obscura

Barber Home – make a camera obscura Did you know you can turn a whole room into a camera obscura? Explore our online exhibition Sights of Wonder by learning more about the Victorian photography of Francis Bedford. Bedford was the first photographer to ever accompany a royal tour. He photographed temples, pyramids, and people along … Read more

Infinite Opera

Barber Home – online resource In March we had the pleasure of hosting an event, Nocturnes: Ethereal Science / Constructing Beauty, exploring Cornwall as Crucible. For this we commissioned Infinite Opera to make a response to the Barber’s recently acquired Constructivist sculpture, Linear Construction in Space No. 1 (1942 – 43), by the Russian artist Naum … Read more

Concertina Creepy Crawlies

Barber Home – Concertina Creepy Crawlies Investigate amazing creepy crawlies with artist Ruth Turnbull. Inspired by Wenceslaus Hollar’s 17th century print, learn about insects and create your own folded sketchbooks and paper mobiles. Our Barber Home family resources link to the key stage 1 and 2 curriculum to support you in the kitchen table classroom … Read more

Laura Onions – Interior of an Inn

Barber Home – artist response Artist Laura Onions shares a series of drawings, produced in lockdown, responding to Charles-François Daubigny’s 1861 etching, Interior of an Inn. Particularly taken with Daubigny’s play with light and shadow, Laura has used pared down materials to explore the domestic landscape of her own home. The drawings make visible moments … Read more

The Slip-Casting Process with Wendy Tournay

Barber Home – virtual studio visit Filmed in lockdown, ceramicist Wendy Tournay welcomes us into her Birmingham studio for this week’s edition of Barber Home. Responding to the Barber’s decorative ‘Gold Teapot with Stand‘, made in 1785, Wendy shares with us the meditative slip-casting process used to create her own teapot and also explains casting, … Read more

Creepy Crawlies Q&A

Barber Home – creepy crawlies Calling all insect explorers – ever wanted to know more about bugs? Inspired by the amazing specimens in our 394-year-old print by Wenceslaus Hollar, we asked Liam Crowley, an entomologist from the University of Birmingham, to answer all your questions about our creepy crawly friends in a live Q&A session. … Read more

CineQ Watch Party

Barber Home – watch party Barber Home and CineQ collaborated for an evening of independent queer film, celebrating queerness from our own homes. With many Pride events cancelled and usual safe spaces closed off, nurturing a community of support is more important than ever. Across the world trans and non-binary rights are being eroded, so while the … Read more