Self Service is a constantly evolving group of Birmingham based artists. There are currently fourteen artists within the group. The original grouping came together in 2004 and was made up primarily of people who met on the Midwest research trips. The initial impetus was to share experiences, and use them as a basis to develop artist led projects/culture in Birmingham . As a group we aimed to generate projects which would create intimacy and enable the development of dialogue amongst the disparate groups and practitioners in Birmingham who made up, what we perceived as, a somewhat fragmented visual arts community.  

In Jan/Feb 2005 Self Service organised and delivered three public showcase events, which were hosted by UCE, the Chamber of Commerce and the RBSA. Around twenty artist-led organisations and projects presented, responding to three questions; ‘What are your future aspirations’ ‘What is the role of your project in Birmingham and/or the West Midlands now and in the future’ and ‘What, in your opinion, is the role of the artist-led project or organisation’. These were followed in May 2005 by three more events where institutions, policy makers and larger organisations in the region were invited to present and respond in the same way. In one sense these events were simply about knowledge sharing, however they also aimed to give the arts community an opportunity to gain better insight into each organisation’s aims, engender a new sense of community, create dialogue and encourage collaboration. These unfunded events were free, open to anyone and proved extremely successful with over 50 people attending each event.  

Between June and September 2005 we organised a series of group crits in order to become intimate with each other’s practices. Sixteen artists presented work to the group and, as in order to present you had to commit to attending the whole series, they generated new discussions and cumulative dialogues which developed over time. There has since been a second series of group crits over this summer (2006), including two in conjunction with the Springhill Institute, which saw as invited facilitators to the crits Andy Hunt (IPS), Mel Jordan (Hewitt & Jordan), Helen Legg and Nigel Prince (Ikon Gallery).

At the end of each of these projects we have organised a public meeting to develop and discuss future Self Service activity. These meetings have been publicised via the Self Service mailing list (made up of event attendees) and through the Midwest website, meaning anyone who is interested has the opportunity to become involved. We see this structure as invaluable as it enables the steering group to continually develop and evolve.  

The group that forms after the initial public meeting then convenes on a regular basis to discuss possibilities for Self Service, share information and experiences and discuss issues that are pertinent to visual arts practice in the city, and the wider national/international context. In a sense we have created an artist-led space, but a space for discourse, rather than something that is physically manifest. Current committee members include;

Tom Bloor
Jo Capper
Mona Casey
Faye Claridge
Ruth Claxton
Greg Cox (Spectacle)
John Hall
Cheryl Jones
Nikki Pugh
Liz Rowe
Charlotte Smith
Matt Westbrook