Calling all young artists 4-12 years - join us each Sunday and get creative! Learn from our team of experienced artist educators and try a new skill or technique each week using top quality, artist-grade materials and equipment. Explore the galleries, get inspired, create your own artwork and make friends!
This course is for people who are interested in learning about becoming a beekeeper. The course covers:
The natural history of honeybees is truly fascinating and the hobby is very rewarding for those that take it up.
The sessions are delivered by members of Birmingham & District Bee Keepers Association over six weeks. The teaching is classroom based with some practical, hands on content over one and a half hours. All practical materials are provided.
Aged 16 - 21? Get involved in contemporary art.
Collaborate with artists, designers and musicians to look at the Barber's collection from new angles - reinterpreting, reimagining and creating.
Legendary mountaineer Doug Scott give a fascinating insight into how a lad born in Nottingham during the darkest days of WWII got into climbing on the Black Rocks in Derbyshire - aided with nothing but his mother’s clothes line, and how this led him to Everest in 1975.
At dusk on 24 September, Doug and Dougal Haston became the first Britons to reach the summit of Everest as lead climbers on Chris Bonington’s epic expedition to the mountain’s south-west face. As darkness fell they scraped a small cave in the snow 100 metres below the summit and survived the highest bivouac ever – without bottled oxygen, sleeping bags and, as it turned out, frostbite. For Doug Scott, it was the fulfilment of a fortune-teller’s prophesy given to his mother: that her eldest son would be in danger in a high place with the whole world watching.
Scott and Haston returned home national heroes with their image splashed across the front pages. Scott went on to become one of Britain’s greatest ever mountaineers, pioneering new climbs in the remotest corners of the globe. His career spans the golden age of British climbing from the 1960s boom in outdoor adventure, to the new wave of lightweight alpinism throughout the 1970s and 1980s.
Proceeds from the evening will support the work of Community Action Nepal www.canepal.org.uk and include a sale of Nepalese goods and an auction of signed framed mountaineering prints. Doug will show a short video about CAN and update the audience about the post-earthquake reconstruction of CAN’s projects. He will also be signing copies of his posters and books.
On this course you will learn the techniques of copper foiled (Tiffany) stained glass to create some beautiful Christmas tree decorations. You will be taught all the skills to create two or three decorations including: glass cutting, grinding, foiling, taping, soldering and finishing.
Why not join our monthly book club for a stimulating and informal discussion of books that link to the Barber’s magnificent collection and the themes its works explore?
The ever popular Barber Book Club continues throughout the year, exploring literature related to themes within our permanent collection and temporary exhibitions. We welcome ideas from participants for future book club sessions.
Love art? Aged 13 – 15 years? See amazing artworks, be inspired by real artists and try out new ideas in our twilight workshops.
Join our tutor for a Garden Design short course
Over six weeks Darren will teach you all the elements you need to create an effective garden design. In a mixture of lectures and practical workshops you will learn the basic techniques in the design and construction of gardens.
This course will take place on Thursdays from 10am – 2pm on the following dates: 16th, 23rd and 30th August, 6th, 13th and 20th September.
Darren has spent his career delivering and managing horticultural and other land based qualifications as well as running a successful garden design consultancy. He was one of the first recipients of the City and Guilds medal of excellence, awarded for his teaching and training. He works as a quality assurance coordinator for a number of organisations, ensuring standards are maintained. Darren regularly has articles published in the gardening press and is the permanent gardening expert for BBC WM 95.6 in the West Midlands, and was nominated for a garden media guild award in 2016. Darren’s enthusiastic approaches to teaching and garden design aim to inspire and motivate, and are developed to make learning both enjoyable and progressive.
Spend a few hours getting into the Christmas spirit with this Christmas wreath making workshop hosted by Carole of Tuckshop Flowers. You’ll have a lovely selection of long lasting and locally sourced greenery to choose from to dress a ready-mossed base, and Carole will show you how to build a wreath from scratch for future projects and provide a range of additional ingredients to ornament your creation. Anything goes – wild and woolly or simply classic, whatever suits you and your front door the best!
