Ikon Gallery

Infobox Museum
name = The Ikon Gallery


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established = 1965
location = Brindleyplace, Birmingham
type = Contemporary art
visitors =
director = Jonathan Watkins
curator =
publictransit=
website = http://www.ikon-gallery.co.ukThe Ikon Gallery (gbmapping|SP060866) is an English gallery of contemporary art, located in Brindleyplace, Birmingham. It is housed in the Grade II listed, neo-gothic former Oozells Street Board School, designed by John Henry Chamberlain in 1877. The gallery's current director is Jonathan Watkins.

Ikon was set-up to encourage the public to engage in contemporary art. As a result of this, the gallery runs an off-site 'Education and Interpretation' scheme that educates audiences, promotes artists and their art. The gallery is open every day of the week except Mondays, though it opens on bank holiday Mondays.

Featured artworks include all forms of media including sound, sculpture and photography as well as paintings. Exhibitions rotate throughout the year so that as many pieces can be displayed as possible. Ikon is a registered charity which is partly funded by Birmingham City Council and Arts Council of England.

History

"The Ikon" (as it is colloquially known) was founded by Angus Skene and four artists from the Birmingham School of Art - David Prentice, Sylvani Merilion, Jesse Bruton and Robert Groves - after Skene bought Prentice's painting "Kate and the Waterlilies" in 1964, and the two started discussing the lack of support for contemporary artists provided by Birmingham's existing artistic institutions. [cite news |first=Rose |last=Jennings |title=Birmingham on the cutting-edge - A groundbreaking gallery deserves this long-overdue retrospective |url=http://arts.guardian.co.uk/reviews/observer/story/0,,1292925,00.html |work=The Observer |publisher=Guardian News and Media Limited |date=2004-08-29 |accessdate=2008-03-07] Originally conceived as a "gallery without walls" (exhibitions were planned to tour unconventional locations such as cinemas and post offices in a motorcycle sidecar) [cite news |first=Rachel |last=Campbell-Johnston |title=Lip service paid to a Sixties icon |url=http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/article473796.ece |work=The Times |publisher=Times Newspapers Ltd |date=2004-08-25 |accessdate=2008-03-24] it was eventually established in 1965 in an octagonal glass-walled kiosk in Birmingham's then-new Bull Ring shopping centre. The first exhibition was of work by John Salt, and the venue was staffed by the founding artists and sometimes their spouses on a voluntary basis.

The venture was funded by Skene, but control was left in the hands of the artists.cite book |author=Watkins, Jonathan |editor=Watkins, Jonathan; Stevenson, Diana |title=Some of the best things in life happen accidentally: the beginning of Ikon |year=2004 |publisher=Ikon Gallery |location=Birmingham |isbn=1904864023 |pages=36-38 |chapter=Some of the best things in life happen accidentally] The name of the gallery was coined by Groves, who was interested in the icons of the Eastern Orthodox Church. The name was agreed by the other founders partly on the basis that it "divides beautifully geometrically and was splendid in all directions". [cite book |author=Stevenson, Diana |editor=Watkins, Jonathan; Stevenson, Diana |title=Some of the best things in life happen accidentally: the beginning of Ikon |year=2004 |publisher=Ikon Gallery |location=Birmingham |isbn=1904864023 |pages=114 |chapter=Interview - Robert Groves] Ikon's founding prospectus declared: "Ikon is intended as an antithesis to exclusive art establishments and galleries … it has been formed because of the need for an accessible place where the exchange of visual ideas can become a familiar reality" [cite web |url=http://www.ikon-gallery.co.uk/programme/past/event/106/some_of_the_best_things_in_life_happen_accidentally/ |title=Some of the Best Things in Life Happen Accidentally 28 July – 12 September 2004 |accessdate=2008-03-24 |work=Programme - Past |publisher=Ikon Gallery]

The initial lease on the kiosk expired after three years, but with Arts Council support from 1967, the gallery was able to appoint a full-time gallery manager and move to a former mortuary in Swallow Street in 1968. By 1972 it had held 93 exhibitions and 40 group shows, [cite news |title=An Ikon of our times |url=http://icbirmingham.icnetwork.co.uk/0800whatson/0400visualarts/page.cfm?objectid=14454563&method=full&siteid=50002 |work=The Birmingham Post |publisher=Birmingham Post and Mail Ltd |date=2004-07-23 |accessdate=2008-03-24] and in 1978 it moved again to a former carpet warehouse in John Bright Street. [cite web |url=http://www.ajspecification.com/Buildings/Section_Page/?CI_Building_ID=179&CI_Section_ID=729&CI_Article_ID=191 |title=Ikon Gallery - Convert to Art |accessdate=2008-03-24 |last=Mead |first=Andrew |date=1998-04-30|work=AJ Building Study |publisher=Architects Journal]

The gallery moved to its current site in 1997 with the cost of the conversion partly funded by a grant from the National Lottery. The refurbishment work was designed by Levitt Bernstein, who reinstated the tower which had been demolished during the 1960s. Café Ikon, on the ground floor, was designed by Birmingham-based architects The Space Studio and opened in December 1998. Form, Space & Order were the contractors. [cite web |url=http://www.thespacestudio.com/work/ikon.html |title=Cafe Ikon |publisher=The Space Studio |accessdate=2008-06-07] In July 2006, it opened a second site in Digbeth - Ikon Eastside.

Current activities

The Ikon has an artistic programme consisting of three interdependent strands.
*The gallery features temporary exhibitions over two floors totalling convert|450|m2|sqft|0. A variety of media are represented, including sound, film, mixed media, photography, painting, sculpture and installation.
*There is also an off-site programme which helps develop dynamic relationships between art, artists and the audience outside the gallery. The projects and events vary enormously in scale, duration and type of location, challenging expectations of where art can be seen and by whom.
*Education is at the heart of the Ikon's activities, stimulating public interest in and understanding of contemporary visual art. Through a variety of talks, tours, workshops and seminars, the Education & Interpretation programme recognises that artistic expression can empower people, heightening individual and community experience.

Ikon is a limited company, registered as an educational charity. Ikon receives core funding from Arts Council West Midlands and Birmingham City Council and raises additional income from a variety of sources, including charitable trusts and foundations and corporate sponsorship.

Artists

Some recent artists include Santiago Sierra, On Kawara, Roy Arden, Marcel Dzama, Olafur Eliasson, Simon Patterson, Richard Billingham, and Julian Opie.

External links

* [http://www.ikon-gallery.co.uk/ Ikon Gallery]
* [http://www.levittbernstein.co.uk/architecture/expertise/arts/ikon/index.php Levitt Bernstein: Ikon Gallery]
* [http://www.british-history.ac.uk/mapsheet.asp?sheetid=10089&ox=4557&oy=1821&zm=1&czm=1&x=355&y=289 1890 Ordnance Survey map of school] (in centre)
*IoE|217477

References