I can't remember what I saw the first time I walked into Birmingham's contemporary art gallery, the Ikon, in early September 1974. It wasn't the show that's shown above I'm pretty sure of that. Located then in the Shopping Centre built over the rail station it was quite an intimidating place - you entered through glass doors into a long narrow space that seemingly was uninhabited (it was only at the far end that there was an assistant/invigilator) and if there was any signage to indicate that it was free and accessible I don;t recall it.
Nonetheless that first time was truly intoxicating - I'd visited Museums and Art Galleries before (as a student plenty of times to the local museum and on trips to London oodles of commercial spaces as well as the Tate etc.) but other than the small Exe Gallery in Exeter (attached to the art school) I knew nothing of the (then) developing network of Arts Council funded contemporary venues across the UK of which Ikon was one of the most prominent.
But I was hooked...from then on I went regularly throughout my time as a post graduate student at the Art School, in the year I spent as a Cheltenham Fellow and the year after when I was ostensibly studying for my PGCE (but really spending most of my time in my studio painting). So much so that eventually (stints of casual jobs and dole intervening) as I was known to the staff by then I was encouraged to apply for one of three JCP (Job Creation Programme funded by Government) opportunities on offer. I jumped at the chance to get my foot in the door.
