In the BAG

 

I am not - at this distance - sure who came up with the idea of BAG.  But I was certainly one of the prime movers of the idea of Birmingham Artists Group around 1975/6 after I'd completed my Fellowship in Cheltenham and returned to the city. I was either hanging around the Ikon Gallery or had just started my JCP year working there.

We tried to set up a group studio but were stymied by a lack of imagination from both the City Council and West Midlands Arts.  Not to be thwarted we approached Sandwell Council who were far more co-operative and gave us a variety of locations to set up studios in ones and twos of us.  Once we got going we applied for funds from both Arts Council and others.  Group exhibitions followed - advertised through the Arts Council Exhibitions Bulletin that went out to venues across the UK.  This allowed us to access venues up and down the nations.  We devised a number of shows themed loosely, Paper BAG was one with drawing as the anchor for the diversity of practice within the group.  I don't recall how many outings the several shows achieved but it was quite a few.  That said it was exhausting - I do recall myself and Stuart Reid driving a Luton van back from Aberdeen with a show and passing Derby early one morning (around 1:30 am.) and pondering the fact that neither of us had work in that particular offering!  Stuart left for London shortly after. I moved on to the East Midlands not long after that.  BAG continued to flourish but the show at the Holt Gallery, in Birningham's Arts Lab was probably the last outing for both of us "in the BAG".