Birmingham’s Public Art – details for Graffiti and Street Artists

Birmingham’s Public Art looks at the history of public art in Birmingham from the early Georgian pioneers right through to modern sculptors and street artists that add so much to our city. The book is written by local photographer and author Jonathan Berg who has been publishing books of photography of the city since 1994. All the images in the book are by Jonathan and he has been working for two years on the book. It is the first substantive publication looking at public art since Public Sculpture of Birmingham by George Noszlopy in 1998. Publisher’s details for the new book can be downloaded here: Birmingham’s Public Art is in part an academic book, but also aims to awaken the appreciation of public art in Birmingham to a much wider audience. It has been a long term idea that has come to fruition since Jonathan retired from his NHS job as Pathology Director at City and Sandwell Hospitals and Honorary Professor in Clinical Biochemistry at the University of Birmingham. Chapter 9 – Art on the Streets; Digbeth and Deritend, of the book considers street art and includes the work of just a few of the large number of graffiti and street artists practising in Birmingham. At page proof stage Jonathan tried to contact the street artists whose work is proposed to be in the book. Unlike sculptural work artistic murals are covered by different intellectual property regulations. Potential restrictions on editorial use in a book of mural work in a public space is complex and has not been properly tested in UK courts. All but one artist replied to say they were happy. One artist did not come back to us and their substantive work was removed. Birmingham’s Public Art will be published by Birmingham Picture Library in November 2023. Since 1994 Jonathan has commited to donating a proportion of his publishing and walking tour income to charities helping issues of homelessness and street dwelling. Currently the support is directed to Sifa Fireside, a charity based in Digbeth. Recent donations stated here. Birmingham Picture Library: A small publishing house that started life in the 1990 as a photo library for the city. Jonathan first published Positively Birmingham in 1994 and it has now sold out of its 5 th edition. This has been followed by several other titles with a total of 11 books published since 1994.