When mac closed the doors at its Cannon Hill Park centre in April 2008, work started on a £14.8million Building Project to create a newly refurbished, and much improved, arts centre to re-open in 2010.
Jointly funded by Arts Council England, Birmingham City Council and a mac and sampad fundraising campaign, the development will dramatically improve mac's ability to offer exciting events and activities as well as improving physical access.

To celebrate, mac in association with sampad has awarded five artists’ commissions to create work that will engage with our environment and with our audiences in and around the new building. The commissions include permanent pieces of art for the new building and three projects working with the people of Birmingham to reflect the new mac.


Inside The Building

Sijelo - Myfanwy Johns, working with members of the Bosnian Cultural Centre Midlands, are creating designs for a new first floor carpet, an area wood panelling in the new café and floor tiles in the foyer, using the pattern s and shapes created through crochet.

50 Tiles - Sara Taylor will create a collection of 50 individually designed tiles representing 50 years since the mac vision was first introduced, with design influences including both the natural setting and trees of Cannon Hill Park and traditional Islamic patterns.


Outside The Building

Amplifying The Map - Kate Chapman and Charlotte Goodwin are inviting people who live, work or play close to mac to re-discover familiar places and explore places they have never visited before, sharing their thoughts and observations to create an audio map of the changing landscape.

The City Sings - Artmusic’s Helen Ottaway is composing an anthem for mac to ring out across the city, played and sung by people of all ages and from all backgrounds and culminating in a processional performance leading to the new centre.

Time and Place - writer and artist Laura Guy is leading a participatory work that will gather public information and personal recollections to form a unique archive leading to a creative visual telling of the story of mac and the significant presence it has in Cannon Hill Park.

You can find out lots more about all these projects, chart their progress and get involved through this website. Let us know what you think!