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Following the successful launch of the inaugural New Generation Arts festival last year, the 2007 festival returns with an ambitious and diverse line up. Providing the stars of tomorrow with a voice today, The NGA Festival is at the forefront of nurturing creative talent, propelling the regional arts scene onto the national agenda, and shining the spotlight on Birmingham as a hub of creativity.

The centrepiece of this year’s festival will be “The Big Debate” which will explore the health of Britain’s regional arts scene and question the perceived cultural hegemony of London.  The panel will consist of high-profile spokespeople from the world of arts, with Richard Morrison, chief culture critic for The Times, chairing the debate. 

As one of Europe’s largest showcases for graduate talent, the New Generation Arts Festival 2007, organised by UCE Birmingham, kicks off on the 14th June, and showcases over 40 exhibits and performances, covering all creative disciplines of the arts, within a 2 mile radius of Birmingham’s city centre.

This year’s festival focuses on the themes of ‘Identity and Diversity’, celebrating Birmingham’s young, vibrant communities.  Many of this year’s exhibitions and shows will actively encourage the participation of the wider Birmingham public.  ‘Atopia 3’, by Turner Prize nominee Vong Phaophanit and collaborator Claire Oboussier, will feature city residents’ own dream destinations in a breathtaking neon installation at Curzon St Station, and ‘100 Verses for The 3 Estates’, a compelling and highly personal video documentary of local people invited to read their own contributions direct to camera from a location in their neighborhood.

Other highlights include a drop-in creative surgery session with acclaimed writer Ken Follett, and award-winning novelist Nicola Monaghan and poetry readings by T.S. Eliot Prize-winner Carol Ann Duffy; a photographic exhibition by Stuart Whipps, winner of the Observer Hodge Photographic Award 2006, and a gritty, contemporary interpretation of Brecht’s ‘The Good Person of Sichuan’ at The Drum Theatre.

Last year’s inaugural festival attracted over 100,000 visitors and garnered celebrity support from the likes of Comedian Frank Skinner, Lord Melvyn Bragg, fashion designer Betty Jackson, author Philip Pullman, and artist Anthony Gormley. 

The New Generation Arts Festival aims to be at the forefront of Birmingham’s cultural regeneration for many years to come, and celebrates the bold and long-term objective of UCE Birmingham to position the city as a centre of national arts excellence.

Robin Dobson, Artistic Director of the festival says:
“The NGA Festival 2007 is an opportunity to celebrate the artistic achievement and creative co-existence that is a feature of the city’s diversity, and will propel our regional arts identity into the national arena."