Saturday 1st October

11pm – 5am/ £35 (£28)/ Museum Collections Centre, 25 Dollman Street, Birmingham B7 4RQ

Have you ever wondered what happens to all the artefacts from Birmingham’s Museums when they’re not on display? They are closer than you think. The Birmingham Museum Collections Centre is a warehouse teeming with nostalgia, where objects of art and function from around the globe lie in wait. Writer Judith Allnatt is going to spend the night there – and we are inviting you to join her for the Festival’s fourth all night writing experience.

Judith says “this workshop will be a fantastic chance for writers to connect with weird and wonderful objects from the past. In this nocturnal workshop I’ll be using a range of exercises to go beyond the physical object and explore origins, connected characters and our own associations so that each object acts as a bridge for the writer into an imagined world. Through the wee small hours, in the shadowy galleries, what strange, altered state might the connection between mind and matter take…?”

Judith Allnatt is an acclaimed short story writer and novelist. Her latest novel, The Poet’s Wife, was shortlisted for the East Midlands Book Award. Judith’s first novel, A Mile of River, was selected as Simon Mayo’s Book of the Month on Radio 5 Live and was shortlisted for the Portico Prize for Literature. Short stories have featured in the Bridport Prize Anthology, the Commonwealth Short Story Awards, and on BBC Radio 4.  Judith has worked widely with museum collections and art galleries running creative writing courses, and exhibiting, recording and anthologising the writers’ resultant work. She facilitated the writing of a collaborative ‘48 hour book’ over the weekend of World Book Night and looks forward to bringing the two aspects of museum objects and late-night writing together in this unique and exciting project.

The Museum Collections Centre has brought together 80 percent of Birmingham Museums and Art Gallery’s stored collections under one roof. At the moment the centre is only open to the public on open days and for pre-arranged tours and study days. For more information about the centre, please visit their website www.bmag.org.uk/Museum-collections-centre

Tickets: £35/ £28 concessionary price.

Book online or by calling the Box Office (via MAC)
on 0121 446 3232