A Line Drawn from the Eye to the Summit

The artists of Birmingham School of Art, with the support of Birmingham Museum & Art Gallery, present ‘A Line Drawn from the Eye to the Summit’, an exhibition marking the end of the academic year for those on the Arts-based Masters Programme. It showcases an array of emerging artists and art-based practitioners whose work draws on a variety of themes and areas of research. For those wanting to see more of the city’s exhibition programme, a guide to birmingham art gallery exhibitions offers further context.

The name of the exhibition is taken from a plaque hung on the side of the iconic modernist Birmingham Central Library, soon to be demolished. It describes viewing the Welsh mountain, Cader Idris, and being unable to fully estimate the distance to the summit. The artists at the School of Art are on the way to reaching their own summits.

The exhibition is free and is presented in the School of Art and The Waterhall Gallery, Birmingham Museum & Art Gallery. Selected works at the exhibition will be available to purchase and a digital copy of the exhibition catalogue can be viewed here.

Key Takeaways

• ‘A Line Drawn from the Eye to the Summit’ is a free, two-venue exhibition marking the close of the academic year for Birmingham School of Art’s Arts-based Masters Programme, staged with the support of Birmingham Museum & Art Gallery.
• Its title borrows from a plaque on the soon-to-be-demolished modernist Birmingham Central Library, describing the difficulty of estimating the distance to the summit of Cader Idris — a metaphor for the artists’ own journeys.
• The show runs across two sites: the School of Art (until Thursday 10 September) and The Waterhall Gallery (until Thursday 17 September), with different opening hours at each.
• Selected works are available to purchase, and a digital exhibition catalogue is available to view.
• For collectors and curators, graduate and end-of-year shows are among the most direct ways to encounter emerging practice in the region before an artist’s market develops.

Why This Exhibition Matters in the Region’s Calendar

End-of-year Masters shows occupy a particular place in the ecology of contemporary art in the West Midlands. They are, in effect, the first public outing for a cohort of practitioners who have spent one or two years in intensive studio research, and they function simultaneously as a celebration, a critical test, and a marketplace. For audiences across Birmingham and the wider region, they offer an unusually direct encounter with new work — often before it has been filtered through commercial representation or institutional programming.

The partnership between Birmingham School of Art and Birmingham Museum & Art Gallery is significant here. Rather than confining the show to a single academic building, the exhibition spills into The Waterhall Gallery, a public museum space. That move matters: it places student and early-career work in dialogue with a civic collection and a broader visiting public, and it asks the work to hold its own outside the supportive context of a degree show.

Birmingham School of Art has a long institutional lineage — it is part of Birmingham City University and traces its roots to the nineteenth-century municipal art school tradition associated with figures such as the Pre-Raphaelite circle and the city’s wider craft and design heritage. That history gives the annual Masters presentation a sense of continuity: each cohort is, in a small way, adding a new layer to a long story of art-making in the city.

Reading the Title: Cader Idris, the Library, and the Unmeasurable Distance

The exhibition’s title is doing real work, and it rewards a moment’s attention. It is drawn from a plaque that hung on the side of Birmingham Central Library — the striking modernist building, designed by John Madin and opened in the early 1970s, which became one of the most debated pieces of post-war architecture in Britain and was slated for demolition. The plaque described the view toward Cader Idris, a mountain in the Snowdonia range of north Wales, and the impossibility of accurately judging the distance to its summit.

That image — a landmark you can see but cannot precisely measure — is a fitting emblem for an artist at the end of a Masters programme. The summit is visible; the route and the remaining distance are not. The title also quietly links two kinds of landmark: a natural one (the mountain) and a man-made one (the library), both of which resist easy reckoning. The library’s impending demolition adds a further layer, a reminder that even monumental civic structures are provisional.

For visitors, this is a useful frame. The work on show is not the product of a settled career but of a journey still in progress — and that is precisely what makes graduate and postgraduate exhibitions worth attending.

What to Expect: Themes, Media, and Research-Led Practice

The exhibition brings together emerging artists and art-based practitioners working across a variety of themes and areas of research. Arts-based Masters programmes in the UK typically span a wide spectrum — from fine art painting, sculpture and printmaking to photography, moving image, installation, socially engaged practice, and increasingly research-led and interdisciplinary approaches. A single cohort show will often reflect that breadth.

When you visit, it helps to approach the work with a few questions in mind:

• What is the research question? Many postgraduate artists frame their practice around a sustained inquiry — into material, memory, place, identity, or process. Look for the through-line.
• How does the medium serve the idea? A moving-image work, a cast object, and a painting each carry different temporal and spatial assumptions. Ask why this form, for this idea.
• What is the relationship to the space? Work made for a studio and work installed in a museum gallery are different propositions. Notice how pieces respond to the School of Art and to The Waterhall.
• Where does the work sit in a longer conversation? Postgraduate practice is usually in dialogue with art history, with contemporaries, and with the region’s own artistic lineages.

The catalogue — available digitally — is often the best place to find artists’ statements and contextual writing that illuminate these questions.

Practical Visiting Information

The exhibition is free and is presented across two venues, each with its own schedule. It is worth planning around the fact that the two sites close on different dates.

Venue	Runs until	Opening hours
Birmingham School of Art	Thursday 10 September	Mon–Thu 10am–6pm; Sat–Sun 10am–4pm
The Waterhall Gallery, Birmingham Museum & Art Gallery	Thursday 17 September	Mon–Sun 10am–5pm

• Private view: Friday 4 September, 5pm–9pm.
• Admission: Free.
• Catalogue: A digital copy of the exhibition catalogue can be viewed online.
• Purchasing: Selected works at the exhibition are available to purchase.
• Website: www.eyetothesummit.com

A practical tip for anyone planning a visit: because the School of Art closes a week earlier than The Waterhall, aim to see the School of Art portion first if your time is limited. Check current opening times before travelling, as institutional hours can shift around term dates and public holidays.

Buying Work at a Graduate or Postgraduate Show

For collectors, end-of-year shows are one of the most accessible entry points into contemporary practice. Prices are typically at the lower end of an artist’s trajectory, and you are often buying directly, sometimes before an artist has gallery representation. But the informality of the setting can also make the process feel unclear. A few principles help:

• Ask about the edition or uniqueness. Is a print part of a limited edition? Is a sculpture one of a series? Understanding this affects both value and how the work should be cared for.
• Clarify what is included. Confirm whether framing, mounting, or installation hardware is part of the sale, and who is responsible for transport.
• Request documentation. A certificate of authenticity, a signed receipt, and the artist’s contact details are reasonable to ask for, even at a student show.
• Think about the long term. Emerging artists’ markets are unpredictable. Buy work you want to live with, and treat any future appreciation as a bonus rather than a plan.
• Consider the region. Collecting work made in the West Midlands helps sustain a local ecology of studios, suppliers, and audiences — a form of support that extends well beyond a single sale.

If you are new to collecting, the New Art West Midlands mailing list (see below) is a useful way to stay informed about exhibitions, fairs, and opportunities across the region.

The Wider Context: New Art West Midlands and the Regional Ecology

This exhibition sits within a broader programme of activity that supports contemporary art across Birmingham and the West Midlands. New Art West Midlands has, in recent years, run a number of initiatives aimed at developing the market and the audience for new work in the region.

• The SALON exhibition (13 November – 23 December 2015) showcased contemporary art for sale at The Waterhall Gallery, Birmingham Museum & Art Gallery — an explicit attempt to connect buyers with regional artists.
• The New Art West Midlands 2016 exhibition (12 February – 15 May 2016) was a selected West Midlands graduates’ exhibition staged at venues across the region between February and May each year. The 2016 edition was selected by Sonia Boyce, John Stezaker and Katharine Stout, and featured work by 43 artists.

These programmes matter because they address a structural challenge: the West Midlands produces a great deal of strong new work, but the infrastructure for showing, selling, and critically discussing it has historically been uneven compared with London. Graduate exhibitions, commercial showcases like SALON, and curated regional surveys each play a different role in closing that gap.

For context on how galleries and exhibitions function more broadly — as public institutions, commercial spaces, and sites of critical discourse — the Wikipedia entry on the art gallery is a reasonable starting point, and the Birmingham Museum & Art Gallery and Birmingham City University sites carry current information on their respective programmes.

Editorial and Further Reading

Alongside its exhibitions, New Art West Midlands has published critical writing on the region’s artists. Notable pieces include:

• Barbara Walker’s Shock and Awe, reviewed by Andrew Jackson — Friday 13 May 2016.
• Trevor Pitt and the Preston Street Union — Wednesday 13 April 2016.

Barbara Walker is a Birmingham-based artist whose figurative work engages with representation, visibility, and histories of race and labour — a good example of an artist whose regional roots and international profile coexist. Trevor Pitt’s work with the Preston Street Union reflects the tradition of socially engaged and collaborative practice that runs through the city.

Staying Connected

If you are interested in staying up to date with contemporary art in the region, or in buying and collecting, you can join the New Art West Midlands mailing list. If you are a curator or visual arts professional interested in the contemporary art landscape of the West Midlands, there is a separate Curators’ Network mailing list. Both are free to join and are a practical way to hear about exhibitions, open calls, and opportunities.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is ‘A Line Drawn from the Eye to the Summit’?

It is an exhibition marking the end of the academic year for artists on the Arts-based Masters Programme at Birmingham School of Art, presented with the support of Birmingham Museum & Art Gallery. It is free to visit and is staged across two venues: the School of Art and The Waterhall Gallery.

Where does the exhibition’s title come from?

The title is taken from a plaque that hung on the side of the modernist Birmingham Central Library, soon to be demolished. The plaque described viewing the Welsh mountain Cader Idris and being unable to fully estimate the distance to its summit — a metaphor for the artists’ own journeys toward their goals.

When and where can I see the exhibition?

The private view is Friday 4 September, 5pm–9pm. The exhibition continues at the School of Art until Thursday 10 September (Mon–Thu 10am–6pm; Sat–Sun 10am–4pm) and at The Waterhall Gallery until Thursday 17 September (Mon–Sun 10am–5pm). Admission is free.

Can I buy work from the exhibition?

Yes — selected works at the exhibition are available to purchase. If you are buying, it is sensible to ask about editions, what is included in the sale, and documentation such as a certificate of authenticity.

Is there a catalogue?

Yes. A digital copy of the exhibition catalogue can be viewed online, and it is a useful companion for understanding the artists’ research and themes.

How can I keep up with contemporary art in the West Midlands?

You can join the New Art West Midlands mailing list for updates on exhibitions and collecting, or the Curators’ Network mailing list if you are a curator or visual arts professional. Both are free and are listed on the site.