Creative Midlands Events

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Summer Workshops! Posted: 06 Jun 2013 07:26 AM PDT Next month we are holding a Family Writing Workshop at the Pen Museum in the Jewellery Quarter. How fitting! But aside from the obvious celebration of the history of the pen, what else is there to know about the Pen Museum? Museum Administrator Nigel Evans was extremely helpful in allowing me to find out more.  "Set in the Victorian pen factory of W. E. Wiley we offer the many activities including displays and demonstrations of pen making with hand presses and of writing equipment and accessories; sessions of pen making, calligraphy, Braille and local history; tours, talks and a film to individual and group visitors and much more. Arrangements can also be made for children and school parties." To find out more about what they offer, please visit the activities page on their website. The Birmingham Pen Trade Heritage Association charity was founded in 1997 by Brian Jones, Colin Giles, Larry Hanks and Ray Handley when the group found each other due to a shared interest in Birmingham industrialist and philanthropist, Josiah Mason. They decided they wanted to educate and inform the public of Birmingham's history in the pend trade and in 2001, after a lot of hard work, the doors to the Pen Museum opened! (Picture L to R: Larry Hanks, Colin Giles and Brian Jones MBE) And open they are: "the Museum is open every day of the year except 25th and 26th December. Opening times are 11am to 4pm Monday to Saturday, and 1pm to 4pm on Sunday. Enquiries concerning arrangements for access outside of these hours should be made by telephone or email and via our website." The Pen museum is entirely run by volunteers and donations. "We have no local government or other sources of regular funding and rely on our stakeholders to support the museum. These stakeholders include grant making charities, our members, and sales from our gift shop, and donations from visitors and gift aid. The organisation is a registered charity and is committed to providing a museum celebrating the Birmingham Steel Pen Trade (see our mission statement on home page of website). We rely totally on the support of our volunteers who give of their time both at the museum and invaluable input off site as well." So make sure you dig deep when you visit! The Family Writing Workshop will take place on Wednesday  31 July 2013, 10am-12.30pm and will be led by Birmingham-native Anna Lawrence-Pietroni. Her first novel, Ruby's Spoon (Chatto & Windus, 2010) is set in the Black Country during the Victorian era, making the Victorian surroundings of the Pen Museum a suitable environment for writing! Tickets are sold in pairs (one adult and one child) making this the perfect opportunity to involve each other in your writing. For more and how to book, visit this page. By Sian Buckley

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