Transforming billboards

April 2012 will see art take on advertising by transforming up to 100 billboards into creative platforms for national and international contemporary art. Following a successful pilot in 2010, a project entitled ‘48-Sheet’ will create an ‘urban gallery’ in Birmingham’s streets. Sixty poster sites will feature the work of international artists, selected by co-curators Jonathan Watkins, Director of the Ikon Gallery and Dr Jiang Jiehong, Director of Centre for Chinese Visual Arts and Birmingham Institute of Art & Design. A further 40 billboards will feature national and international emerging and established artists who are currently responding to an open call for submissions. The project will programme a number of events to engage the community with the artistic process, and the selected artists will work with young people and other local residents, including those affected by the recent riots. The billboard sites will form clusters for people to view the outdoor exhibition as they would a traditional gallery exhibition. Project catalogues and city maps will be available suggesting walking, cycling and bus routes, and specific 48-Sheet tours around the city. Producers of the project, EC Arts, say they have set out to “redefine the reach of art”, engage new audiences and give artists the visual impact usually reserved for the consumer market.