Ort Gallery

Ort Gallery Artist-led gallery space in Balsall Heath Birmingham facilitating dialogue in the community & exhibiting ambitious projects

Ort Gallery is an artist-led exhibition space in Balsall Heath, Birmingham with the social mission to facilitate dialogue in the community. Through our work we explore what role an international programme of contemporary art can play in community strengthening. We exhibit ambitious and daring new art work in an old factory space and ensure every exhibition has a strong impact on the local area and

it’s residents. We work with socially engaged internationally acclaimed artists (previously Ellie Harrison, Leah Gordon, Juneau Projects, Paul O’Kane and Pil and Galia Kollectiv amongst others) in order to ensure that the art-work is not just shown but lived through our audiences. This is done in a variety of ways such as workshops, poetry events, walks, talks and by the audiences becoming part of the projects. We are an approachable venue, inviting new audiences to the space and celebrating the diversity of Balsall Heath and Birmingham. Ort Gallery’s curatorial programming is concerned with bringing world-class art to an area lacking cultural activity and engaging the audiences in an organic and meaningful way. Balsall Heath is considered a deprived neighbourhood, and our aim is to raise the profile of the area through cultural events as well as promoting community cohesion and quality of life. Our engagement programme grew organically out of events we hosted for the community. The artists we work with are dedicated to social change and deal with issues found in Balsall Heath within their practices. We aim for the artists we work with to represent the diversity of people in our immediate area. We believe quality is achieved in many different ways, one of which is to give up and coming artists a platform to exhibit their work and to kick start their career. Ort Gallery pays all the artists we work with a fair wage based on a-n guidelines. Artists are welcome to submit proposals for future projects. For more information please e-mail: info (a) ortgallery.co.uk with a short introduction.

We’re back with another Falasteen on Film collaboration 🎬 this time presenting a selection of short films which explore ...
29/08/2026

We’re back with another Falasteen on Film collaboration 🎬 this time presenting a selection of short films which explore the complexities of our relationship to the land and environment 🌏 This shorts marathon is part of the wider programme of events for the Rooted Through Realms exhibition by SKbyDesign ✨
 
When: 6 – 9 pm ⏳
 
Where:📍The Edge, Cheapside, Deritend, B12 0QH
 
While we all need and desire access to homes, gardens, good food, clean air, and proximity to water, we’ve inherited and are constantly being consumed into systems that are extractive and exploitative, resulting in a severance from the land, which has emotional, physical, mental, and spiritual consequences. If everything is cosmologically connected, then this is also a reflection of the Oneness/oneness that we are being disconnected from. But where there is rupture, there can also be repair 💖

Films :
 
- The Park (Dancing on the Rubble of Empire) (Arwa Abuwara and Turab Shah, 2025 34’)
 
- ⁠The Flowers Stand Silently, Witnessing (Theo Paganopoulos, 2024, 17’)
 
- ⁠Don’t Be Long, Little bird (Reem Jubran, 2025, 24’)
 
- An Orphanage of Memories (Rayit Hashmat Qazi  2025, 21’ )
 
- Mawtini (Fateema Al-Hamaydeh Miller, 2024, 19’)
 
- Where the Wind Blows (Hana Elias, 2024, 16’ )
 
- ⁠99 Names: My liberation is tied to yours (Marwa Eltahir, 2026, 11’)
 
The artwork featured in the event poster is a still from Theo Paganopoulos’ The Flowers Stand Silently, Witnessing 🖼️
 
🎟 Tickets include a warm meal (plant based/ gluten free options available) and are available via link in bio 🔗

Access ♿️

The venue has step-free access and a working lift onsite. The workshop will be taking place in the Grey Studio, located on the ground floor.

Prayer mats will be available for those who wish to pray onsite 🤲🏾📿

This programme will be running on Crip Time. As a result, we endeavour to reschedule events should any of our contributors not feel well / experience a change in capacity in the lead-up to and / or on the day of the event itself ❤️‍🩹

Further info, including deets on how to get to the venue, can be found via link in bio 🔗

We look forward to welcoming you once more 🧡

Full Bloom 🌻 | Krankpod Workshop To mark the launch of Rooted Through Realms, we warmly invite you to join us for this 3...
28/08/2026

Full Bloom 🌻 | Krankpod Workshop

To mark the launch of Rooted Through Realms, we warmly invite you to join us for this 3D floral tile making workshop facilitated by Sam Krankpod Samantha Krankpod 🎨🖌️

Mess rating: 2/5

Workshop style: Free-flow. This workshop is open to children and adults of all abilities. All children must be accompanied by a parent / guardian 🧑‍🧒‍🧒

Tickets 🎟️

Free, registration required - see link in bio 🔗

There will be 2 x 1 hour time-slots available; please ensure you select the correct time slot and number of tickets.

Cancellation Policy ❌

If you can no longer attend the workshop, we’d like to kindly request that you provide us with at least 24-hour notice, as there will be a waiting list.

Access ♿️

The venue has step-free access and a working lift onsite. The workshop will be taking place in the Grey Studio, located on the ground floor.

Prayer mats will be available for those who wish to pray onsite 🤲🏾📿

This programme will be running on Crip Time. As a result, we endeavour to reschedule events should any of our contributors not feel well / experience a change in capacity in the lead-up to and / or on the day of the event itself.

Further info, including deets on how to get to the venue, can be found via link in bio 🔗

✨About the exhibition ✨

Rooted through Realms is a solo exhibition featuring a new body of work by artist-curator Shaheen Kasmani SKbyDesign The exhibition calls upon us to bear witness and connect the dots between ongoing settler colonialism, climate change, and local and global injustices, whilst also encouraging us to employ our senses and otherworldly faculties to collectively imagine new possibilities, as inspired by the gardens of paradise.

✨Rooted Through Realms Exhibition Launch ✨We warmly welcome you to the opening of Rooted Through Realms, a solo exhibiti...
28/08/2026

✨Rooted Through Realms Exhibition Launch ✨

We warmly welcome you to the opening of Rooted Through Realms, a solo exhibition by artist-curator Shaheen Kasmani SKbyDesign featuring a new body of work that explores land justice, inspired by the gardens of paradise 💫

This Digbeth First Friday launch event will include a DJ Set by fatumakhaireh 🎶 as well as mendhi by 💃🏾
 
When: Friday 4th September, 18:00 - 20:00 ⏳
 
Where: The Edge, 79 - 81 Cheapside, B12 0QH 👾
 
✨ About the exhibition ✨

Rooted Through Realms 🌱 calls upon us to bear witness and connect the dots between ongoing settler colonialism, climate change, and local and global injustices, whilst also encouraging us to employ our senses and otherworldly faculties to collectively imagine new possibilities as inspired by the gardens of paradise✨

This exhibition was conceived by Shaheen Kasmani and co-curated by Aaisha Akhtar. In developing this exhibition together, Shaheen and Aaisha have been in conversation since 2023. In 2024, Shaheen undertook a residency with Ort Gallery to focus on her artistic research and development, allowing her to create this new body of work. Together, they explored themes of divine justice, mercy, and life-affirming ways of seeing in relation to this earthly plane 💖

Rooted Through Realms was made possible with support from Arts Council England. Shaheen’s residency and Ort Gallery’s professional development work in the lead up to the exhibition were generously supported by Arts Council England and Paul Hamlyn Foundation.

Keep an eye out for the public programme 👀

Access ♿️

The venue has step-free access and a working lift onsite. The exhibition will be held in the Red Studio which is up one flight of stairs and there will also be activity (refreshments, music, mendhi) taking place in the Grey Studio which is located on the ground floor ✨

Prayer mats will be available for those that wish to pray onsite 🤲🏾📿

Further info including deets on how to get to the venue can be found via link in bio 🔗

Ort Gallery is thrilled to announce Rooted Through Realms is coming to The Edge frictionarts this September 🥳✨ About the...
04/08/2026

Ort Gallery is thrilled to announce Rooted Through Realms is coming to The Edge frictionarts this September 🥳

✨ About the exhibition ✨

Rooted Through Realms 🌱is a solo exhibition featuring a new body of work by artist-curator Shaheen Kasmani SKbyDesign co-curated by Aaisha Akhtar 💫

The exhibition calls upon us to bear witness and connect the dots between ongoing settler colonialism, climate change, and local and global injustices, whilst also encouraging us to employ our senses and otherworldly faculties to collectively imagine new possibilities as inspired by the gardens of paradise✨

In developing this exhibition together, Shaheen and Aaisha have been in conversation since 2023. In 2024, Shaheen undertook a residency with Ort Gallery to focus on her artistic research and development, allowing her to create this new body of work. Together, they explored themes of divine justice, mercy, and life-affirming ways of seeing in relation to this earthly plane 💖

Rooted Through Realms was made possible with support from Arts Council England. Shaheen’s residency and Ort Gallery’s professional development work in the lead up to the exhibition were generously supported by Arts Council England and Paul Hamlyn Foundation.

✨ About the artist ✨

Shaheen Kasmani is an artist, creative producer, curator and educator. With a MA in Visual Traditional & Islamic Arts, her interests lie in narratives around coloniality and heritage, art, architecture and patterns. Shaheen was the lead curator for the Ramadan Pavilion at the V&A Museum, and co-curated The Past is Now exhibition at Birmingham Museum. She has exhibited her work in the UK and Europe, and guest lectures at universities in the US.

👀 Keep an eye out for upcoming programme updates and access info ahead of the exhibition launch 🚀

Ort Gallery is thrilled to announce Rooted Through Realms 🌱is coming to The Edge frictionarts this September 🥳✨ About th...
04/08/2026

Ort Gallery is thrilled to announce Rooted Through Realms 🌱is coming to The Edge frictionarts this September 🥳

✨ About the exhibition ✨

Rooted Through Realms 🌱is a solo exhibition featuring a new body of work by artist-curator Shaheen Kasmani SKbyDesign co-curated by Aaisha Akhtar 💫

The exhibition calls upon us to bear witness and connect the dots between ongoing settler colonialism, climate change, and local and global injustices, whilst also encouraging us to employ our senses and otherworldly faculties to collectively imagine new possibilities as inspired by the gardens of paradise 🌱✨

In developing this exhibition together, Shaheen and Aaisha have been in conversation since 2023. In 2024, Shaheen undertook a residency with Ort Gallery to focus on her artistic research and development, allowing her to create this new body of work. Together, they explored themes of divine justice, mercy, and life-affirming ways of seeing in relation to this earthly plane 💖

Rooted Through Realms was made possible with support from Arts Council England. Shaheen’s residency and Ort Gallery’s professional development work in the lead up to the exhibition were generously supported by Arts Council England and Paul Hamlyn Foundation.

✨ About the artist ✨

Shaheen Kasmani is an artist, creative producer, curator and educator. With a MA in Visual Traditional & Islamic Arts, her interests lie in narratives around coloniality and heritage, art, architecture and patterns. Shaheen was the lead curator for the Ramadan Pavilion at the V&A Museum, and co-curated The Past is Now exhibition at Birmingham Museum. She has exhibited her work in the UK and Europe, and guest lectures at universities in the US.

👀 Keep an eye out for upcoming programme updates and access info ahead of the exhibition launch 🚀

Ort Gallery is thrilled to announce Rooted Through Realms, a solo exhibition featuring a new body of work by artist-cura...
31/07/2026

Ort Gallery is thrilled to announce Rooted Through Realms, a solo exhibition featuring a new body of work by artist-curator Shaheen Kasmani SKbyDesign is coming to The Edge frictionarts this September 🥳

✨ About the exhibition ✨

Rooted Through Realms calls upon us to bear witness and connect the dots between ongoing settler colonialism, climate change, and local and global injustices, whilst also encouraging us to employ our senses and otherworldly faculties to collectively imagine new possibilities as inspired by the gardens of paradise.

This exhibition was conceived by Shaheen Kasmani and co-curated by Aaisha Akhtar.

In developing this exhibition together, Shaheen and Aaisha have been in conversation since 2023. In 2024, Shaheen undertook a residency with Ort Gallery to focus on her artistic research and development, allowing her to create this new body of work. Together, they explored themes of divine justice, mercy, and life-affirming ways of seeing in relation to this earthly plane 🌱

This exhibition was made possible with support from Arts Council England. Shaheen’s residency and Ort Gallery’s professional development work in the lead up to the exhibition were generously supported by Arts Council England and Paul Hamlyn Foundation.

🌷About the artist 🌷

Shaheen Kasmani is an artist, creative producer, curator and educator. With a MA in Visual Traditional & Islamic Arts, her interests lie in narratives around coloniality and heritage, art, architecture and patterns. Shaheen was the lead curator for the Ramadan Pavilion at the V&A Museum, and co-curated The Past is Now exhibition at Birmingham Museum. She has exhibited her work in the UK and Europe, and guest lectures at universities in the US.

👀 Keep an eye out for upcoming programme updates and access info ahead of the exhibition launch 🚀

Thrilled to be announcing our third and final recipient of the Ort Artist Fellowship .amals ✨Jamal Lloyd Davis, a Britis...
25/06/2026

Thrilled to be announcing our third and final recipient of the Ort Artist Fellowship .amals ✨

Jamal Lloyd Davis, a British-Jamaican photographer and filmmaker, explores the intricate and enigmatic facets of Black identity, including but not limited to mental health. His work critically examines community and environment, commenting on societal systems that seek to restrict and define them, while experimenting with different techniques. Currently, Jamal is expanding his series titled ‘black-and-blue,’ where he turns the camera on himself for the first time, producing self-portraits that intimately explore his personal struggles with anxiety.

Permeable Body, Porous Time: ‘We Year’ Writing Workshop W/ Char Heather | Crip Resistance IIJoin us for this writing wor...
27/05/2026

Permeable Body, Porous Time: ‘We Year’ Writing Workshop W/ Char Heather | Crip Resistance II

Join us for this writing workshop led by of , in response to new film, ‘We Year’

When: Tuesday 16th June, 2 - 4 pm ⏳

Where: Online via Zoom 👾

Access ♿️

This event will include comfort breaks throughout its duration as well as live BSL interpretation upon request☝🏽 This programme will be running on Crip Time 💫 As a result, we endeavour to reschedule events should any of our contributors not feel well / experience a change in capacity in the lead up to and/or on the day of the event itself 💜

Tickets 🎟️

Register via Eventbrite (see link in bio) 🔗

This event is part of the larger We Year Programme, a series of interdisciplinary events and workshops inspired by and responding to the themes of the film We Year by Sop, held by various crip and disabled friends and allies, including RestFest, The Remote Body, as well as Resting Up Collective x Ort Gallery via the Crip Resistance II programme.

Other events include:

The world premiere of We Year, hosted by from 15th – 28th June and a special edition of Crip Film Club with and where we will be watching Sop’s film, ‘We Year’ 🎬together, followed by an informal Q&A with the artist and a broader chat about the film 🗣️

✨ About the facilitator ✨

Char Heather is a writer/researcher interested in narrative cripping, and the founder of ‘the remote body’. Their work on crip writing has been published in FUTCH, GROM, and Lassitude, and is forthcoming in ASAP/Journal. They recently edited Out of Sorts: the remote body Anthology of Narrative Cripping, which you can find at www.theremotebody.bigcartel.com

✨ About Crip Resistance II✨

An online programme of events exploring disabled, sick, mad, and crip modes of resistance and remote community care ❤️‍🩹 produced by in collaboration with 🖼️ The programme’s print publication, documenting and expanding on its themes, will also launch this year 📒 20% of the event and publication proceeds will support ✊🏽

Don't forget to vote today 🗳️Your vote matters 🧡Don't let hate divide us 🫂
07/05/2026

Don't forget to vote today 🗳️

Your vote matters 🧡

Don't let hate divide us 🫂

We are thrilled to announce we will be collaborating with Resting Up Collective on a second iteration of the Crip Resist...
21/04/2026

We are thrilled to announce we will be collaborating with Resting Up Collective on a second iteration of the Crip Resistance programme we launched last year ❤️‍🩹

✨ About Crip Resistance 2.0✨

Crip Resistance 2.0: Holding Space, Building Community, is an online programme of events exploring disabled, sick, mad, and crip modes of resistance and remote community care produced by RUC in collaboration with Ort Gallery 🧡

This year, the programme’s focus on building community is demonstrated via the bringing together of a wider network of crip organisations, collectives and artists 💫

This interdisciplinary collaboration will feature a series of online events and workshops🎨🖌️🎞️

The programme’s print publication, documenting and expanding on its themes, will also launch this year 📖

20% of the event and publication proceeds will support Disabled People Against Cuts 🚫✂️

Programme to be announced in due course 🗓️

Stay tuned 👀

Address

496 Moseley Road
Birmingham
B129AH

Opening Hours

Wednesday 10am - 2pm
Thursday 10am - 2pm
Friday 12pm - 5pm
Saturday 12pm - 4pm

Telephone

+447938428394

Website

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