The Curio City Shop is no ordinary shop but a place for exchange of ideas and visions. A shop where conversations and stories become currency.

The Curio City Shop, 11 Auchinleck Square, Five Ways Shopping Centre, Birmingham, B15 1EW

From 5 th October 2005, until autumn 2008, The Curio City Shop will be open for business at 11 Auchinleck Square , Five Ways Shopping Centre, an area where people's living patterns and communal spaces have been affected by Birmingham 's urban culture and redevelopment.

The Curio City Shop is the third phase of the Neighbour Hood Watch programme led by artist Simon Walker and Friction Arts. Established 18 months ago in response to the death of a friend, Simon became concerned that the issue of street violence was not being publicly discussed. The Curio City Shop will be a place where these and other issues can be discussed freely and turned into living artworks by artists, local, national and international. These artworks will then be available for all to see in the Curio City Shop, not an art gallery, but a new place to encounter, enjoy and make art.

Since the shop opened we have worked with local young people on their 'Art Den' project which has resulted in the group using visual arts, music, poetry, drama and dance to exlore the possibilities of a 'garden' or sanctuary for the young people on the surrounding estates. we have held artists talks by Shannon Flattery from Boston, US, our own Brian Duffy and Johnny O'Hanlon from Hamfisted! Theatre. Some of the young mothers from the estate are in the process of setting up their own dance group and we hope to initiate other 'legacy' projects before the end of the year.

The shop is also a 'gallery' where we show works by professional artists alongside work made by members of the local community, this has created an accessible spacew for people to encounter contemporary art, outside the traditional cultural institutions. we had a lady in the other week who said she like art, but didn't go to galleries because they made her feel stupid, but she new she could come in to the shop and talk to us about art safely. Music to our ears!