Parkside: Birmingham City University’s innovative and creative hub

As well as being a vast learning space for students, Parkside becomes an exciting hub for events and productions. As a creative, Parkside is the place to be for work experience, collaboration opportunities and getting the hang of professional facilities and equipment. Find out more about the incredible space and its legacy.

Events and collaboration

Being such a creative and innovative space, it’s no wonder Parkside attracts such exciting, large-scale events and productions.

We’ve hosted Question Time, where Media Production students had the opportunity to work behind the scenes on the show and meet presenter, Fiona Bruce. Isabella Pugh, a final-year Media Production student who worked as a runner on the production, said: “Seeing what people did on set and behind the camera has really helped me to get an idea of what it will be like when I eventually graduate and go on to work in production – hopefully on shows as big as Question Time”.

The Labour Party hired out the space to launch their 2019 manifesto in the building, where again, students were able to get hands on by interviewing BBC political reporter Laura Kuenssberg and create a video based around the event. 

As well as this, our very own Chancellor Lenny Henry launched his book “Who Am I Again” during one of our Open Days, giving an exclusive sneak peek of his book tour and presenting signed copies of the book to fans. 

Alongside external events, the whole building transforms into an exhibition space during Inspired Fest, an annual two week-long showcase of the exciting new talent emerging from the ADM faculty. It’s the best way to see the work of your peers, get inspiration for your next project and meet likeminded creatives. Off the back of the festival, some students go on to showcase their work and win awards at other events such as the New Designers Awards and Graduate Fashion Week.

Studying at the Media Centre

School of Media students are lucky enough to study within the Parkside Media Centre, a space equipped with professional standard equipment to ensure individuals gain industry-level experience throughout the time on their course.

There are four TV studios within the Media Centre that are all interconnected. It’s taken 22,000 meters of wire to make that happen! The Media Centre also has four fully broadcast-standard edit suites, based on the industry-standard Avid editing system, and full broadcast-standard dubbing suites based on a multi-layered ProTools desk.

We boast one of the biggest fixed green screens in the UK, and our studios have been home to productions such as The Gadget Show and other nationally broadcast TV shows and advertisements.

Workshops and creative spaces for students

Our Architecture and Design, Fashion and Textiles and Visual Communications courses all reside within the Parkside building. Students from these courses work from a core of workshops and studio spaces within the building, and are encouraged to collaborate: the building was specifically designed to actively promote shared space opportunities. This is also shown through the Parkside gallery space, which continues to promote student work throughout the year. Spaces include the Print Room, a space full of facilities for lino printing, screen printing, etching, hot foil pressing, letter pressing, book binding and more. There’s also a weave room, 3D Computer Animated Design (CAD) lab, metal workshop, woodwork studio and architecture studio. Essentially, every medium a creative could ever need!

If you want to enrich your creativity and become inspired, Parkside is the place to be.

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