The Midlands Arts Centre (also called MAC Birmingham or The MAC) is located in Cannon Hill Park, Edgbaston.

Midlands Arts Centre at Cannon Hill Park (February 2021). Photography by Elliott Brown

History of The MAC

The MAC was established in 1962. It hosts plays, concerts, film shows,  and holds art exhibitions, music classes and workshops. The centre reopened after a facelift in May 2010 (after being closed for refurbishment works from 2008 to 2010). The idea for an arts centre came from John English, his wife Mollie Randle and local politician Frank Price in the late 1950s. Birmingham City Council made land available at Cannon Hill Park in 1962. Was also home to the Cannon Hill Puppet Theatre under John M. Blundall. The director Mike Leigh went to work at the theatre in 1965. It was home to the former Birmingham Youth Theatre from 1972 to 1987.

The MAC was closed again during the pandemic in 2020 and 2021, and had another minor refurbishment at the time. New sculpted gates were installed by 2023.

Midlands Arts Centre at Cannon Hill Park (December 2010). Photography by Elliott Brown

Harbour (2020)

During the pandemic, the MAC was closed during 2020 and 2021. It was reopened by 2022. These sculpted fences were erected by 2023 with the following poem:-

Grace Nichols - Harbour 2020

When it's all over and hopefully it will be over, I'll probably look back and miss this strange web of our togetherness

The impromptu arias at windows and balconies, the orchestras of pots and pans and hands beating a metronome

Or gratitude to keep airborne the spirits of our nurses, doctors, ail our care-workers -

The live streaming of ballet dancers pirouetting trickily around their children, now like everyone at home

All the WhatsApp calls and video links from friends and relatives, my daughters' faces surfacing on the small sky of my mobile

Yes, the virtual world can console. But watch how easily I'll trade It - for the simple harbour of a hug.

Harbour at the MAC (December 2023) Photography by Elliott Brown