Graham Fagen was a member of staff at Birmingham Institute of Art and Design between 1991 and 1995. When he arrived in Birmingham in Easter 1991, he expected to find an artistic vibrancy similar to that in his hometown of Glasgow. His disappointment at not finding this the case influenced him to conduct a research project into possible ways in which to use mass communication media to encourage local people to become more interested in visual culture. He worked in collaboration with artists and Vision, an independent Birmingham-based contractor. Each artist was invited to design a billboard poster that would be displayed on advertising hoardings for one month. The choice of billboard posters as a medium allowed the works to be displayed outside the more traditional confinement of a gallery and created the opportunity for them to be viewed by a wider and more diverse public audience. Between May 1992 and May 1993 twelve billboards created by artists were exhibited in Snowhill Queensway, Birmingham. The project was also the subject of an exhibition at the Bond Gallery, Birmingham in 1993.
From the guide to the Birmingham Billboard Project Collection, 1992-1993, (Birmingham City University Art and Design Archives)
