The third (I think) incarnation of this festival, which presents performances from companies drawn from all over Europe, has just announced it’s programme for this year. This one’s happening the first week of July.
It was a close run thing but, having been excited about it for a while, I finally got the chance to get down to Victoria Sq on Saturday night for the final performance of Wings of Desire, the big, public, outdoor show as part of International Dance Festival Birmingham 2012.
It was good too – the bit where the Town Hall crumbled was pretty spectacular and I’m a big fan of Circa from when they performed as part of the 2010 festival. Of the videos on YouTube, this one of the building projections is alright and gives you an idea at least. In fact it makes it look darker than it was – Birmingham has a serious light pollution problem.
Birmingham-made film NFA to premiere at Edinburgh International Film Festival – News
“not only was it filmed on location but also stars Birmingham-born actor Patrick Baladi, who played Ricky Gervais’s boss in The Office, and was produced by 104 Films, a production company co-founded by acclaimed Sutton Coldfield filmmaker Justin Edgar”
Cultural Entrepreneurship
Annette Naudin’s students have been interviewing James Yarker (Stan’s Cafe), Rosie Kay, Dorothy Wilson (MAC), Emma Chetcuti (Multistory) and many others
The Chamberlain Files = Sport and culture to “take centre stage” under Labour
“Giving details about how the new cabinet system would work, Sir Albert explained that deputy council leader Ian Ward will oversee the city’s arts, culture and sport budget, with the cabinet Member for Commissioning, Contracting & Improvement, Stewart Stacey, ensuring that the arts and sport budget is effectively used by organisations receiving council grants.”
I’ve been sent a copy of the user’s manual for Eastside Projects. It’s the fifth one they’ve produced and it’s quite a lovely thing – part guide to the gallery, part document of their work and part choose-your-own-adventure book.
My favourite bit is an explanation of what they call ‘dog-whistling’:
As a contribution to the exhibition ‘This is the Gallery and the Gallery is Many Things’ (September to November 2008), Kelly Large instigated a perverse social ritual in the gallery. Each morning, following the opening of the building, the alarm was left to sound until a passerby or neighbour entered the building to complain. This process forced our immediate neighbours – a taxi repair workshop and a limousine hire company – to enter the gallery, where they were prompted to look around.
It’s part of the preparations for Wings of Desire, the big outdoor dance/visual spectacular as part of International Dance Festival Birmingham. Happening in Victoria Sq tonight and running until Saturday. It’s free and I bet it’ll be ace.
Hold tight – this is a post about local politics. The Birmingham Press has posted some news about Labour’s planned changes to how Birmingham City Council will now be run (since they’re in charge now). There’s discussion about it on the Restirred forum too. Martin Mullaney, the previous Cabinet Member for Leisure, Sport and Culture explained:
The all powerful Cabinet Committee has been completely reconstructed, with previously centralised powers devolved down to District Committees
You’ll have twigged from the title of this post that there’ll no longer be a Cabinet Member for Leisure, Sport and Culture. Who will have responsibility for those areas and what will happen if there’s nobody pushing the arts and culture agenda at the council? Will we really notice much difference?
There’s been some Twitter-based wailing and gnashing of teeth about the lack of an elected figurehead for the arts but, to be perfectly honest, I’m struggling to muster any real interest in this. Thought I should mention it though.
At the time of writing, the world record for the 100 metres is 9.58 seconds and is held by the Jamaican sprinter Usain Bolt. In March 2012 we will be screening 8 very short films at the Fierce Festival in Birmingham, where each film will be 9.58 seconds long
Ah, the joys of a decent description on a video. Cue some copy/pasting:
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A-list stars spanning the UK’s entertainment industry are flocking to support the Tamperine Project, a quirky fundraising initiative dreamt up by Birmingham-based music charity Sound It Out.
Celebrities including Dame Judi Dench, Dame Helen Mirren, Ricky Gervais, Sir Tom Jones, Kate Moss, Robbie Coltrane and Kylie Minogue have been unleashing their creative side by “tampering” with a tambourine’s canvas, creating mini works of art that will be featured in an exhibition and online auction from 16-26 May 2012.
The Tamperine exhibition runs from 17 to 26 May 2012 at EC Arts Space, The Mailbox, Birmingham B1 1XL.
‘Blues Paintings & Beyond’ is the first ever exhibition by 2 Tone icon Horace Panter. His love of Chicago Blues and his fascination for traditional iconography provide the underlying theme for this unique ensemble of portraits and prints from his Chicago Blues & Other Paintings collection.
SHAG is a human hair sculpture. The hair has been sourced from wigmakers’ suppliers and originates from Europe and China. Additionally, hair donated by staff at Aedas has been incorporated into the carpet. SHAG contains over £700 worth of hair.
As part of Yto Barrada’s exhibition at Ikon and in collaboration with Birmingham’s independent Flatpack Festival, Slow Boat opens as a cinematheque for three weekends during May and June.
Full listings are coming soon but keep on eye on the Ikon website for info.
There’s a load of entertaining-looking madness happening at AE Harris today, presented by Birmingham Conservatoire. If you were to drop in between midday and 5pm you’d be able to catch:
Ping! Which involves table tennis players and a string quartet. It was at Warwick Arts Centre recently and seemed to go down well
Five Triple Rings, which seems to involve incorporating sport and maths into bell-ringing
The Voyage, Stan’s Cafe’s “playful opera for a voice, a double bass and eight recorders”
