Created in Birmingham

• Whatsonstage Midlands
  "the first site purely dedicated to performance in the Midlands, providing a platform for all the talent and flair that takes place here"
• Anne Bennett and Annie Murray at Castle Bromwich Library
  On Thursday 15 May at 10.30am you can listen to two well known local authors Anne Bennett and Annie Murray talking about their different lives and personal experiences of Birmingham.
• Sunday Flea at the Custard Factory
  It's back on Sunday 18 May from 11am to 4pm. The Birmingham Opera Company are having an open day down there with activities too.
• Dave Holland Jazz Ensemble Awards
  Garry Corbett (aka bluejazzbuddha)'s photos from the final of the Dave Holland Jazz Ensemble Award evening, held on 27 April at the Birmingham Conservatoire.
• Robot Vs Dinosaur
  Back at Island Bar on Friday 16 May with Datassette and Lone complementing the DJs. Dress like a robot or dinosaur for reduced entry.
• International Dance Festival Birmingham - events for w/c 12 May
  A selection of events and workshops including a performance by the National Ballet of China and the opportunity for a peek at Ikon Eastside where 'Glass Fragments of Time' is on. There's film action with 'Planet B-Boy' on Saturday.

Festival season is starting with all manner of events happening between now and the end of August. Here’s what I know about, if I’ve missed anything then perhaps you could mention it in the comments.

In chronological order:

International Dance Festival Birmingham
Now - 25 May. Various venues in Birmingham.
A month of world class live performance from every corner of the globe with performers from Taiwan, Australia, South Africa, Cuba and Russia.

Fierce Festival
21 May to 1 June. Various venues in Birmingham and West Mids.
In it’s 11th year, the award-winning contemporary performing arts festival has let the audience curate a sizeable chunk of the line-up.

Birmingham Pride 2008
24 - 25 May. Hurst Street and surrounding roads.
The roads will be closed to traffic for street performers and dancers, market stalls and a fairground. The main stage will feature Samantha Mumba and Gabrielle among many others.

The Flyover Show
31 May. Hockley flyover.
A free event to celebrate the very best from the city’s urban communities and reclaim derelict spaces taking place in a ‘forgotten corner of Birmingham’. Line-up includes Soweto Kinch, Bashy and Ty.

BASS Festival 2008
31 May - 29 June. Various venues Birmingham and West Mids.
Short for British Art and Street Sounds, the BASS Festival is a month-long festival celebrating the best of the streets around this year’s theme ‘the elements of hip hop’.

New Generation Arts Festival
5 - 20 June. Various venues in Birmingham.
Focusing on developing and showcasing up and coming graduates alongside rising artistic stars who have studied or live in Birmingham.

Integra
5 - 7 June. Various venues in Birmingham.
The goal of the festival is “to create a software-based open source environment for composing and performing music with live electronics, and test it in real life thanks to new commissions and a big modernisation effort of existing repertoire using obsolete technology.”

Pritchattsbury Free Music Festival 2008
7 June, Pritchatts Park, Edgbaston.
A free student festival held to celebrate the end of exams and is open for anyone. Line-up includes The Holloways, Plan B, Envy & Other Sins, The Anomalies.

Supersonic
11 - 13 July. Custard Factory, Digbeth.
A musical melting pot described as ‘the nexus where metal, folk and noise meet’. Last year it was also described as ‘Festival of the year’ by Plan B magazine. The line-up includes Battles, Harmonia, Efterklang and Julian Cope.

Moseley Folk Festival
29 - 31 August. Moseley Park.
Featuring a selection of the finest in traditional and contemporary folk, the headliners this year are Morcheeba, Jose Gonzalez and Seth Lakeman.

A testament to the passion and drive of Soweto Kinch, the award-winning jazz saxophonist/MC/producer/poet/writer/whatever he wants:

For one day only the entire area beneath the Hockley flyover will be alive with inspiring sights and sounds, ground breaking art and music.

For the line-up see the flyer, for other info see the Flyover Show on Myspace.

Soweto can explain the motivation behind the Flyover Show much better than me and that’s exactly what he does in this video:

For a taste of how much he’s putting into the project, check the second video where we takes he message to the (Broad) streets:

A perfect storm of Birmingham creative scene interestingness is happening on Monday 26 May with Capsule producing an event for the Fierce Festival at the really-rather-good Town Hall (who seem to be widening the scope of the events they’re putting on).

Julian Cope will be presenting his lecture entitled ‘Ancient Worship Of The Gods Beyond Rome’, followed by a screening of ‘Haxan; Witchcraft through the Ages’ with a live soundtrack provided by Bronnt Industries Kapital.

More details and ticket buying info are on the Capsule page.

Julian Cope will be returning with Capsule for the Supersonic Festival, 11 to 13 July. Weekend tickets are available for a bargainous £65 and (limited) day tickets are now on sale too. Check their website for details but don’t dally if you want a ticket.

The results of an interesting collaborative project, carried out in 2007, are just coming out. The project used the question ‘what does this city really look like?’ as a starting point.

Locations were shared-out between a team of ‘photographers’ (none of them are photographers) according to a grid imposed over the area.  The photographers were free to capture whatever they wanted at their location, but it was the grid that determined the locations in the first place.

You can browse the photos on the Birmingham Photographic Project website and it’s worth a look.

The results of the project are being presented in stages - the website being th first with a (limited-run) hardback book and a public exhibition both not far off official announcement.

• OJS Theatre - What’s On May to July 08
  Comedy and theatre listings for the Old Joint Stock Theatre during May to July 2008
• Birmingham Words handover
  The National Academy of Writing/BCU are taking over Birmingham Words from 12 May. Good luck to all involved and I’m looking forward to seeing what the “new and exciting directions” involve.
• International Dance Festival Birmingham - Collective Memory
  Wechtie is doing a fantastically useful collective memory for the IDFB. If you’ve spotted any online coverage then post a link in the comments on his blog.
• Supercool mention Winnie O’Brien
  I like the look of Winnie O’Brien’s work but can’t find any information on her (yet). Props to Supercool for posting this.
• New Ikon Eastside Space
  27 May sees Ikon’s itinerant Eastside programme re-open in a new location on Fazeley Street, Digbeth. It opens with Soi Project, an artists’ collective from Thailand and Japan.
• Woom Gallery in the Jewellery Quarter
  Some interesting things happening here “the common thread being; the venue’s charm, underground edge and our input into aesthetics.. leaving the audience with the feeling of being part of something a bit special”.

Creative Republic (who fund this blog) are organising a series of events over the next few months, the first of which focuses on the West Midlands Cultural Olympiad which is

a four year celebration of culture and creativity that will be launched over the weekend of 26 September as part of the plans for the London 2012 Games

Details on the background to all this can be found at www.london2012.com/beinspired.

Here’s the invitation to this particular event. Attendance is free but you’re asked to register here and also encouraged to sign up to the Creative Republic Charter (if you agree with the principles, of course).

Update - there’s also a Facebook event for this.

The Birmingham International Film Society launches today with a season of films at the Birmingham Library Theatre in conjunction with Cuba Solidarity.

The films to be shown are:

• 12 Chairs (8 May, 8pm)
• Beloved (20 May, 6pm and 8.15pm)
• Death Of A Bureaucrat (5 June, 7.30pm with a talk)
• The Adventures Of Juan Quin Quin (17 June, 6pm and 8.15pm)
• A Successful Man (10 July, 7.30pm with talk)

with more details of each film on the Cuba Solidarity website. Tickets are £3.50 (conc £2.50) and are available in person at the library, by telephone on 0121 303 2323 or at www.birminghamboxoffice.com.

Before tonight’s film there’s a gala reception at 7pm, although I have no idea what that might entail. If you go you’d best assume it’s black tie and arrive in a limo, just in case.

Unfortunately BIFS itself doesn’t seem to have any sort of web-presence but I’m sure that’ll be rectified soon (hint! - just as Pete was, I’m free for tea and a chat about this kind of thing). According to comments on The Stirrer, they’re looking to show the international films that the multiplexes and The Electric can’t/won’t.

CABE, the Commission for Architecture and the Built Environment, are partnering with Bham City Council for what is apparently “the world’s first climate change festival” between 31 May and 8 June.

They’re promising “no guilt and no finger wagging. This will be collective, dramatic and fun”. CABE’s thinking is that the environmental crisis is largely a planning and design crisis and so the festival will explore how cities are planned, designed and used.

Over to the organisers:

Over nine days, the Climate Change Festival will help you see your city with new eyes. Exhibitions and debates, clay modelling, parkour (free running), street theatre, ideas and fun for anyone aged 9-90. Come along!

You can check out the Climate Change Festival website or thrill to the Council’s own brand of wild enthusiasm but all the action seems to be on Facebook so far. CABE have a fair amount of info too but there are no listings yet (that I can find).

Wolverhampton-born graffiti artist Temper has won a national competition to create a sculpture that will be installed at The Cube - the final phase of the Mailbox.

He’s now looking for six people to help bring his vision to life and is touring the Midlands looking for suitable candidates. He’ll be calling at:

• Mander Shopping Centre, Wolverhampton - 8 May
• Paradise Forum, Birmingham - 9 May
• Solihull town centre - 10 May

Or you can nominate yourself or someone else online via the Mailbox’s website.

I first came across Temper via the Headcleaner Sessions mixtapes on his site (especially the K Delight and DJ Noize ones) which still seem to be there. He’s recently been feted by the Sunday supplements, had a design used on a Sprite can and decorated part of Saatchi & Saatchi’s London offices. The owners of The Cube weren’t wrong when they describe him to the Birmingham Post as “one of the country’s most exciting young talents”.

Some of this might not be hugely relevant/interesting to most but hopefully it’ll be useful to someone out there.  Interestingness will be resumed shortly.

Arts & Business Awards

“Nominations are now open for the 30th Arts & Business Awards, designed to celebrate excellence in the field of arts and business partnerships and sponsorships”
Deadline for nominations is 30 May. Further information might be on their website but, frankly, if they want to deliberately hide it away I’m not going to look for it.

Open 08 West Midands

“Open is a biennial collaboration between Birmingham Museum & Art Gallery and Wolverhampton Art Gallery, celebrating the vibrant talent of the art scene in the West Midlands and allowing regional artists the chance to show their work at these prestigious venues.”
The deadline is 28 May 2008. Follow the link for application packs and further details.

Short Cuts Film submissions for ArtsFest

D’log reports that the Short Cuts Film programmers are seeking submissions but warns that the deadline for seeing and agreeing films is tight. I’ve not found any further useful information on this but D’log has the contact details so I’d start there if you’re interested. (Via D’log).

BSCI grant funding suspended

The budgets for Birmingham City Council’s feasibility and creative space grants is now fully committed. If this affects you, or you’d not heard of these grants and are interested then bookmark this page and check back in June. Appreciative nod to Simon Gray.

Changes to Grants for the Arts

From 20 May 2008 several changes to the programme run by Arts Council England will come into effect. Further info on the Arts Council England website. (Via Audiences Central News).

BiNS flagged up a story in the Birmingham Mail the other day entitled “Fury over car art” about Bournville residents’ outrage over a wrecked Mercedes on display outside the Bournville Centre for Visual Arts.

The car references Crash, the novel by JG Ballard, and is part of an exhibition called Zodiac 3000 taking place at the International Project Space, transformed for the duration into the J.G. Ballard Centre for Psychopathological Research, “an institute built to interrogate the New Psychology explored in Ballard’s fiction”.

Unofficial Ballard website Ballardian.com has reported on this and they reproduce the exhibition’s press release. They’ve also picked up on the Mail’s article.

It’s a brave move by the IPS. As their exhibition curator, Andrew Hunt, tells the Mail “Ballard is fixated with white, middle-class suburbs, which Bournville is”. A willingness to upset the residents of an area well known for it’s Quaker-derived standards, and all in the name of art, must take some courage.

The exhibition continues until 31 May and the Centre is open Monday to Saturday, 12pm to 5pm (7pm on Wednesday).

• Jessica’s doing a work placement at Punch Records and is blogging about it. Please drop in and say hi.

• Dunc from Autumn Store has been eyeing up The Indie Lounge in Selly Oak which apparently opened it’s doors yesterday. They seem to have zero web presence though.

• Tonight The Curate’s Egg have got Crevecoeur playing as part of their electronica extravaganza (eggstravaganza? Um, sorry) at the Hare & Hounds - peep the flyer yo.

• 8 May is Big Picture Day and every photo added on that day will be in with a chance of appearing on giant billboards around the region.

• Craig Holmes is an award winning photographer based in the Midlands, who predominantly photographs architecture, property and cities for a wide variety of clients and he’s just launched the nicely blog-ish Arcpic.com.

• Bryn is hosting an exhibition at the Custard Factory in The Gallery (next to the ornamental lake) until 6 May (via Spaghetti Gazetti).

• Gail Troth has an exhibition at the Three White Walls gallery in the Mailbox until 3 June (via Andy Pryke).

• The next round of instructions for the Ludens in the Emergent Game have been delivered upon us and it’s a reconnaissance assignment. If you’ve not got involved yet then this bank holiday weekend should give you an excellent chance to catch up - it won’t take long at all and it’ll be worth it I’m sure.

Yesterday, after a two-week handover period, I officially took over Created In Birmingham from Pete Ashton. I’d like to take this chance to introduce myself properly.

My name’s Chris Unitt. That’s my real name, not an internet pseudonym as some have assumed. I’ve lived around Birmingham for most of my life, I’m a qualified lawyer (no longer practising, I’m pleased to say) and know a fair bit about alcohol and entertainment licensing. I’m also a director of a small record label, I DJ occasionally and play a lot of football.

In terms of blogging and suchlike I’ve been reviewing gigs in Birmingham for the past few years for Culturedeluxe and, more recently, Birmingham Live. I’ve got my own blog too.

I’ve also been involved with the online promotion/blogging for the Fierce Festival this year (line-up just announced!) and I’m covering the ‘online interactive’ aspects of the upcoming New Generation Arts Festival on their site too.

Despite that I’d say I’m pretty much an outsider to the Birmingham creative scene. I’ve been involved a little but not so much that I know many people (or anyone knows me). Pete described his experience with this blog as a journey and I’m expecting to go through a similar learning process.

So much for me, what about this site? Well, you may be pleased to know that I’m not planning many changes. I like how Pete’s run CiB and the visitor stats would suggest I’m not alone in that view. There are a few things I’d like to give more coverage to and a few features I’m keen to reinstate/continue. For now though, I just want to get comfortable with sifting the emails and RSS feeds and keeping on top of everything.

In terms of personnel, Pete will be around in the background and Danny Smith’s still going to chip in with the bits n bobs that I miss. I am and will be grateful to them both.

That’s enough navel-gazing for now though. If you’ve got something you want mentioned here then following the advice on the ‘getting on the blog‘ page will help your chances no end. Otherwise I look forward to seeing you at an event/exhibition/show/whatever soon.

Chris

I went along to the Animation Forum West Midlands event, Shorts On Walls, on Monday which was most enjoyable. The organisers were certainly pleased with how things went and have said so on their pleasingly blog-ish news page.

Also on that page is the evening’s screening schedule with links to the animators’ profiles. I understand they were trying their best to accept last minute submissions meaning giving out a running order on the night wasn’t possible, so it’s good to see it here.

It also helps me to pick out the films that I particularly enjoyed and give them an extra plug here.

First up, ‘Don’t Touch’ by Louis Hudson from Dice Productions.

The Nickolodeon-style anarchy of Pedro & Frankensheep from the Brothers McLeod was great and has apparently been picked up by CBBC.

A name that cropped up again and again was Natalie Ann Hinchley. She has a credit on Pedro & Frankensheep, her Second Home Productions outfit produced the jaw-dropping ‘The Animal Book’ (only the trailer here but it’s still a treat)

and, although I can’t find a video to embed, go and check out the Light House commissioned ‘Onions’ on Natalie’s website - animated bunnies are always a winner.

I’m at risk of just listing everyone here so I’ll finish with a few quick mentions:

• Although less polished, the video for Nyoto Ndogo’s track Dunia (remix) has a good energy about it and I like the song (presented by Andrew Burchell).
• ‘What If’ by Mat Parker’s Short Animations 4 Education was uncomfortable viewing for the right reasons (trailer only on the site).
• Steven Spencer describes ‘My Brown Friend‘ as a “dark exploration of addiction” which it is.
• Finally, the YouTube embedding has been disabled but I’ll forgive that (just about) to mention ex-BCU MA student Guillaume Weiss’s ‘4:51‘ which I thought was just incredible.