Created in Birmingham

The Light House in Wolverhampton are offering creative start-ups the chance to advertise themselves on the Light House LCD Screen Network.

This is a great opportunity for any creative business, from production companies and graphic designers to photographers and more. The screen network covers the main Chubb Buildings reception and Lock Works bar which currently sees a weekly footfall of 1000 people. The building contains over 10 companies and the bar area is a popular venue for business meetings, wifi users and networking events.

If you are interested and require further information then please contact Fung Ye Tsang, fungye@light-house.co.uk

Whilst browsing about the site I noticed they’ve got a few short animations you can watch on their media page.  I particularly recommend ‘Onions’ by Natalie Hinchley.

Purple Gallery, based in Bournville, Birmingham, will celebrate the second city, old and new, in a brand new exhibition opening this October

The exhibition, featuring the work of Colin Carruthers and Richard Clare, opens on Sunday 12 October from 2.15 pm – 5.15 pm and continues from Wednesday 15th October to Sunday 2 November (the gallery’s closed Mon & Tues).

Lazily copied & pasted from the press release:

Birmingham City Council has launched an ‘X Factor’ style hunt to find the city’s top undiscovered talent, offering them a chance to perform in front of many of the city’s most influential creative industry and media figures.

Entertainers of all genres, whether magicians, dancers, circus acts, singers, groups or comedians, are being invited to take part, with the winner claiming an exclusive performance spot at the 2008 Creative
City Awards Ceremony, being held on November 29th at the ICC

Auditions will be held at The Custard Factory at the end of October. The successful candidates will be judged by the creative and events teams behind the Creative City Awards.

For more information, or to enter the competition, please send a short e-mail introducing yourself and your act to ed.king@bcguk.com, or alternatively call Ed at BIG CAT Group on (0121) 200 0910.

Thoughts?  Anyone going to have a go?

**UPDATE** – actually, from the looks of the comment by Ed below, it looks like this isn’t happening.  Or something’s happening but in a different format.

• Knight of the Camera: The Photographs of Sir Benjamin Stone MP
  The photos on display in Centenary Square at the moment are by Sir Benjamin Stone MP, an enthusiastic amateur photographer. This is the first time in a century that his work has been shown in Birmingham, his home town
• The Shambala Art Exhibition – Birmingham – The Final Show! at Jibbering Art
  The exhibition moves to Birmingham from Friday 10th – Friday 17th October @ Wild Building, 104 – 108 Floodgate Street, Digbeth, Birmingham, B5 5SJ, 10.30am – 6.30pm. The launch night is Thurs 9 October, 7pm – 11pm – expect live art, afrika jam dj’s and more
• Overcoming Dictatorships
  This is the blog for “a two-year exchange between artists, poets and authors from various European countries about their experiences of the change from dictatorship to democracy, in particular after the opening of former communist countries since the end of the 1980s”. There’s a round table discussion at the Ikon on 8 Oct and a conference at Birmingham Uni on 9 Oct (with an exhibition there going on until 9 Nov)
• The Traditional Arts Team are having a ceilidh on Sat 18 Oct
  Apparently this is “part of the Big National Ceilidh – a night when, in cities, towns and villages all over the country, thousands of people will simultaneously be dancing to the music of live bands”
• Local Radio – where is the good news?
  Robin Valk muses on the state of local radio, specifically wondering (with advertising cuts likely and the cost of ‘old school radio’) whether it has any future
• Television’s People Out Today! – Mistys Big Adventure
  Grandmaster Gareth has been suffering. The new Mistys album is out today though, so things should start looking up

• Lots Of Things To See And Do In The West Midlands: October 2008
  Russ L’s ever-useful round-up with loads of stuff happening this month. I’d like to add my own Film Dash 48-hour film challenge to the list (happening 17-19 Oct short film fans!)
• Pre-Raphaelite Online Resource | TAK! Design & Art Direction. Birmingham. UK. +44 (0) 121 288 2528
  The nice folk at Tak! are “very excited to announce a new working partnership with the Birmingham Museum & Art Gallery to design & develop an online educational resource for public, students and professionals”
• Wheatley Fellowship 2008/09
  News from BIAD – Juneau Projects have been selected as the Wheatley Fellow based in the School of Art 2008/09
• Support the Castle Vale Community Awards – aCtiVe arts
  “Castle Vale will proudly celebrate the achievements of a number of its residents at the second annual Community Awards on Friday 24th October”
• It’s fun to play at the M A C E | Birmingham: It’s Not Shit
  Jon Bounds has found the Media Archive for Central England and does some delving around
• Birmingham Conservation Trust – new futures for Birmingham’s historic buildings
  “Birmingham Conservation Trust is a charity created ‘to preserve and enhance Birmingham’s threatened architectural heritage” and it has a shiny new website

• Bits of Britain
  John Dale is a “trade plate driver, collecting and delivering vehicles around the UK” but is based in Birmingham. His blog is a collection of his travel writing. In his email he adds “I’ve previously had writing published in the Moseley based magazine Birmingham 13 and in Raw Edge. I’ve also had stories short-listed for the Fish International Short Story Prize and the Writers’ Forum monthly fiction prize”
• YouTube – BirminghamRepTheatre’s Channel
  The REP have been on YouTube for a couple of months by the look of it. Will be interesting to see what they do with it (anyone want to throw a suggetion in the comments?)
• Digbeth is Good – Scary decisions
  Nicky Getgood rounds up the Halloween options in Digbeth – Ikon Eastside closing party, 24 Hour Psycho at VIVID, Bill Drummond at Eastside Projects, Outersight’s Halloween Horrorshow and Capsule/ATP’s Release The Bats at the Custard Factory. Decisions, decisions
• ClustaSpace
  Clusta have launched ClustaSpace which “provides 3D visualisation for marketing, planning and advertising” which looks very clever indeed
• Iron Man Records on Posterous
  Nice to see someone jumping on the ‘forward your mailouts to Posterous and get them published on the internet’ thing.

The second resonance events soiree will happen at the Town Hall on Friday 3 October featuring a host of local talent as well as the very excellent Heritage Orchestra performing the songs of Amon Tobin.  Musically, we’re talking jazz and hip hop but soul, leftfield, classical and any number of other styles will feature.

Here’s the full line-up:

The Heritage Orchestra

Lizzy Parks (album launch)

DJ Cro hosting 2 and a half hours of local MC talent including Ko-Syne (Soulthump, Livebox), SPX (Kung Funk), Redbeard (Eat Good) and more

Visuals by Chromatouch

It’s competition time!

I’ve been given a couple of tickets to give away for this.  All you have to do is shout up for them in the comments.  Just some quick rules:

• The first person to claim them takes both the tickets (well, guestlist places)
• No-one CiB-related can play
• No previous competition winners can claim the tickets
• You’ll need to use a proper email address for me to confirm things with you
• I get the final say on any decisions (if it’s really necessary)

So go for it…

Meanwhile, here’s the flyer:

You can also have a nosey at the interview with Mary Wakelam, of Birmingham Jazz, who co-promotes these events.