Created in Birmingham

• Fused Magazine – final call for delegates
  If you are a manager of a band, promoter, record label owner, music journalist, A&R, Label, DJ – anything related to music in the region and are interested in attending the SXSW festival at a subsidised rate contact Kerry Thomas on 0121 246 1946 / kerry@fusedmagazine.com.
• Burn fm’s Battle of the Bands
  Burn fm is holding a BOTB with a few other societies (Rock Society, Band Society) and Vale Fest, a charity festival entirely run by students. Any profits from the £5 ticket price will go towards the Vale Festival charities.
• Punch Records are looking for an intern
  The successful applicant will be working with the Bass Festival’s marketing team. Interested? Call Sophie in the Punch office on 0121 224 7444 or email sophie@punch-records.co.uk
• Joanna Geary on Social Media
  Insightful presentation from Development Editor Jo Geary on some of the lessons she’s learned while building the Birmingham Post’s presence in social media.
• Art Connect
  Created in Birmingham has been profiled and reviewed on the website Art Connect. The site looks at the importance of arts blogs, and said some very nice things about this one!

This Thursday their are two very different creative meet-ups happening in the city:

The Feb Creative Networks is the 3rd Creative Forum event with special guest speaker Ash Atalla, the writer and producer best known for producing The Office. The Creative Forum bit is usually a series of stands from organisations like Business Link and Screen WM on hand to offer advice. 5.30pm – 10.00pm

The first BARG happened last month; games were played, cake was eaten and their was a whole lot of enthusing and exploring of social mechanisms. The Second BARG will feature: a look at rapid prototyping kits for game, discussion of a planned St Patrick’s day game, evolution of the Emergent Game and more.

If you didn’t attend last month, you can still get in on the fun by turning up at The Lamp Tavern, Digbeth at 7pm.

Being the editor of CiB comes with certain privileges, one of them being the opportunity to give your other projects a cheeky plug.

As you may know I co-run Colour live music events, and we are putting on our first ever Birmingham gig at The Victoria next Tuesday.

The evening will feature music from 3 live acts, projected vintage slides, free homemade cakes and us pretending we can DJ. If you do come along please come and say hi.

We are also really chuffed this month as we will co-hosting the closedown party of Flatpack Festival this year.

Girls who Draw is an international group of female artists and illustrators, including 3 of Birmingham’s finest: Jane Anderson, Sarah Ray and Karoline Rerrie. For those of you who are planning a trip down to London town before 3 March I urge you to check out the ‘MISFITS AND MISCELLANY’ exhibition at The Exposure Gallery.

The exhibition is to celebrate the production of the ‘Girls who Draw’ book which was printed by Tuckey Print Limited in Birmingham.

The girls have chosen some of their favourite images from the book to exhibit alongside an eclectic mix of their illustrations and artwork.

With all this rubbish weather hanging around over the last few weeks it has been too tempting to hide indoors on a Sunday and stay warm.

Here is a few exhibitions on around the West Mids, are free to the public and are open on a Sunday. Go on! Put on your favourite woolly jumper, brave the cold, and go get some culture.

Armando Andrade Tudela
A new series of films reflects upon a modular construction designed by French architect Jean Pierre Maneval in 1963.

4 February – 29 March 2009
Ikon Gallery
Open: Sunday 11am-6pm

In Touch
In this new interactive gallery visitors can engage in and experience a variety of works through touch, sound and light.

01 Jan 2008 – 01 Jan 2012
Birmingham Museum
Open: Sunday 12.30pm – 5pm

Fresh Out of the Box
Exhibiting artists include: Artists Anonymous, Sarah Lucas, Marc Quinn and Gavin Turk.

Runs till 14th October 09
The New Art Gallery Walsall
Open: Sunday 11am – 4pm

I wanted this to be a longer list but not that many galleries are open on a Sunday, especially the more independant contemporary ones, which seems odd. Can anyone shed some light on why this is?

Twice Oscar-nominated film director Mike Figgis will be coming to Birmingham on 12 March as the latest speaker in the Boilerhouse Voices series of events staged by Jewellery Quarter based communications consultancy Boilerhouse. Figgis will address an invited audience of Boilerhouse guests, but a limited number of tickets will be available to creative industries professionals on an application basis.

Mike Figgis, whose Hollywood credits include Leaving Las Vegas and Internal Affairs, is a visionary filmmaker who thrives on taking artistic risks. For the last decade, he has been working at the cutting edge of creative digital video. His film Timecode was a product of this, shot in a single day without a script and using four digital cameras to create separate stories unfolding simultaneously in real time on a quadruple split screen.

If you would like to apply for a ticket contact Rob Adams: rob.adams@boilerhouse.co.uk.

The Capsule ladies have another big year ahead of them. After receiving huge national success with the Home of Metal project last year they are now in the planning stages of what will be the 7th Supersonic Festival.

Here is the line up:

The next Animation Forum WM event will be Shorts on Walls as part of Flatpack Festival. The event starts at 6.30pm, Saturday 14th March 2009 at The Victoria pub.

As with previous ‘…on Walls’ events this will be your chance to screen your animated shorts and chat with fellow animators. Entry to the event is free, and all Animation Forum WM members are encouraged to make submissions. To attend simply RSVP by email to info@animationforumwm.co.uk.

To submit work email Dave Allen on the above email who will give you all the details.

Many of the local galleries and museums have fun and creative activities for the kids on half term this week:

Half Term Family Workshops
Following a special gallery tour, families will use a variety of media to creatively explore the themes and ideas within the current exhibitions.
17, 19 February  2 – 4pm
Ikon Gallery
Free – to book call 0121 248 0708.

Science Spectacular
Drop in during half term to trap silly specimens in jars, cast ancient dinosaur teeth, create your very own planet and much more!
16 Feb – 20 Feb 11am – 1pm
Wolverhampton Art Gallery
Free

Gigglefest!
Gagsters, comics, pranksters and clowns will be performing as well as the opportunity for budding young jokers to learn some tricks of the comedy trade.
All week.
Central Library.
Free

A few weeks ago I set out an idea for a CiB charity project involving a design competition resulting in the production of a limited edition CiB t-shirt which will raise money for a Birmingham based charity. Now, two weeks on, I have done a bit of research, taken on-board all of your suggestions and found lots of helpful people who would like to get involved.

We have decided to money raised will go to a popular choice for a Birmingham based charity: Acorns Children’s  Hospice.

This is the first call for submissions and here is how it will work:

• Anyone can submit a design entry to the competition, as long as you follow the specifications needed for printing.
• From the entries 20 final designs will be chosen and made into 50 limited edition pin badge sets.
• One final design will be chosen and will be made into 50 limited edition t-shirts and 50 limited edition canvas bags.
• All items will be lovingly screenprinted by hand and sold online by Cut – Out, a fantasic DIY print company based in the West Midlands. All items will be printed with eco friendly inks and on top quality Earth Positive apparel.

The brief:

We want to make a t-shirt that people will really want to wear, so the brief is very loose. The emphasis here is celebrating creative talent in Birmingham and raising some money in the process. You could design something which reflects the creativity of the city, or just your own style, it’s up to you!

Submission guidelines:

• The design should work using one colour, if the image is a photograph it needs to be converted to half tone.
• The design you submit needs to be 300 dpi (usual print quality).
• The design should be no bigger than A3 in size.

Deadline: Friday 6th March 5pm. Send your design as a PDF or JPG file to Createdinbirmingham[at]gmail.com, and hang on to your originals.

Last night was Birmingham Twestival, a gathering of Birmingham Twitter users. The evening was a delightful mix of games, prizes and squinting at name tags, all in the name of charity. Birmingham joined over 175 countries in hosting a event to raise money and awareness for charity: water.

Photo by Lee Allen

I had a lovely time, mostly trying to spot my twitter friends from either their name tags or avatars, I even won a raffle prize – $200 of hosting vouchers!  I asked the Birmingham tweeple to tweet a review:

If you need to remember the names of your new friends you made last night, a list of the attendees was posted on the blog today. Photographer Lee Allen (@photosbylee) took some great photos, you can see them on Flickr.

When I get word of how much was raised I will post it. Thanks to all the organisers for doing such a brilliant job.

• Creatives are invited to comment on the Big City Plan
  Following the cancellation of the Big City Plan workshop, Creative Republic have rescheduled the event for 6pm on Wednesday 11th February. The format remains the same with the event featuring a presentation on the Big City Plan with a discussion afterwards that will be written up as a formal submission to the consultation process.
• Kate Beatty – new website
  Kate is a photographer based at Fazeley Studios, Digbeth who’s impressive portfolio and client list can been seen on her brand spanking new website, designed by Substrakt. The site is clean and functional and is home to the beginnings of a passionately written personal blog.
• Last exhibition at Jibbering Records
  The last exhibition at Jibbering Records, Moseley will be The Shapes of  Things to Come…..and Have Been,
• an exhibition of original artwork exploring the philosophy of interconnectedness by James Dawson. Jibbering Records will close its doors for the last time on Saturday 21st February and will be sadly missed by many people, it has been a hub of creative activity for many years.
• Arts Assembly
  Arts Assembly is a non-profit making organisation based in Warwickshire. They are hosting their next group exhibition at the Vaad Gallery, The Custard Factory, March 6th, 7th and 8th. The preview night is on Friday 6th with the usual free drinks to quaff.
• Audiences Central job vacancy
  Audiences Central is the audience development agency for the West Midlands and they are currently looking for a Data Inputting Administrator.

Clusta are looking for talented Birmingham-based photographers who may be interested in showcasing their work on the back of  The Vaults Bar and Restaurant‘s food and wine menus.

The Vaults showcases many artists and photographers work on its walls and Clusta have designed the bar and restaurant menus to complement this. Several Birmingham photographers including Matt Cannon, Paul Ward and Emma Clarke have all taken up on this opportunity and we are now looking for two more photographers to feature their work.

Interested? Contact edwina@clusta.com no later than Friday 13th February.

Now, I know Christmas is long gone and forgotten but I had to post this festive treat. Geist der Weihnachtsvergangenheit is loosely translated to ‘Spirit of Christmas past’, and is the title of this beautiful video shot at last year’s Christmas German market. It is shot by Vimeo user Old Dead Eye and shows the city at its cinematic best.

Geist der Weihnachtsvergangenheit from Old Dead Eye on Vimeo.