The generally stress free holiday of Halloween presents an excuse for some thrilling fun for all ages. Here’s a run down of a few things going on in Birmingham;
- Invisible City‘s final event, Media Circus, takes place on 29 Oct at Fazeley Studios. With entertainment, music, drinks, performances and digital displays, along with the winners of the Invisible City categories to be announced. Fancy dress is along the lines of Victorian Circus.
- CBSO’s Friday Night Classics: Nightmare on Broad Street takes place on 29 Oct, 7.30pm at Symphony Hall, with a pre-concert talk at 6.15.
- Town Hall host a Halloween Silent Movie Special with the 1923 classic The Hunchback of Notre Dame on 31 Oct at 7.30pm.
- Black Country Living Museum are holding Halloween at the Museum on 30 & 31 Oct from 6.30pm – 10pm, with opportunities for psychic reading and trick or treating along the cobbled streets.
- Take a guided tour of Aston Hall, exploring the ghosts and legends on 31 Oct at 7.30pm. Full of spooky surprises, this is not suitable for children of a ‘nervous disposition’.
- Halloween Night at the Museum Collections Centre invites you on a spine tingling trail for a chance to see some of the scariest objects not on general display, join the tour on 29 Oct from 6.30pm – 9pm.
Since Halloween falls on a weekend, it would be a crime to let an opportunity to get dressed up go unmentioned. Most weekend club nights will be welcoming heavy eyeliner and fake blood, on the only occasion where you can get away with wearing a bin liner, here’s a few that stand out;
Plus outfit inspiration is provided by this month’s issue of Area for how to pull off a creepy-but-cool costume, with just the right amount of effort to keep your street cred.
Rizla re-crafted is coming to Birmingham on 12 November, as part of their national competition to find the best remix of the Mystery Jets‘ next release, ‘Show Me The Light’.
UK garage scene legend, MJ Cole, will be dishing out inspiration by hosting a free interactive workshop on the art of the remix at the Hare & Hounds from 4 – 6pm.
Along with that, the Mystery Jets, plus Simian Mobile Disco, Friendly Fires, MJ Cole and Le Corps Mince de Francoise, will be performing and DJing live at the Rainbow Warehouse from 9.30pm – 5am. Tickets can be bought online or at Swordfish Records, Polar Bear Records and Zen.
The closing date for Rizla Re-crafted is 20 December, and will be judged by a panel including the Mystery Jets, and will win a Hercules RMX professional MP3 DJ mixer.
Registration for the workshop is supposedly at www.rizlarecrafted.co.uk – which doesn’t actually seem to exist, so if anyone can give an update on that, that would be much appreciated!
The next Animation Forum event is to co-inside with Flip Animation Festival on 4 November at 7.30pm – 10pm, Millennium Point.
Animating the West Midlands is a free event which will feature locally produced shorts from Flip 2010, and an introduction to Second Home Studios’ Viral Kitchen scheme. You’ll also have the chance to catch up with fellow animators in the iBar at Millenium point.
The event is open to non-members plus those without tickets to Flip. To reserve your place email info@light-house.co.uk with ‘Animating the West Midlands – RSVP’ in the subject line.
For more information, visit Animation Forum or their Facebook page.
The Slavic Soul Feast is taking place on 23 October, organised by Polish Expats Association as a part of Black History Month.
This offers an opportunity to promote knowledge on the contribution made to society by Black people along with the distinctive dances and costumes and original melodies from over 70 regions in Poland.
Lively Hops, picturesque twirls, energetic, joyful movements, coral necklaces, flowers, ribbons, head scarfs, and embroided, gaudy fabrics!
…This is also a pretext to learn more about diverse histories, heritage and culture traditions of other ethnic minorities living in the UK. Along classics of Polish alternative music you will hear the whole range of contemporary Slavic folk beats!
With contemporary art videos examining multicultural society and ethnic identity by Andrzej Karmasz, followed by delicious vegetarian pierogi and meaty bigos.
The event takes place from 7pm at Stan’s Café @ A.E. Harris. Tickets are £3 on the door, for more information contact roma@polishexpats.org.uk
Trans-essence is a group show by artists Lou Reed-Daunter, Caroline Pigden and Michelle Allen which opens at Solihull Gallery on 18 October, and running until 13 November.
The exhibition includes video, painting, sculpture and photography, and explores how the complex feelings of departure and sadness although initially intense are rarely permanent. The works are personal to the artists and offer an expression of their individual experiences of loss.
The opening night invites guests to meet the artists for a drink between 6.15pm – 7.30pm, and again for the Artist Talk and guided tour which will be held on Thursday 21 October from 6.15pm – 7.30pm.
If Caressamba/Jill gets enough people to vote for the above pic then she’ll win a competition.
Art Fun takes place very Saturday at 11am – 4pm, at Nechells Green Community Centre. Led by international artist in residence, Mohsen Keiany, Art Fun offers a series of workshops and events for families, young people and adults, which are all free to attend.
Focusing on ideas and imagery of Islamic art, the project demonstrates the use of inspiration, using these shapes, patterns and colours in a contemporary way. The workshops will give you a chance to learn about basic art elements, techniques, materials and tools, such as acrylics, watercolours, collage and mosaics.
If you like the sounds of spending your Saturdays doing artsy things, find out more and book your free place by calling 0121 333 4173
This weekend I’m running a two-day course in Birmingham on everything an artist/creative person needs to have set up online. If you’re interested, there are still a couple of tickets left.
I’ll be covering:
- websites
- mailing lists
- social media and social networking
- keeping up to date with news and opportunities
- contacting press/bloggers
It’ll be very hands-on and practical foundation level stuff. The overall message will be ‘if you do nothing else online, at least do this‘
There are still a couple of tickets left if you want to come along but not long until they’re gone (you have til 9pm this evening). Get more info and sign up here.
It’s worth adding that if you’re an organisation/venue/company then I can run this course or similar especially for you. Get in touch here to discuss that.
OxjamBrum is fast approaching, the bands are ready to go, with 12 hours of live music coming from 40 local acts from 2pm onwards on Sat 16 October.
Tickets are only £6 and get you access to all the venues at any time. Advance tickets are on sale until Fri 15 October at midnight, but tickets will also be available on the door. The wristband exchange point on the day will be at The Yardbird, where you can also pick up stage times for all the venues.
Here’s a run down on who’s playing where;
The Yardbird – Doors 2:00pm
Nick Pride and the Pimptones
Frutaloka
Arcadian Kicks
Smileymic
The Bluebeat Arkestra
Alex Moir
Big Black Smoke
Benjamin Blower
The Flapper – Doors 3:30pm
Isolated Atoms
Malpas
Bronze Medals
This Burning Age
The Corsair
Shana Tova
Soni-quella
The Victoria – Doors 4:30pm
Tantrums
Sunset Cinema Club
Cajole Cajole
VS
Tom Peel
Savant
Pandas and People
Island Bar – Doors 4:00pm
(Silver) Souvenirs
Hot Monocles
Lady Fortune
Monster Monster
Death Ohh Eff
Jake Bullit
James Rea
The Prince of Wales – Doors 4:00pm
Scat Cat
Corrie Palmer
Tony Wille
Paul Murphy
Mike Smith
Café Blend – Doors 3:45pm
Vijay Kishore
Poppy Tibbetts
Jodi Ann Bickley
Mellow Peaches
Barnesy
Neil Ward
Michael James Butler
Audiences Central have pulled out a list of the various arts/culture quangos whose fate has been announced today. There’s more detail over there, but here’s the at-a-glance version.
Abolished:
- Design Council (turn into a charity)
- Regional Development Agencies
- Advisory Council on Libraries
- Museums, Libraries and Archives Council (functions transferred)
- The Theatre Trust (continue as charity)
- UK Film Council (functions transferred)
- British Waterways (create new charity à la National Trust)
- Railway Heritage Committee
- NESTA (establish as a charity, endowment to be held in a trust)
- Teachers TV Board of Governors
Retained:
- Arts Council England
- Churches Conservation Trust
- English Heritage
- Historical Royal Palaces
- Various museums and galleries
- National Heritage Memorial Fund/Heritage Lottery Fund
- Reviewing Committee on the Export of Works of Art
- Visit Britain
- Visit England
- Forestry Commission (with big reforms)
- National England (with big reforms)
- National Army Museum/National Museum of the Royal Navy/Royal Air Force Museum
- UK Trade & Industry
- Technology Strategy Board
- British Wool Marketing Board
Under consideration
- Film Industry Training Board (decision Nov)
- Commission for Architecture and the Build Environment (CABE)
With thanks to Dave Harte for picking out a few more relevant organisations to add to the list.
There’s been all sorts of musing about the changes being made but, for local interest, I’ll link to a post on the Silent Solutions blog (UPDATE – that post has been deleted. Ta to Pete for pointing this out and linking to Google’s cache), mainly because it’s opinionated. There are a few inaccuracies and I don’t agree with everything that’s been said, but that’s fine.
I like opinions and I’m usually quite happy to link to them here. Most would agree that discussion is good and healthy, but people often seem to be afraid to talk publicly in anything other than glowing terms. Shame that.
A quick reminder that tonight is PILOT Light, taking place at The Victoria at 7:30pm. An excuse to mingle, have a drink and be entertained by the theatre artists who are unleashing their fresh, unpolished ideas.
It’s number 2. The difficult second book. So we’ve tweaked things a bit. We need you to tell us if it works. As, of course, do the brave artists performing their brand new theatrical ideas on our little stage!
Entrance is only £2.
Birmingham’s festival of queer culture – Shout – is taking place from 4 – 23 November, with a wide range of events happening across the city in exploration and celebration of LBGT communities and individuals.
Visibility and Invisibility are major themes of this year’s festival providing opportunities to increase the visibility of the LGBT community within the city and to make arts and culture a more visible part of our own lives.
But the festival themes also enable us to ask challenging questions about the invisibility of some sections of our own community in particular those who are old, have a disability or are from Black, Asian and minority ethnic backgrounds.
The launch weekend is being held at mac on 4 – 7 November, hosting three theatre performances and a documentary screening. The first night kicks off at 6.30pm in the Terrace Gallery at mac, and will showcase live performances, interventions and the premiere of new work by artist, Qasim Riza Shaheen, which will be proceeded by an 8 week residency.
The festival will continue to present events in visual arts, film, live performance, comedy, artist talks, research and social events. For a full run down of what’s on, take a look at the Shout website, where you can also purchase tickets and find out more about associated artists and venues.
The Birmingham Cycling Campaign, Push Bikes, present ‘Consider Cycling‘. These free presentations will be dedicated to people who would like to get into cycling, but don’t know where to start.
The presentations will offer advice on choosing your bike, the difference between frame sizes, tyres and gears and how to carry out basic checks and adjustments. They will also discuss safe road cycling, ‘Bikeability’ and using road features such as bike lanes and advanced stop lines.
Presentations will take place at Friends of the Earth, 54-57 Allison Street, Digbeth on the following dates;
Thursday 14 October at 1 – 4pm and 7 – 9pm
Thursday 18 November at 1 – 4pm and 7 – 9pm
Thursday 9 December at 1 – 4pm and 7 – 9pm
All visitors will be given a free cycling and walking map of Birmingham. To book your place, contact Graham Hankins at g8emx@tiscali.co.uk or call 0121 707 0420
