Created in Birmingham

Pete found this:

I had no idea what it meant or where it had come from, so I had a little look around. The Cultural Learning Alliance came up with the goods:

Since 2006, strategic partners in Birmingham have been working together to develop A Creative Future, a strategy for children and young people (0-19 years) and the arts. The aim of the strategy is to increase access to the arts, raise the quality of arts activities and recognise the achievements of children and young people in the arts.

‘Strategic partners’ isn’t expanded upon, but Birmingham City Council seem to be leading on things and the pic on the CLA’s website is attributed to Craftspace.

To explain the diagram above:

The Birmingham model for cultural entitlement illustrates how the Creative Future roles overlap (see Venn diagram). The vertical axis shows how we would like to see young people progress through from first-time experiences to independent engagement, and on the horizontal axis how they develop skills and understanding from basic to advanced

I also found an interview with Val Birchall, head of BCC Arts Team, about one of the projects that came as a result of the strategy.

So there you go.

Throughout the week of 22 – 27 March 2011, Birmingham will be treated to an eclectic programme of film and performance from Flatpack Festival and Fierce Festival, who’ve announced that they’ll be sharing dates next year.

Flatpack’s fifth festival will celebrate and take film to unexpected places; where new film fraternises with silent cinema and archives are re-imagined. Expect live soundtracks, workshops, installations, offbeat family screenings and a vintage mobile cinema which will roam across the city.

Fierce Festival returns after two years and the appointment of new Artistic Directors Laura McDermott and Harun Morrison.  True to tradition, spectacular projects and public interventions will collide with the kind of agenda setting performances and wild parties on which the festival’s ten-year reputation rests.

The full line up for each of the festivals is expected in February 2011, so keep an eye on their websites over the next few months, www.flatpackfestival.org / www.wearefierce.org

Our weekly jobs and opportunities digest, powered by Jobplot – a creative talent, jobs and opportunities board for the West Mids.

Jobs:

• Creative media trainer, Playwright Media
• Outdoor Creative Practitioner, Bright Space
• Outdoor Creative Practitioner, Bright Space
• Outdoor and Drama/Story-Telling Creatives, Bright Space
• Sculptor or Artist, Bright Space
• Project Co-ordinator – Birmingham Contemporary Art Forum, Bright Space

Opportunities:

• Creative stall holder, Tiger Bam House

If you’re a film maker, photographer, artist, sound engineer, web designer, writer, radio presenter, arts organisation or whatever then get yourself listed on Jobplot.

I went to a meeting earlier that was broadly to do with how arts organisations can share resources and collaborate. One of the case studies looked at how sampad and mac work together in various ways.

One of the things from their presentation that set pens scribbling was the idea of shared office space, the benefits that have come as a result and the plans to develop it a bit more.

Sounds like a good idea to me. I share an office with Substrakt (actually, it’s their office) and Podnosh and there’s a steady turnover of various freelancers who have come and gone over the past couple of years including Kate Beatty, Chris Bates and Pete Ashton. Currently we have Caroline Beavon and Daniel Davies in here. It’s been really useful to share space with film makers, photographers, web developers, designers and others.

So yes, good idea.

A couple of options

If you’ve got a spare desk and you like the idea of making that available to someone (for free or not) then:

• List it on DesksNear.Me, a lovely new service that’s been set up for just this sort of thing. There’s nowhere listed in the Birmingham area yet
• Put it on Jobplot. Get a profile on the site (it’s free) then add your available desk space to the Opportunities board

DesksNear.Me is open to everyone, Jobplot is aimed at creative companies and individuals.

Other options

There are of course plenty of places where you can rent desk/office space around the city (cow-orking spaces, serviced offices, etc) and a few others where, for the price of a few coffees, you can get all the wifi you can eat.

Ed Vaizey announced what his department’s doing with the British film industry earlier today. Since announcing the demise of the UK Film Council things have been a bit up in the air. Some of those things are still up there, but we know a bit more now. You can read the full official announcement from DCMS here.

On a local level, and in short, the regional screen agencies (including Screen WM locally) are being ‘recalibrated’ into three hubs; Creative North, Creative Central and Creative South. Creative England will be the overarching organisation.

And I, for one, welcome our new film overlords.

More information will be coming in the new year but in the meantime here’s some explanation/more intelligent comment:

• From Screen WM – Statement from Screen England in response to Ed Vaizey’s announcement of proposals to form Creative England
• Birmingham Post – Screen WM faces major overhaul as merger plan is announced
• Producers’ Forum’s cautious response

• Area 15 December/January
  Hot off the presses
• Culture Vulture West Midlands’s Blog | Pecking at the culture carrion of the West Midlands
  Arts/culture blog for the West Mids
• Home of the Autumn Store Blog » Blog Archive » Autumn Store 5th Birthday All Dayer!
  “in January 2011 we’ll be FIVE YEARS OLD! And we’re planning an action packed all-dayer with BANDS, ZINES, DANCING, SUGARY FOOD STUFF, DINOSAURS, and hopefully COMMUNITY”. And check the comments for a Spotify playlist featuring (most of) the songs played at the very first night
• Call for Performing Artists Working in South Asian Arts at Sampad
  “Would you like to participate in a research project with sampad?” Well, would you?
• YouTube – Supersonic 2010 in 90seconds
  Contains less beards than you might expect. Plenty of black T-shirts though
• ***no awkward barz on the walk of stars*** | The Streets
  Warning: features Mike Skinner in the bath
• We Are Fierce» Blog Archive » Platinum 2
  “We are pleased to announce that we are looking for a new set of Platinum Artists for 2010 – 2011″
• Birmingham Printmakers
  “Set up in 1982, Birmingham Printmakers has a large well-lit workshop in Digbeth. It is available to all artists, specialist and non-specialist printmakers. We have 34 members and a voluntary committee of twelve, which runs the general day to day business.” They have a blog too – hadn’t spotted that before

Celebrating a a year of craftism, Craftspace are holding a free day of crafty activities on Saturday 4 December in the Gallery at The Custard Factory from 1 – 5pm.

Activites include pin badge making, t-shirt printing, sweet graffti, DIY gaming, giant drawing with pins and a few festive activities including pom pom snow balls and greeting card printing.

The day is aimed at 16-25 year olds, so you get stuck into craft making without feeling you should be there with a child, plus there’s free lunches if you take a copy of this flyer.

Ikon Eastside will be closing their doors for winter and bidding a ‘blonde farewell’ on 3 December.

Starting at 8pm, they’re inviting you to party with them into the evening, taking inspiration from their final exhibition of 2010, AVPD’s Hitchcock Hallway, with the optional dress code of a blonde or white wig.

Alfred Hitchcock is renowned for films featuring blonde leading women such as Grace Kelly, Kim Novak and Tippi Hedren. Music, light and atmosphere all play with notions of mistaken identity and voyeurism.

The final Filmrats of 2010 is tomorrow evening from 8pm at The Victoria. Join them for an evening of short films and live music at just £2 in.

This scrapbook, cut & stick style poster was also designed by illustrator Hayley Warham, which is rather cool.

Tate Movie Project will be stopping over at the Ikon on 2 & 3 December, joined by Wallace and Gromit creators, Aardman Animations, who’ll be giving pupils from Birmingham schools the chance to create an animation film by and for children to be broadcast on Blue Peter.

Pupils from St John’s CE Primary, St Catherine of Siena Catholic Primary, St George’s CE Primary and Woodview Primary, will have the opportunity to take part in the workshops, inspired by Ikon’s current Len Lye exhibition.

The results will be available to view on www.tatemovie.co.uk, where 5-13 year olds will be free to explore animation, scripting, editing and sound effects.

Just a quick one to tell you about some more Christmas fairs going on over the next few weekends. Since I’ve already mentioned a few, I may as well be consistent. Plus, I like the decorative flyers.

THE SoURCE are hosting their eco gift fair at Moseley Exchange tomorrow from 10am – 4pm. Entry is free and they’ll also have a cafe area and home baked cakes, see the full list of stallholders on their blog.

The Barber Institute‘s Christmas Craft Fair is next weekend, 4 December from 11am – 4pm. Along with the usual array of gifts and artwork, they’ll also be holding a free family crafts workshop, making cards and decorations, plus Christmas storytelling throughout the day.

Light House are holding their renowned Festive Flair on 11 December from 11am – 4pm. Take a look round the selection of local talent selling their work and gifts, with a glass of mulled wine and a mince pie. Entrance to this is also free.

Also in association with Festive Flair on the same day, is the Queen Vic Designer Maker Festive Fair at Wolverhampton Arts Gallery. Kids will have the chance to meet Santa, plus there’s storytelling, free family craft activities and a local choir performance throughout the day.

We’ve acquired a nice little pile of booklets and mini publications on the CiB desk which we’ve been meaning to mention, so thought we’d just post them all up together.

First is Ammo Magazine. This cute and colourful little thing is packed with illustration and designer/ artist interviews.

Ammo also accepts submissions, so if you think your work would fit in on the pages of this small but perfectly formed publication, take a look at their submissions page.

This book from Creative Birmingham profiles the 30 shortlisted nominations and 6 winners from the Invisible City Awards. Categories included ‘Things that made me think’, ‘Things that made me smile’, ‘Things that taught me something’, ‘Things that make me proud’, ‘Business things’, and ‘Cultural things’.

Created in Birmingham was up for ‘Things that make me proud’, which is nice, but unfortunately we lost out to Tomorrow People.

This publication for Hello Digital retells ‘stories from a digital city’, with plenty of glossy photos of Birmingham – current and future – along with articles from a range of industry specialists and experts.

This tasteful and nicely designed programme is from the 2010 Supersonic Festival, featuring all the events, activities and artists who performed across the weekend.

While we’re on the topic of festivals, The Independent Festivals Group launched a publication earlier this month, celebrating the cultural value of Birmingham’s independent festivals.

Included in the group are Bass Festival, Birmingham Book Festival, Birmingham International Jazz and Blues Festival, Fierce Festival, Flatpack Festival, Rhubarb Rhubarb and Supersonic Festival.

This publication can be downloaded for free here, and makes for quite an interesting read – Redefining Culture – Birmingham’s Independent Festivals

The New Art Gallery Walsall will be hosting their second Artists’ Book and Independent Publishing Fair from 11am – 4pm on 27 November.

On sale will be books, zines, and multiples by artists and independent publishers across the UK and Europe, including: Books Works, Marbled Reams, Dent-De-Leone, EAK Publishing, Four Corners Books, Stephen Fowler, Simon Goode, Jatinder Kaur Bains, Variant, Wild Pansy Press, Carson & Miller, Alex Pritchard, Karoline Rerrie, Books About Nothing, Antepress, Basement Art Projects, Gandt, Trigger Editions, and colleges from around the UK.

They’ll also have a few other activities going on throughout the day, including a drop-in book making and binding adult workshop from 11am to 3pm with Guy Begbie and a talk on an exhibition of artists’ books, The Cover of a Book is the Beginning of a Journey at 2pm.

Artists-in-residence a.a.s. will also be contributing by constructing new ‘performance scores’ from the exhibition material which they will perform with the help of visitors on the day. To get involved, drop into the artist studio or contact mailto:aas@aasgroup.net

The fair is free entry and will be held in the art library.

Another Christmas fair to add to the calender, hosted by Tiger Bam at Margaret St. School of Art, on 5 December.

They’re currently on the hunt for interesting and creative stallholders, from vintage wear to photographers to poets, if you have a craft to sell or talent to show off, send them an email at tigerbam@hotmail.com. £5 will get you a stall for the day, which is 12 noon – 8pm.

Simon Goode will be holding this one-day, non-adhesive binding workshop on 11 December at Birmingham Printmakers.

He’ll be giving an introduction to Japanese stab binding, and Coptic binding techniques, along with how they can be adapted for individual uses, such as holding prints and developing into artists’ books.

The day costs £45 / £40 for members of Birmingham Printmakers and students. To book a place, email Simon Goode, or call him on 07734652438