somewhereto_ is a nationwide project to help young people find the space they need to do the things they love within sport, culture and the arts.
The coordinator in the West Midlands is a guy called Terence. Get in touch with him if you’re looking for a space to do something or if you’ve got a space to give.
Wandering back down Digbeth High Street after a tour around The Event last weekend, it was good to see that someone’s doing something useful with the run-down car dealerships.
Digbeth is Good has the scoop.
The old IMAX Cinema at Millenium Point isn’t the IMAX any more, it’s gone independent and is now called The Giant Screen. I went along on Tuesday and can confirm they’re not kidding – it’s massive.
Here’s a fantastic picture of the screen itself (I’m available for photography commissions). It’s that big I couldn’t fit it all in. You can’t even see the sides.
Michael Smith looks for the positive in what some consider Europe’s most boring city – Birmingham
Putting the ‘n’ into ‘BBC cuts’.
UPDATE
You can see this episode on iPlayer until 7pm on 4 November. It featured The Event (in particular, Creative Machines, Minimalist Sculpture at Curzon Street Station), Eastside Projects and Project Pigeon and was actually quite complimentary about the fringes of the city (although not the centre, which is probably fair enough).
Ikon‘s Autumn Almanac, from 17-20 November will be:
a four-day celebration of Birmingham’s creative life showcasing the city’s artists, filmmakers and musicians. Ikon’s gallery spaces will exclusively exhibit works created in Birmingham, also hosting some of our best-known music festivals and organisations in a programme of live performances
The list of people involved includes Oliver Beer, Stephen Earl Rogers (below is a painting from his What To Do In An Emergency series of paintings), 7 Inch Cinema, Moseley Folk Festival (presenting Treetop Flyers), Birmingham Contemporary Music Group, Capsule and others. There’s a PDF press release with more info here.
Internationally renowned visual artist and producer Mohammed Ali will bring together the words of Tshaka Campbell, the sounds of percussionist Daniel Waples together with live-spray painted art.
Breaking Down the Wall is on Saturday 12 November at New Art Gallery Walsall and it’s free. It looks a little similar to the Writing on the Wall event at The Rep last year, which was apparently very good.
BAZ are busy at The Event. They’re hosting Love in the Snug (an alternative festival hub) where you can also buy the in-joke stuffed Mills and Koons, which is:
A Brief Introduction to the Saucy Secrets of the Birmingham Art World
I did and can confirm it’s simultaneously amusing and baffling (I’m pretty sure some of it’s flying way over my head). They’re also hosting Curate Me Out on Saturday, 7pm at the Lamp Tavern:
Shamelessly pilfering the format’s of ITV’s Take Me Out and Blind Date, Curate Me Out will see BAZ setting up three curator-artist ‘dates’. This live performance event complete with a professional compere, bright lights and music jingles acts as a post-performance party for all who have attended The Event
The Birmingham Post have a an interview with Chris Poolman (one half of BAZ) about all of this.
In Moseley, Birmingham February 2009, just around the corner from where RoguePlay Theatre is based, a fatal accident involving a 14 year old Brazilian girl happened. This young girl was a good friend of RoguePlay’s Artistic Director, Kim Charnock, and had previously undertaken work experience with the Company.
Following the death of the girl, Kim Charnock, who had written new work for RoguePlay since it’s creation, began to write a new piece entitled ‘Crash’. We would like to produce ‘Crash’ for schools touring to help make our young people aware of what can and has happened on the roads, encouraging them to stay safe.
See the Crowdfunder page for more details and a chance to help.
So I went to the previously-mentioned Birmingham Creative City launch at lunchtime.
I’d still struggle to explain exactly what it is, so here’s some blurb from the council’s press release:
The Creative City initiative will play a significant role by:
- Creating a fund to build on existing public sector funding of the arts through loans, grants, match-funding and investments. The allocation of funds will be based on the potential for job creation and economic growth.
- Outlining the vision for a new ‘museum quarter’, including a new museum of photography and the development of a new contemporary art gallery.
- Exploring ways to unlock private sector and philanthropic support for culture, linking cultural development to wider economic growth.
So this was really the launch of an idea. In the way that Manchester has Media City and London has Tech City, Birmingham (if it wants it) could claim the title of Creative City.
Thing is, the designations of those other two seem to have been built on much stronger foundations (a strong BBC presence and an already burgeoning tech scene, respectively). All we seem to have at the moment is ideas, visions (like this one for a Museum Quarter), pledges and plans with comparatively little substance. Maybe’s it’s just early days, but if the intention of this event was to make people excited about the possibilities on offer then I don’t think it worked.
Maybe the more substantial conversations are all taking place behind closed doors this afternoon – but then I got the sense from others that therein lies the problem. Chatting to people afterwards actually left me kinda depressed by it all.
Personally, I’m not sure what to make of it and I’m pretty busy, so here’s the audio from the speeches that were made. Please have a listen (they’re all quite short) and I’d love to hear what you make of this in the comments below.
In typical Peter O’Hanra-Hanrahan style, I managed to miss the bit where James Yarker from Stan’s Cafe thanked Cllr Timothy Huxtable for name-checking his theatre company but asked him how he squared that with the council cutting their funding by 100%. The response is in the final audio clip above (although it does make for uncomfortable listening).
On the subject
It would be hugely remiss of me not to point out this rather angry post by Pete Ashton, many of the sentiments of which I would endorse.
A couple more links
In no particular order…
Getting to wander around Curzon Street Station (although there’s some good stuff in there, I have to admit I was excited enough about the building itself), finally making it over to The Lombard Method, Simon Faithfull’s window piece at Grand Union, meeting the guys behind BAZ (and Athletico Tortured Artists), Crowd 6‘s exhibition and all sorts of other bits and pieces.
Not that it was all my cup of tea, necessarily, but then that’s all part of the fun too. Charlie Levine’s written a post of her own about what’s going on – she’s got pictures.
The Event is on until 30 October. If you don’t know your way round (and even if you do) it’s worth joining one of the guided tours.
I hadn’t been paying much attention, but there’s now a website for the Birmingham Ballroom and a growing line-up of events. It seems, and I don’t know whether it’s just because it’s early days, that a few people are taking the chance to delve into the venue’s history. A case in point being Hummingbird Reunion:
If you can’t read it, the flyer says:
For many people in Birmingham and the Midlance, The Hummingbird was their first taste of House clubbing. The memories (or lack of) have stayed with them to this very day.
Beginning in the summer of 88, a night called hipnosiz had the city rocking in hte small room of the venue every week, to the sound of house music. Following on in 89, The Snapper Club started in that same room with 100 clubbers, that by the end year moved to the main concert room and turned into 3000+ clubbers every single week as house music exploded nationwide!
After Supersonic there’s often someone from out of town who goes home and blogs about their experiences, not just of the festival, but of their journeys around the rest of the city. I think my favourite was the Portuguese a few years back. This year it seems to be Alice on her blog, Quaint Living:
During the day we continued our exploration of Birmingham where we had left off last time. This time we visited the Museum of the Jewellery Quarter, the Back to Backs, Ikon gallery, the Cathedral, St Paul’s Gallery, as well as general visiting of record shops and so on.
As a bonus, there are some lovely photos too.
Birmingham Music Network had a letter (PDF) from the office of Councillor Philip Parkin (Chairman, Leisure, Sport and Culture Overview and Scrutiny Committee). It’s easiest to copy and paste this bit:
The Leisure, Sport and Culture Overview and Scrutiny Committee is undertaking a review of the role of popular music in improving perceptions of Birmingham. One of the drivers for this work is the recent report from UK Music on music tourism and its value to local economies (Destination Music).
The Committee is keen to understand how Birmingham, and in particular the City Council, can better support the city’s music heritage and current industry to attract visitors to the city and improve quality of life for residents.
The Committee intends to explore how to take forward work already completed, in particular around how those involved in creating, promoting music are brought together in Birmingham and what could and should the City Council be doing to support this.
There are a bunch of questions being asked – follow this link for those, some more info and some extra docs.
Sparrow + Castice are:
a Birmingham (UK) based arts duo working collaboratively and hilariously. Mostly collaboratively.
They’ve got a Tumblr with some vids and slogan-y posters. Of their films, I’d seen The Abridged Antiques Roadshow before but not twigged it was by anyone from around here.
