About this site
This blog is now run by Chris Unitt. He took over on May 1st 2008. He will no doubt re-write this About page once he’s figured out what he’s going to do with the place but for now what follows still pretty much applies. Give or take.
Last updated December 4th 2007
This is a weblog about the creative community in Birmingham run by me, Pete Ashton. That’s a pretty big remit given the sheer number of musicians, artists, designers, writers and so on working in the city.
The motivation for starting this blog was simply not being able to find out what was going on and a curiosity about who the people are behind it all. There’s a lot of talk about how the creative industries are at the heart of the new regenerated Birmingham and if that’s so it’s necessary not just for the city to know about them but for them to know about each other.
A secondary motivation is to show people inside the community how things like this blog can help them, to move from an array of portfolio websites to engaging in a conversation. I’d like to see a wide network of blogs out there from independent artists to government funded projects and the best way to achieve that is by example.
This blog has been running since January 2007 and continues to evolve. It is currently funded by Creative Republic. Here’s a statement from them:
Creative Republic (West Midlands) Community Interest Company (”Creative Republic”) is a body that has been established to represent and promote the creative and cultural industries in Birmingham and the region.
Creative Republic is a recipient of strategic seed funding from the Arts Council England West Midland’s managed funds and in-kind support from Business Link West Midlands in its start up phase. It is our aim to create a sustainable model for a membership body and we are currently working on this process. Details of this process will shortly be provided on our website.
Created In Birmingham is one of many websites, listings and weblogs created as part of our initial research and outreach. Certain tasks have been sub-contracted, including the role of blog editor. Our monitoring of the statistics show that this blog is a popular and effective way to reach a number of potential partners and members as a pre-cursor to our launch.
The Board of Creative Republic is clear that the value of this site is the independence of its editorial and content, within a brief to reflect, represent and promote the creative and cultural activity of the city and the region. Therefore, the views and opinions expressed on this weblog are those of Pete Ashton, web editor, and not necessarily those of Creative Republic, its board or individual members and supporters.
About Pete
If you want to know all the details you’d better check the About page on my own site.
