Created in Birmingham

Well, I invited, you came, I spoke, we discussed and by the end of it we had a plan. It was a quite intense evening and we covered a lot of ground which I’m going to attempt to sumarise here.

In short, though, the room decided to go for it, to form a committee / steering group and to meet next week with the intention of opening a second Created in Birmingham shop in the city centre around November.

I opened with a 15 minute presentation about the Bullring shop. Here’s the video:

My aim here was to explain what happened, communicate some facts and figures but mostly set the tone for the evening. Yes, the shop was a good thing, yes Birmingham needs something like this and it should happen again. But I’m not going to do it myself. Someone or some group need to make it happen.

Must say I’m rather pleased with my rousing finale at 13:00. Made up on the spot, that was. Anyway…

My notes are sketchy but it probably doesn’t matter. The important details of what will happen will be figured out in the next week or so. What matters is the general picture that came out of the room.

• The first decision was that paying rent was a no-go. In order to pay the estimated £80 – £250,000 a year for a good city centre location we’d need to seriously compromise how we did business. So we’re looking for other options.
• It was suggested that property landlords would be interested in giving free rent for 3 months to interesting ventures such as this. It might be possible to hop around the city for a year or so in this manner, at least until the recession ends and landlords can fill their units again. Further to this the notion of an always moving, always changing shop appealed as long as loss of customers could be mitigated.
• A tentative model of a series of sequential popup shops in good locations supported by a hub (either a lockup or cheap shop in suburbs) and website was generally seen as the best option.
• At the very least the room saw it as essential that something was open in the city centre this Christmas so as not to lose momentum and, of course, to make money to support the project.

We then moved on to the organisation structure. This was the critical part for me. It didn’t really matter what we were going to do – what mattered was who was going to do it. We agreed that some kind of committee or steering group should be formed. But it was also agreed that co-ops, while nice, are fragile and some sort of benevolent dictatorship would be needed.

After a couple of hours I brought the general meeting to a close and asked anyone who would like to be part of a committee to stay behind. 13 people stayed with various skills and such. Some were pertinent for getting a shop up and running, some were more useful for once we have a shop. I’m going to concentrate on the former for now. After I’ve gone through what we’ve currently got I’ll explain what happens next.

We only took first names so I’m guessing at surnames using Eventbrite – they may be wrong!

• James Thomson: Sits on various arts committees. Can help with organisational structure. Likes data analysis.
• Alison from People Shop: Has run People Shop for 10 years. Nuff said.
• Jeff Stuka: Works in marketing. Has planning and business experience. Was very vocal about need for business plan.
• Andrea Daniels: Business analysis and retail experience. (Also interested in managing shop but that’s for later.)
• Jamie Roberts and Alex Church: Work in commercial property sector. I repeat, work in commercial property sector. Can help with securing pop-up shop locations and liasing with property owners. Also have contacts in industry eg shot fittings, etc.

Those six had what I’m calling the hard skills needed to find a shop and get it off the ground. Others volunteering for the committee were Kathryn Rushe (whose minutes I’m relying on right now), Simon Gray, Steve Cooper, Karen Cameron, Matt Murtagh and Dennis McNulty. They either offered skills more suitable for later stages or that essential outsider perspective. Essentially they’re willing and able to commit.

And then there’s me. I’m taking charge here but only for the transition. I need to be able to walk away from this project if needbe.

So, what next?

The urgent thing, from my perspective, is that we have a strong and viable core committee to get us a shop in November. While the six people above are better that I could possibly have hoped for there’s still room for more and I know some very interesting people weren’t able to make it on Monday.

Also a benevolent dictator hasn’t emerged yet. We really need a benevolent dictator.

The next meeting will be sometime next week (I’m going to run a Doodle poll to see when most people are free). If you think you’re like to be in this core committee please email me with details of what skills, contacts or other things you’ve got.

Right now I’m not interested in people who can offer time or enthusiasm or who can help build and run the shop. I’m interested in people who can make the shop happen. Level-headed business-minded types. The rest of you will be essential but your role comes later.

Please get in touch.

And if you have any thoughts about this, whether you were at the meeting or not, please use the comments below or, like Simon did, write something on your own blog.

Thank you all for your time, your energy, your thoughts and ultimately your support.

Headline: Public meeting about the CiBshop – Monday 26th July, 7pm, The Victoria. Register here.

Hello, this is Pete with one of my occasional retail-related posts on the CiB blog.

It’s been 6 weeks since the Created in Birmingham shop closed. Since then I’ve had some time off to recover and have started thinking about beginning the process of commencing planning for the second shop, tentatively scheduled for late September.

From this you may infer a hint of uncertainly, a reticence almost, so I’ll cut to the chase.

• I think there’s a good case for there to be another CiB Shop.
• I don’t feel capable of doing a large swathe of the things necessary to get to that stage.
• And, if I’m honest, I’m not sure I want to own and run a shop in the long term.

Developing this further:

• The CiB Shop, at it’s zenith, was powered by the community. Without diminishing the time, effort and investment we put into the shop we couldn’t have done it without the incredible support of our suppliers, customers and supporters across the city. The challenge for me was shepherding this torrent.
• Since closing there’s been a huge desire for the shop to happen again. Barely a day goes by without someone asking when it’s going to to open.

I had a meeting last week with the Economic Development bod at the Council. It was a useful, if sobering, meeting but one thing stuck in my head and wouldn’t go away.

• If the community wants this to happen they should invest in it.

That doesn’t necessarily mean a financial investment. But it does mean a constructive investment in making the shop happen and ensuring it’s sustainability.

Maybe I’m suggesting a co-op or collective model, coupled with the benevolent dictatorship necessary to get a bunch of arty types functioning together. But whatever the method I think we need to go in mob handed.

I’ve booked the upstairs of The Victoria on Monday 26th July. The meeting will start at 7.00pm to allow folk to travel in. I’ll start with a short presentation covering what we’ve got and what the current options are and then chair a big discussion. With any luck there’ll be people in the room who are good at the things I’m rubbish at and who want to do the things I don’t. And then we can have a shop.

Please register on the Eventbrite page so I have an idea of numbers and so I can stay in touch after the event.

Hopefully we’ll see you there but if you can’t make it we’ll be recording what’s said for popping it on the blog for time/space-shifted debate.

When we opened the Created in Brum shop in February we had a little launch party, as you do. Many people turned up and all was lovely and good. The only thing is the shop was pretty empty. It was sort of like meeting someone’s baby and expecting it to act like a precocious nine year old.

Three months on and the shop is definitely at the precocious nine year old stage. Chock full of goodies and feeling, as many have opined, “like a proper shop”. So before we close it we’d like to show it off one last time.

Saturday 22nd is our penultimate trading day. If you write off Sunday (as most intelligent people do) it’ll be your last chance to buy something in a shop with Created in Birmingham on the front for a few months.

From 6pm to 8pm we’ll be having an un-launch party. There’ll be a DJ playing some nice tunes and a table full of paper cups. Since we don’t have a budget for such things we’re asking that you Bring Your Own Booze. Or just have an orange juice.

And then we ask that you buy stuff.

Here’s the Facebook event page.

(Thanks to weekender staff “other” Aaron and Charlotte for sorting this out)

Headlines:

• The Created in Birmingham Bullring shop will cease trading on Sunday May 23rd.
• The market stalls at the front will continue until Saturday 29th.
• Volunteers needed to empty the shop.
• We will have a closing party of some sort on Saturday 29th.
• We’ll take a couple of months off over the summer to regroup and then maybe re-open in the Autumn.

The Details

The CiB Shop has, it seems, been a rather successful thing. So far we’ve sold about £30,000 worth of art by local people of which £22,500 has gone into their pockets.

The shop started as a fun idea but very quickly turned into something more serious and complex. It’d become apparent that this has the potential to be a viable business and and important service for the city.

We’ve let the shop evolve, reacting to what people give us to sell and what people buy, which was a good thing. But in doing so the systems we put in place to run the shop have struggled to cope with the increased volume.

On the whole we’ve been playing catchup with a shop that has taken on a life of its own. This is exciting and wonderful to watch unfold but it’s also exhausting and not sustainable in the long term.

Our current shop unit in the Bullring will be going to a paying tenant soon so we have to move out. This was always part of the deal and we’re grateful we were able to have such a fantastic spot for three months, so please don’t blame Bullring for the shop ending. Their support, not to mention incredibly hands-off approach letting us do pretty much whatever we wanted, has been invaluable.

Once we’re closed and out of the Bullring we’re going to take a few months to relax, reflect and regroup. It’s clear there’s a need for a shop in the city centre run on the CiB model, but it’s also clear it can’t be run in the way we’ve been running it. We need to figure out a long term strategy and we need some time and space to do that. Many many people have offered help and advice but we haven’t been able to act on any of it because of the shop itself. (Hell, in order to write this I’ve had to hide upstairs at the back of the stock room.)

If, and only if, we can learn from this experience and figure out a plan that prevents insanity, we’ll open another Created in Birmingham shop somewhere in the city centre in the autumn.

The next few weeks

We will continue trading as normal until Sunday May 23rd. If you’re already supplying us with stuff you’re welcome to restock for those two weeks. If you’re not then I’m sorry but we can’t take anything else. And if you’ve emailed in the last couple of weeks I’m doubly sorry I haven’t been able to get back to you. Our inability to keep on top of emails is one of the main reasons for closing for the summer.

On Monday 24th we will block off 3/4 of the shop leaving the front open for market stalls. These will be trading from Monday through Saturday 29th. Details on how to rent those stalls will follow soon.

In the rear of the shop we’ll be doing a stocktake of everything. For this we will need volunteers! Yes, I’ve finally got something for all those who want to help out to do. If you’d like to help please email createdinbirmingham@gmail.com with ‘Volunteer’ in the subject so we know you’re coming and turn up at the shop on Monday 24th from 11am.

During that week artists need to pick up any unsold work and cash for sold work. We’ll be contacting the artists with more information but I’m hoping we’ll be able to start this process by Tuesday.

And then, on Saturday 29th, we’ll have a little party. Probably starting in the shop and then moving elsewhere.

That’s everything I think. Any questions?

Yesterday we had Shady Bard playing in the Created in Birmingham shop. Here’s 26 minutes of their set (before the batteries in my camera ran out…)

Matt Murtagh was on hand with his camera.

Thanks loads to Shady Bard for turning our shop into a venue for an hour.

Two installations were installed at the CiB Shop yesterday. First off the Art Detection Services set up their workshop and offices in our Strange Little Room At The Back. Here’s head Art Detector Matt Moore hard at work.

Matt will be scanning Art that is brought in to test whether it is Good or not. If it is Good it’ll go on the walls as part of the Good Art Gallery.

The not-very-Private View of the gallery will be on Friday 23 April at 6pm. Go follow on Facebook to keep in the loop.

(The upstarts at More Canals scooped us on this with a feature on the Agency. What can I say, some of us have a shop to run.)

Later on that afternoon the costumes that had been haunting our stock room somehow made their way into the upstairs gallery.

These are costumes and props from the Birmingham Royal Ballet that were created in Birmingham and are on the road as part of their 20th birthday shenanigans. Explanatory documentation to make this clear will be following shortly. Meanwhile the headless people are watching you shop…

The other day Chris did a brief update on some of the events coming up at the Created in Birmingham shop in the Bullring. That just scratched the surface. Here’s the rundown of what’s currently booked for the rest of month (with apologies to RussL)

Matt Moore will be building Art Detectors in our strange little room for a few weeks and using the space to display that which his machines say is worthy. Here’s a rather silly video which took me by surprise as he seemed so serious when describing it to me.

Matt’s residency (for it is a residency, in that he’ll be resident) will begin with him moving his workshop from his shed to the shop and end with a viewing of the “Gallery of Good Art” submitted by you, yes you, the public. Or it might be something else.

Around the same time we’re hoping to have an exhibition of Birmingham Royal Ballet props and costumes in our upstairs windows. They’re currently haunting the stock room before being used elsewhere so it makes sense to show them off.

Stitches and Hos are in this weekend. Here’s the poster:

The plan, I believe, is to stitch the phrase “Created in Birmingham” in foot-high letters which will be hung along a 10 metre stretch of the shop. To participate simply grab some wool and stitch a stretch which will be subsumed into the whole. DJs for the weekend include Commercially Inviable Records, Fox, Catweasel, Kings Heath Radiophonic Workshop and Heat and Light DJ’s. But it’s not just DJs and cake…

Shady Bard are doing an acoustic set on Saturday 10th from 3-5pm. Here’s them playing Supersonic in 2007:

If you’re a fan of Teh Bard we have the random detritus of their cupboards on sale – badges, CDs, tour flyers and a t-shirt. Yup, just the one.

On Saturday 17th Dave Springer from Inkwell will be running a screenprinting workshop from 11am-5pm. This will involve hands-on screen printing onto t-shirts and you can bring your own shirts. None of your vinyl or heat-transfer malarkey – this will be the real thing.

Immediately after that Rich Batsford will be playing piano for a couple of hours to see us out, specifically tracks from his album Valentine Court which, naturally, is on sale in the shop. Should be the perfect end to a busy Saturday in retail. Here’s Rich doing his thing:

On Sunday 18th Friends of the Earth are running a Swap Shop. I’m not sure exactly how this will work but I guess the idea is you bring stuff you don’t need and take stuff you do. If anyone brings shop fittings, tables and other stuff we need I’m sure the shop will donate some goodies to the pot. (Cheaper than going to IKEA, that’s for sure). More info on this as we get it but here’s a post on the FOE site to keep you going.

Tuesday 20th at 6.30 sees the first meeting of Project Brutal which aims “to create a series of events … that celebrates and captures Birmingham’s Brutal Central Library before it potentially becomes a pile of rubble.”

As we move towards the end of the month it’s getting a little sketchy. I have Blue Whale Studios organising acoustic gigs on Saturday 24th, which I’m guessing will mean people singing with guitars during the day. And then there’s Meet the Artists on Sunday 25th which is something Aaron Andrews (who works Monday – Thursday) is organising on the condition I don’t have anything to do with it. I’ll let him write something about it in his own time.

And that’s about it so far. Remember, the space is there to be used by interesting people doing interesting things. None of the above people have paid for the space. We just ask that they keep the volume reasonable, don’t get in the way of the customers and potentially bring new people into the shop. If you’d like to use the space for something, be it a meet-up or a gig, pop in and have a chat.

The Created in Birmingham shop in the Bullring has been open for a little over two weeks now and we’re starting to get a better sense of what sort of a monster we’ve created. Right now we need more stock to replace the stuff we’ve sold. Detailed guidance is here.

If you came to the launch on Feb 25th you really need to come back and see the shop now it’s full and buzzing. Here’s a video I shot on Saturday afternoon during a relatively quiet period.

I know a lot of you have been helping to spread the word about the shop which is great as we’re getting all sorts of people coming in. Thank you so much for this and keep it up!

For more updates on the shop, keep tabs on its dedicated blog (which we will update more, honest.)