Gaynor Arnold has been nominated for the Booker Prize longlist for her book ‘Girl in a Blue Dress’ which will be released by Tindal Street Press in November.
This sort of thing’s getting to be old hat for Tindal Street Press, who had Catherine O’Flynn’s ‘What Was Lost’ longlisted last year. Gaynor Arnold, on the other hand, has spent the past 40 years or so working as a social worker in Birmingham and took five years to write the novel.
Of course you may already be aware of all this – the Birmingham Post picked up on it first and the Custard Factory blog and BiNS both mentioned it. Also, The Times have a short interview with Gaynor and the Guardian have also run a rather flattering piece entitled ‘Why Birmingham rules the literary roost‘.
The Birmingham Post Power 50 (tremble at their might!) has just been announced. With last year’s list having an impressive showing from the arts world, interest at CiB could almost have been described as ‘mild’.
Ok, so it’s easy to be cynical about these things (and it’s open season on the Birmingham Post site – all the winners’ profiles are commentable), but there’s little sense in detracting from the recognition given to the following folks who work hard on the city’s arts & culture scene.
So, from CiB (hating the game, not the playa since 2007) hearty congrats go to:
While I’m at it, the Birmingham meeja luminaries who would like to thank their friends, family, deity of choice, etc and so on are:
The big list of movers and shakers is on the Birmingham Post website which, like I say, they’ve made an effort to do all nice so you can comment on how brilliant and deserving everyone is.
But feel free to vent your spleen in the comments here if you feel the need.
Some of this might not be hugely relevant/interesting to most but hopefully it’ll be useful to someone out there. Interestingness will be resumed shortly.
Arts & Business Awards
“Nominations are now open for the 30th Arts & Business Awards, designed to celebrate excellence in the field of arts and business partnerships and sponsorships”
Deadline for nominations is 30 May. Further information might be on their website but, frankly, if they want to deliberately hide it away I’m not going to look for it.
Open 08 West Midands
“Open is a biennial collaboration between Birmingham Museum & Art Gallery and Wolverhampton Art Gallery, celebrating the vibrant talent of the art scene in the West Midlands and allowing regional artists the chance to show their work at these prestigious venues.”
The deadline is 28 May 2008. Follow the link for application packs and further details.
Short Cuts Film submissions for ArtsFest
D’log reports that the Short Cuts Film programmers are seeking submissions but warns that the deadline for seeing and agreeing films is tight. I’ve not found any further useful information on this but D’log has the contact details so I’d start there if you’re interested. (Via D’log).
BSCI grant funding suspended
The budgets for Birmingham City Council’s feasibility and creative space grants is now fully committed. If this affects you, or you’d not heard of these grants and are interested then bookmark this page and check back in June. Appreciative nod to Simon Gray.
Changes to Grants for the Arts
From 20 May 2008 several changes to the programme run by Arts Council England will come into effect. Further info on the Arts Council England website. (Via Audiences Central News).
If you’re under 30 and doing creative stuff go enter for the 4Talent awards. You’ve got until August so no big rush. Birmingham connection? They’re run by the 4Talent team at Maverick.
Caption: “Aliya Vaughan, Muslim Writer of the Year 2008, look in awe at the guest of honour Jermaine Jackson as he presents her with her Award. In the background stand the judges who reviewed the 10,000 entries that were received. Aliya is aged 37 and hails from Brixton in South London.”
The Muslim Writer of the Year 2008 awards ceremony took place on Saturday at the ICC, presented by none other than Jermaine Jackson. West Midlands winners were former Guantanamo detainee Moazzem Beg (Published Writer) and Kashif Choudry (Short Story)
Annoyingly the press release I was sent isn’t on the awards site or the council’s page so I’ve popped it online here.
John Akomfrah, whose 1986 directorial debut was Handsworth Songs about the fallout from the riots in Birmingham, collected his OBE last week for services to film. From the press release sent in by Pogus Caesar (who owns the photo above):
A founding member of the Black Audio Film Collective (1982-98), the legendary Black British film group, Akomfrah work has proved immensely influential on the evolution of black filmmaking in Britain and the USA, opening the way for many young black and Asian film makers to enter the film and television industries.
In 1987, Akomfrah won the coveted Grierson Award with his first film, the independently produced Handsworth Songs. Hailed as one of the most influential documentaries ever made and it garnered a range of International Awards. Handsworth Songs was also one of the first documentaries to be successfully released in British cinemas.
John is also a multi-award winning director with over twenty international film awards for his wide range of feature films, factual, programmes, documentaries and shorts covering a variety of musical icons such as Louis Armstrong, Goldie, Stan Tracey, Lauryn Hill. His films have also looked at inspirational black figures such as Martin Luther King , Kwame Nkrumah and Malcolm X.
John Akomfrah recently finished serving a six year term on the Governing Board of the British Film Institute; he is currently on the of Boards of both Film London and the London International Film School. He is also a Visiting Professor of Film at the University Of Westminster.
John saw a full retrospective of his work with the Black Audio Film Collective open at Foundation for Creative Technologies in Liverpool in February 2007. Designed by acclaimed architect and designer David Adjaye – architect of the new Nobel Prize Centre in Oslo – the Retrospective encompassed all the feature films and documentaries made by the collective screened in a specially designed gallery setting. The show received rave reviews in The Guardian and Frieze Magazine.
Some interesting fashion related stuff is establishing itself in Millennium Point right now with Matthew Boulton College‘s Feed Studio hosting the finals of the PIN competition. From the press release:
Matthew Boulton College celebrated the launch of their two brand new specialist design studios, ‘FEED Studio’ and ‘Fashion Lab’ situated at Millennium Point with a showcase of talent, and the opportunity for two new young designers to win £20k between them. The launch took place within the Millennium Point Hub on Thursday 21st February.
‘PIN’ is a groundbreaking collaboration between Matthew Boulton College and Midland Fashion Showcase. The aim is to profile the fashion talent of the West Midlands via a fashion competition. The final of the ‘PIN’ competition culminated on the night with 12 finalists going head-to-head on the runway, presenting their Spring/Summer 2008 collections. A panel of six judges from within the fashion industry chose the two winners from the two categories, Jenny Hardcastle from Solihull, Birmingham won the New Designer award and Shamrez Marawat from Moseley, Birmingham won the Young Business award. Each winner received £10k to develop their business.
Jenny Hardcastle believes she is more than a designer and a dressmaker…she is a sculptor of fabric. Jenny presented her collection Timeless at the event. Her feminine silhouettes evoke thoughts of Grecian romance and 1930′s elegance, which combine to create shapes that will last forever and become what can only be described as….Timeless. Jenny was overwhelmed stating ‘This means everything to me – it’s the start of a new life and a new career’. For more information about the collection visit www.timelessbyjenny.co.uk
Shamrez Marawat presented Balian, a menswear brand that utilises avant-garde sportswear tailoring techniques with subtle military influences. His collection was inspired by the philosophy of the ‘tension of opposites’ which in this case is war vs. nature and is displayed by using military cuts and muted colours. Shamrez was thrilled to have won, ‘I feel this whole ‘PIN’ journey has been incredible and a real catalyst to drive my business. I’m honoured to be a part of the creativity in the Midlands.’
Above is one of the photos from John Davies show, The British Landscape, which has been shortlisted for the prestigious Deutsche Borse Photography Prize. The Birmingham shots were commissioned by Birmingham Central Library in 2000.
The Birmingham photographs form part of Davies’ larger project, Metropoli, which documented the changing face of the post-industrial city scape in the UK. They also feature in his book and exhibition The British Landscape, which was first shown at the National Media Museum, Bradford. This exhibition is currently on show in Paris. This latter work, a series of panoramic black and white photographs, taken between 1979-2005, document the changing post-industrial British landscape.
The Library collaborated with Davies in 2000 by commissioning a series of photographs of Birmingham. Some of these images were subsequently shown in the exhibition Something Old, Something New at Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery in 2001 and subsequently featured in the book, World City: Birmingham and its People Portrayed. The Library hold a set of 17 prints from this series.
The exhibition runs at The Photographer’s Gallery in London until April 6th. Details in this PDF.
Missed it at the time, but Envy and Other Sins won that Mobile Act Unsigned compo in December getting them a contract with A&M. Cat Bray at 4Talent did a nice big interview with them. Well done, chaps!
BiNS give notice of a couple of Birmingham music related entries in the New Year Honours: Jazz man Andy Hamilton and Amajit Talwar of Punch Records.
John Tighe of the Spotted Dog pub is Brummie of the Year 2007. Well done John!
Congrats to Birminghamusic.com on winning the BDI Industry and Genius award in the category for Products and Genius: Digital Design. They write about wining it here:
The panel received over 100 entries for the awards and in most cases 3 entries were shortlisted, as in the Digital Design category that Birminghamusic.com was in. It was quite fascinating seeing some of the amazing designs and projects that were emerging from local businesses and in one case the award was given to two winners, as the panel simply could not name one to be better than another.
The Digital Design category was one of the last to be announced and left us nervously sitting on the edge of our seats awaiting the panel’s decision, when they announced that the winning project received some flattering comments from the panel, including -
“Locally empowering. A fantastic model.”
“Looking inwards and outwards, it promotes the city and is encouraging entrepreneurship”
“A good example of collaboration”
Then it was announced, the winners are….Birminghamusic.com.
The others shortlised in the category were Aston Computer in the Home: Aston Pride IT and Real Time Information: WMPTA/Centro.
So what’s the BDI?
The BDI (Birmingham Design Initiative) is made up of 22 professionals from the business, education and design related sectors. Their goal is to raise awareness of the importance and value of outstanding environmental / product design in the West Midlands. This is the 10th time the BDI Awards have been held since 1989, and commemorative plaques dating back more than a decade still take pride of place in design practices across the region.
The profiles of the 4Talent Award Winners are online now.
Here’s the Birmingham contingent:
This compromises the bulk of Ten4 issue 8 which you can pick up from the usual places or order online.
Congrats to Capsule whose yearly Supersonic been named Best Festival of the Year in the December issue of Plan B magazine, up against such greats as ATP, Sonar and Green Man. Here’s the article. Click on it for a readable PDF.
