The Arts Council recently asked for regional submissions to win a significant pot of money under the title ‘Artists Taking the Lead’ - linking into themes of the Cultural Olympiad, and leading up to the 2012 Olympics.

The first selection process has happened, and details of the potential regional winners have been announced and can be found here.  Unsurprisingly, all of the West Midlands shortlisted are designed to happen in Birmingham (with perhaps the exception of Imagineer Productions – which doesn’t specify, but has obvious Coventry connections?) and so it seemed relevant to point it out to the CiB readers and point you to the site where comments are invited on which idea excites you the most.

I have rather strong feelings on the selected few and would be curious to find out what you all think.  If any particularly strike you (either positively or negatively!) then feel free to leave a quick comment below explaining why.

© Adrienne for Created in Birmingham, 2009. | 4 comments |

In the meantime, two things that compliment one another have come to my attention.

Firstly, an opportunity:

INTER?OGATION: WALSALL

Call to Artists:

Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to become a secret agent for a day in order to interrogate the public spaces of Walsall.

Using the New Art Gallery Walsall as a base you will investigate the artist’s role in the post-industrial world through one of four methods:

INTER?OGATION: ACTION RESEARCH     (09/09/09)
INTER?OGATION: CONSULTATION         (16/09/09)
INTER?OGATION: COLLABORATION     (23/09/09)
INTER?OGATION: INTERVENTION         (30/09/09)

INTER?OGATION: WALSALL explores the impact that one artist (you) can make in one place, in one day.

This programme of work is organised by Longhouse and the New Art Gallery Walsall, working with lead artist Anna Francis (who can also be found here), and is designed to investigate the impact of short, sharp interventions within the public realm.  Deadline for expressions of interest is fairly soon – 12pm Friday 28 August 2009 - so go visit the site to find out more.

Secondly, I really enjoy the idea of creative practice being fused with more spy-like activities – interrogations and investigations.. where everyone gets to be a secret agent and have their own missions!  So for those of you whose toes are curling at me daring to mention WALSALL in a CiB post, I wanted to temper that with a signpost towards a great Birmingham artist – Nikki Pugh. I feel she really embodies this excitement within her practice, but best of all has taken the time to document in detail how she’s used this approach with great effect in her “How to Wow” series.

Do you know of any other local artists who work in this way?

© Adrienne for Created in Birmingham, 2009. | One comment |

In the meantime, Birmingham’s creative communities continue to toil away and many things have been going on.  Here’s a snapshot of where we’re at right now!

‘Hey for Lubberland!’ can be spotted gracing the canals around Brindley Place.  This work, by Simon and Tom Bloor (and part of Ikon’s off-site projects) will be in situ on the towpath behind Bank Restaurant in Brindleyplace until 13th September 2009.  Visitors can be transported by this working barge, and whilst onboard peruse the floating library of utopian design.  The title ‘Hey for Lubberland!’ was derived from a 17th century English ballad about the New World, mistaken for utopia, but in fact a kind of fool’s paradise.  You can be transported between 13:00 and 17:00 on Tuesdays – Sundays, and best of all admission is free!

If you’re interested in creative networking opportunities, then there’s a new group which will have it’s first meeting on August 13th.  Creative Playground is being organised by Steve Gray and Kate Manion, and offers:

..a chance for people who work in a professional capacity in the creative and digital sectors to get together for drinks and a chat, make new friends and hopefully make some new collaborations as well. Ultimately it is about strengthening the city’s creative community and we’ll be looking to the RDAs and various bodies for support to help us do this.

It looks like a slightly different group of people to those you might meet at BSMC etc. and will hopefully prove rather interesting!  You need to signup with meetup.com and then apply to become a member as there is a selection process as explained here:

The ground rules of joining are: 1) You must be in a professional role within the creative industries, 2) You or your business must be located in Birmingham, 3) You must fill out all the introductory fields in your profile with sufficient detail, 4) You must upload a photo of yourself to your profile. No company brands etc.

Also on Thursday 13th August is the private view of a brand new collection of work, entitled SAMPLE:

New work has been created by a range of Midlands artists including Daniel Westwood, Martin Donnelly, Matt Clugston, Steve Ellis, and Joe Mitchelmore.  The work will be available to view online after the launch at the SAMPLE website, so even if you can’t make it you don’t have to miss out!

And lastly, so that this post isn’t completely ridiculously long, on a transatlantic note, Birmingham-based photographer Chris Keenan (who recently featured in the Visual / Art of Ideas 2 exhibition) has had a piece of work selected for a world-class international exhibition, Art of Photography.

This year they received 16,000 entries from 57 countries.  111 images were chosen for the final exhibition and Chris Keenan’s Franz Joseph Glacier (above) was one of them. The selection was made by Charlotte Cotton, curator and head of the Wallis Annenberg Department of Photography at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA).

If you’re likely to be in and around the San Diego area any time between 29th August 2009 and 1st November 2009 then stop by the Lyceum Theatre Gallery and marvel at some Birmingham talent!

© Adrienne for Created in Birmingham, 2009. | One comment |

The Event - 2007

The first two weeks of April 2007 saw the culmination of a series of artist-led activities within Birmingham, and this was ‘The Event‘.  At that point in time, the number of artists choosing to stay and work within the city had increased, and an intensification of artistic production had taken place.  It felt very much like Birmingham projected a unique sense of identity, and it was easy to believe that the city held great potential.

Consisting of exhibitions and performances devised by ten of the brightest young visual art organisations in Birmingham at that point in time, the sixteen-day celebration focused on a myriad of event-based practices and exhibitions in such a way as to implicate the whole city into its logic.  Participating organisations included: a.a.s., Capital Art Projects, Colony, [insertspace], International Project Space, Modulate, Periscope, 7inch Cinema, Spectacle, and Springhill Institute.

A lot of interesting work took place, and indeed some of these organisations have developed and flourished (surely most notably 7inch Cinema) – but those without links to their work above, and even some who do have links, are either no longer working as artists / arts organisations, or have begun working under different names without leaving on online breadcrumb trail for me to follow.

In 2007, whilst not all that long ago, there was a definite sense of optimism and indulgence in the arts and arts practice – much moreso than we now have in 2009.  The recession will inevitably have played a large part in this shift, with organisations cutting back or closing down – but what other changes has Birmingham faced that has brought us to this point, so different to that of 2007?  Is there still intense artistic production?  Do people still believe that Birmingham has this great potential?  Have artists changed their practice in response to the current financial climate and retreated back into their stereotypical draughty garrets?

In a timely fashion, The Event has returned once more to open up and explore contemporary art making.  Through an open submission process, artists are invited to send proposals to be included in the November festival.  The deadline for proposals is quite soon – July 13th – but submissions can also be emailed.  I’ve included the details taken from the website below, but please send any specific queries to kaye@the-event.org I will be keen to see which artists are selected, and how their practice reflects the current mood of the city – and also how different the artforms will be, if at all.  Will The Event be inundated with digital submissions, and will there be any entirely virtual submissions running concurrently?

Open Submission

Deadline Midday 13 July 2009

The Event is a contemporary arts festival in Birmingham, showcasing the best in artist-led activity.

We are currently seeking proposals and submissions from artist projects and artist/curators in the Midlands for inclusion in The Event, November 2009.

Proposals with a budget of up to £2000 can be considered. Deadline for submissions is midday on Monday 13 July, proposals received after the deadline cannot be considered.

Proposals must include the following information:
Project proposal (maximum 200 words)
Brief biog/CV
Indication of project costs
Supporting material

Postal applications should be clearly marked:
BCAF Steering Group
The Event
Eastside Projects
86 Heath Mill Lane Birmingham
B9 4AR

NB. Please enclose a SAE for return of material.

e-mailed application should be compiled into one document and emailed to:
kaye@the-event.org

Please contact Kaye Winwood 07834 244 609 or email kaye@the-event.org with any queries.

© Adrienne for Created in Birmingham, 2009. | One comment |

I’ve often wondered why museums and galleries aren’t using their web presence in more innovative and useful ways.  I worked within a gallery for a number of years, and this gave me the unsurprising insight that many factors contributed to this: underpaid overworked staff, simply no capacity (in terms of time) to explore new avenues, gallery staff restricted to working within strictly defined roles with little room for experimentation, and those who do maintain the web side of things being under supported and in need of upskilling.  Plus above all, there are many challenges facing gallery collections (from conservation to valuation to interpretation and beyond) that the additional pressure of creating new ways of accessing that information sits at the bottom of anyone’s agenda, particularly when it could just end up as a copyright/intellectual property/Digital Rights Management nightmare.

Finally, Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery have been brave enough to tackle these issues head on with the decision to publicly release their world-class Pre-Raphaelite collection, the largest in Europe, becoming the focal point for this work.  With assistance from JISC, BMAG appointed Birmingham-based digital agency TAK! after a five way pitch to design and develop a website application to achieve their goal.  And the resulting site is a beautiful, delicate and sensitive piece of design.  Visitors will be able to access high quality content which will enable schools, universities, and the general public to have a greater understanding of the collection in their own time, and in their own space – which in turn could encourage new visitors and raise the profile of the museum.

“TAK! have helped us create the largest online Pre-Raphaelite collection in the world” concludes Linda Suprdle, Project Manager at BMAG. “It’s a fantastic resource and provides an unparalleled level of access and quality to the works on display. Anyone with an interest in art should visit the site and discover the importance of the Pre-Raphaelites.”

I hope that this project will encourage other museums and galleries to consider making their collections accessible online.  They have the opportunity to create such valuable learning resources which could cross so many diversity and access barriers, and it seems a shame that the majority of artworks only ever see the light of day if and when a curator deems them relevant enough. Using online technology, all collections could eventually be available to view regardless of current exhibition theme!

If and when that does happen, I will be interested to see how the role of ‘the curator’ responds to that change.  The Pre-Raphaelite collection site already encourages users to create their own personal collections, so how far a leap would it be for people to share those collections and reasons for their choices with other users?  Imagine an itunes playlist or an amazon reading list – but for art, complete with personal interpretations, anecdotal thoughts, factual evidence and academic input.  THAT would be something I could become obsessive about!

© Adrienne for Created in Birmingham, 2009. | 3 comments |

As was previously mentioned here on CiB, the 4am Project is the genius concept of Karen Strunks, a Birmingham photographer who singlehandedly convinced thousands of strangers across the world that it would be a great idea to stay awake/get up at 4am to document that moment for no other reason than to be part of a larger group of people doing just that.

And people, in their droves, agreed that it was a great idea and stayed up (or set their alarms, like me!) and took photographs and sent them to the 4am website, or tagged them on Flickr so that everyone could see a snapshot of the world, of their world, at such an uncomfortably late/early hour.  Who knew you could create such extensive social capital before breakfast?!

Building upon the success of the previous event, 4am photos have continued to flood in, without being prompted to do so – and Karen has now decided it’s time to coordinate another 4am en masse.  The date of the next event is: 21/06/09.  (And in case you somehow missed it, the time will be 4am, and the place will be wherever you are!)

In addition, the 4am Project has been nominated for the Digital Press Awards, and if you think (like I do) that this project is a fab idea and a lot of fun, then vote for it to win!

© Adrienne for Created in Birmingham, 2009. | 2 comments |

The event which has most piqued my curioisity is entitled “My Dad’s on Twitter but he doesn’t know why”.  More than just another opportunity to ‘talk shop’, this event promises to collate the ideas and input of attendees into a collaborative group mind map exploring how and why people use social media.  In addition, after the event there will be an opportunity for an online audience to have input into the map as well.  I’m keen to see how this will utilise Bubbl.us – something I stumbled across earlier this week, and which looks like another great free tool.

The event which has most piqued my TASTEBUDS however, is definitely the festival finale – a grand high tea for 300 creative workers in Fazeley Studio’s magnificently restored 19th century chapel reception.  Fazeley currently provides a high tea for tenants every Thursday and have decided to build upon the success of this for the festival.  I’ve been promised there are exciting and secretive things planned for this event which will be unveiled on the day, but if the promise of the tea alone isn’t enough of an incentive, there will also be a preview of the latest Ikon Eastside exhibition – an installation by an emerging Chinese artist called Xu Zhen.

For more details on all of the events taking place during the festival, the Fazeley Digital website will keep you in the loop,  as well as provide opportunities to sign-up for certain events and provide feedback/interact with others.

© Adrienne for Created in Birmingham, 2009. | One comment |

Friday, 05/06/09, 19:00

Ten high-backed chairs, some seating elderly people and some seating younger people, spanned the back of the stage area at The Door, the studio theatre at Birmingham Rep. Above this seating arrangement was a large screen, showing slow panoramics of the Birmingham skyline. In front of them, a gently-lit bed with a man lying down, a wheeled trolley next to him and a fan pointed at him.

A short film entitled “Hats” began. The first shot panned out to show a woman, with coarse patchy hair and a massive grin cackling as she tried on the most extravagant yellow hat with massive straw brim. She looked into the camera and said, “Yes. This is me.”

At this point, I have to admit to no longer being able to see very well due to the large amounts of tears gushing down my face – so if my descriptions fall short somehow, I apologise.

Rosetta Life is a charity dedicated to working with people who have life-threatening illnesses.  “The Magical Glow of the Co Op” was a rehearsed reading as part of the Rosetta Live celebrations that featured the work of two hospices; Birmingham St Mary’s Hospice in Selly Park and St Giles Hospice Whittington, near Lichfield. Working together, more than 30 hospice users generated a performance script that looked at the choices people face when dying and the difficulties they face when making these choices.  In the 10 chairs sat 3 professional actors (the fourth was lying on the bed), 6 hospice users and one care professional.  Throughout the reading hospice users took to the stage to perform alongside the professional actors which really added weight and poignancy (as well as some unexpected laughs) to the evening.

The performance finished with an aftershow discussion called ‘The Big Conversation – Let’s Talk About Living’.  The audience were invited to ask questions of the panel of hospice users who had taken part in the perfomance, health care practitioners and the actors who were still in character.  Until then, I had kept my eyes focused on the stage, hoping to hide anonymously at the edge of a row.  However once the lights went up, I really looked at the audience – at those people who had chosen to spend a night in the company of such a taboo subject.   The audience consisted of every economic/social/cultural background you can imagine, all sat in one small venue watching their loved ones perform, or the words of their lost loved one performed by their peers.  And there were no dry eyes.  Not one.

I feel excited that Birmingham East and North PCT were brave enough not only to fund this project, but also to enable Birmingham to become the first UK city that is making steps to talk openly about how it’s citizens positively approach life as it draws to a close, as well as how they want to be remembered. Created in Birmingham has always highlighted exciting and relevant creative ventures linked to the city, and I can’t think of a more perfect project to write about in my first post proper.  Actors, hospice users, venue and funders are all citizens of Birmingham, breaking new and important (if at times uncomfortable) ground.  This was a performance that anyone touched by illness should see, not just the friends and families of those performing.

“The Magical Glow of the Co-op” was just one small part of the Rosetta Live celebration running throughout June. It culminates in a film premiere at The Electric Cinema on 29th June commencing at 6.00pm.  To book, please contact bookings@rosettalive.org – I know I’m going to be there.

© Adrienne for Created in Birmingham, 2009. | One comment |

Geist der Weihnachtsvergangenheit from Old Dead Eye on Vimeo.

© Kate Spragg for Created in Birmingham, 2009. | 2 comments |

I have a particular interest in how small organisations can use all this ‘internet stuff” to promote themselves so I will be going along for the first time to offer up my bit of knowledge and heaps of enthusiasm to anyone who needs it.

© Kate Spragg for Created in Birmingham, 2009. | 3 comments |

A project that has been taking shape for the past year is just coming to completion with a film, book and exhibition. The project

records the personal life of Birmingham’s most iconic building, unveiling the many human stories that have influenced and shaped its existence.

The exhibition can be seen at:

• the Central Library (6th floor) from 2 June to 5 July
• Three White Walls Gallery, The Mailbox 14 June to 15 July

The book includes a DVD of the film and is available at The Art Lounge in the Mailbox and at the RIBA Book Shop.

Jon Bounds has covered this in more depth than I could both on BiNS and on his Birmingham Post blog, both of which deserve your attention.

© chrisunitt for Created in Birmingham, 2008. | Add a comment |

The results of an interesting collaborative project, carried out in 2007, are just coming out. The project used the question ‘what does this city really look like?’ as a starting point.

Locations were shared-out between a team of ‘photographers’ (none of them are photographers) according to a grid imposed over the area.  The photographers were free to capture whatever they wanted at their location, but it was the grid that determined the locations in the first place.

You can browse the photos on the Birmingham Photographic Project website and it’s worth a look.

The results of the project are being presented in stages – the website being th first with a (limited-run) hardback book and a public exhibition both not far off official announcement.

© chrisunitt for Created in Birmingham, 2008. | 8 comments |

Wolverhampton-born graffiti artist Temper has won a national competition to create a sculpture that will be installed at The Cube – the final phase of the Mailbox.

He’s now looking for six people to help bring his vision to life and is touring the Midlands looking for suitable candidates. He’ll be calling at:

• Mander Shopping Centre, Wolverhampton – 8 May
• Paradise Forum, Birmingham – 9 May
• Solihull town centre – 10 May

Or you can nominate yourself or someone else online via the Mailbox’s website.

I first came across Temper via the Headcleaner Sessions mixtapes on his site (especially the K Delight and DJ Noize ones) which still seem to be there. He’s recently been feted by the Sunday supplements, had a design used on a Sprite can and decorated part of Saatchi & Saatchi’s London offices. The owners of The Cube weren’t wrong when they describe him to the Birmingham Post as “one of the country’s most exciting young talents”.

© chrisunitt for Created in Birmingham, 2008. | Add a comment |

Whether or not you actually make short films, Shorts on Walls is a great chance for animators to meet and network after work with other freelancers, animation companies and professionals over a mid-week beverage.

It’s free to attend but please let them know if you’ll be going down. There are contact details and more info on the Animation Forum West Midlands website.

Incidentally, props to AFWM for showing how this web promotion lark should be done – the news page of their site has an RSS feed and features a map of the venue. There’s also a Facebook group (with a list of participating animators/studios) to join as well as a newly-minted YouTube group.

© chrisunitt for Created in Birmingham, 2008. | Add a comment |

Last Wednesday I went to the imaginatively titled Local shorts Film Club, which I previously talked about here. I was pleasantly surprised to find a large turnout (a quick head count of around 80) maybe its because of by passion for social media and indoctrination into the cult of blogging that made me presume that a poor web presence, and equally poor advertising automatically means low attendance.

The night is ran by Nigel and Sabine of It’s About Time Productions and chatting to them before hand I was interested to find out that updates, the forthcoming programme, submission requests and basically all the functionality of a blog is actually carried out by a mailing list, of which over three hundred people are signed up too. They explained this lo-fi attitude is partly intentional as not to appear to exclusive. Unfortunately this attitude also means that the LSFC is one of the best kept secrets of the film community in Birmingham. Speaking to a local video artist we both remarked how frustrating it was that this event was happening 200 yards away from where we were doing our degree with other student film makers, yet we never heard about it.

The event itself was very informal and friendly with the quality of the films varying widely. Standing out from the pack was the short film written and directed by Lewis Arnold called <i>Long Standing</i>. An engaging, warm, and very funny but ultimately melancholy study of old age and a mans emotional redemption through human contact. Lewis seems to be very talented capable of producing slickly finished pieces on almost no budget that are both humorous and visually interesting. I can’t help but see big things for him.

As for the night, the relaxed setting, friendly atmosphere and question and answer session after each film are much to the organisers credit, although the community itself does seem kind of small. The event has recently secured funding from Screen West Midlands so will using the money to develop a wider film making audience and the next night is scheduled for late July.

to get on the mailing list e-mail your address, theirs can be found here.

© dannysmith for Created in Birmingham, 2008. | 10 comments |

He will be discussing his background, how he became a photographer and his role in documenting black culture and british people for the last 40 years.

Tickets are £3.50 and it takes place on Wednesday 16th April, 6:45 – 7:30pm.

© pete for Created in Birmingham, 2008. | Add a comment |

Ruth Ward has set up an Arts of Ideas blog gathering together all the material associated with the events in one place, including the essays and images. Nice one!

Tuesday: Culture and Identity – The Role of Place in Shaping the Arts

I took notes during the talk. Yes, that was me tapping away in an irritating manner. Sorry.

James Yarker posted his notes on the Stan’s Cafe blog. (Yes, there’s a Stan’s Cafe blog! And it’s very good.)

Catherine O’Flynn’s talk is on the Post website.

Jon Bounds at BiNS was there. He also points us to Euphoria, mentioned by Catherine and celebrating the forgotten bits of Brum. Worth a look.

Twitter:
@RussL: “Reading all this stuff about this talk last night: B’ham is the ultimate post-modern city. It’s strength is its ability (and tendency) to interrupt its own meta-narrative. Or is that too wanky?
@AnthonyJHughes: “Art of ideas – do we really need to discuss/ have discussed our industry as if we weren’t there? Do we need to anylise creativity to death?” and “It’s a bit like a late night review where Tom Paulin and Sarah Dunant discuss why something is funny…..Margaret Street”

Wednesday: Why Should We Care About Creativity in the West Midlands?

I again took notes during the talks. Hope they’re of some use. Of course if the organisers recorded the event and make that public it’d be even better (hint!)

D’Log gives a detailed report.

Stuart Parker wasn’t overly impressed.

Thursday: Future of Sound
This is now taking place at the John Lee Theatre at the Birmingham & Midland Institute, 7:00pm to 10:00pm

Two essays by Matt Price and Catherine O’Flynn are available printed on an absurdly large piece of paper. If these are online anywhere please let me know else I’m going to have to try and scan that bastard.

© pete for Created in Birmingham, 2008. | 6 comments |

Twitter is a service that’s getting a fair bit of traction in Brum right now. Like most of these things it’s as useful as you find it to be so don’t feel you’re “doing it wrong” if you don’t get it, but I’m finding it rather invaluable so you might too.

It’s a combination of things really. The format is limited to 140 characters so it meshes well with SMS texting meaning you can use it from your phone but it also works on the website and via instant messaging along with a bunch of 3rd party applications (I like Twhirl myself). At it’s core it works along the same lines as Facebook status updates and you’d be forgiven for thinking there’s not much difference, but the magic comes from the way it manages conversations and the fine tuning you can do.

Above all it’s an example of what I’m calling an “ambient stream”. Nothing on Twitter is actually that important, unless it is. You can just check in every so often and get a feel of what your community/ies are up to. If there’s anything of relevance that’s great but if not then it’s no great loss. You can spend hours communicating with people or just ignore the service for a day – it doesn’t matter.

I find it useful for random meetups. If someone “tweets” (as it’s known) that they’re in a certain cafe or pub then I might pop in if I’m in the area. Or I might not. Or if I’m looking for help or advice with something I can send out a quick message and see if anyone’s free with no obligation.

(Oh, here’s a handy video which might help. Or not.)

Anyway, if you think it might be useful have a play and see what you think. But be aware it took me a good year to get my head around what I might use it for so it might not hit you at first.

So here’s a list of some of the Birmingham-types who are on Twitter that Created in Birmingham readers might want to follow. You might also want to scan through the list of people I’m following if it takes your fancy. I’ve tried to keep this list more arts/design than tech but there are, of course, overlaps.

In no particular order
Antonio Gould
Jon Bounds
Julia Gilbert
Paul Bradshaw
Stef Lewandowski
Andrew Dubber
Nick Lockey
Ruth Ward
Russ L
Nick Booth
Chris Unitt
John @ 383
Mark Badger
Joanna Geary has two accounts
Danny Smith
Craig of Friends of the Stars
Antonio Roberts
Keri Davis
Ana Milgram
Dunc Autumnstore
Kerry Fused
Anthony Herron
and Pete Ashton.

I should probably stop there. The a good strategy would be to find some people you already know or are connected to and look at who they’re following. And if you fancy some really unfocused ambient Twitter-noise you could subscribe to this feed of Birmingham Twitterers.

Yes, it’s all kinda pointless. That’s kinda the point.

—

Okay, here’s a good case study. Immediately after writing this I’m thinking what I might do before going home today. A tweet from Kerry pops up on my computer that she’s “going to ikon to private view for ruth claxton exhibition”. Hmm. That sounds interesting. Didn’t know about that. I may well pop up there.

Result!

© pete for Created in Birmingham, 2008. | 8 comments |

This is the fifth in the Invigilator series where a single set of directions has been transposed onto different locations to determine the exact place for watching over; we can choose our significant starting points, but then a pre-determined sequence of lefts, rights and straight-ons takes us on a not-quite-random walk to an unplanned invigilation site.

Nikki recorded hers using Twitter from her phone, which was nice to see. I wonder how mobile microblogging could be used for other art-related events…

And photos are slowly going up here.

Nice piece of psychogeography people!

© pete for Created in Birmingham, 2008. | 2 comments |

Inside you’ll find a load of good stuff including a four page overview of Birmingham’s music scene.

© pete for Created in Birmingham, 2008. | 2 comments |

“Everybody who wishes to take part in ArtsFest must complete an application form and submit it by 28th March 2008.” That’s next Friday.

© pete for Created in Birmingham, 2008. | Add a comment |

Firstly, the money hasn’t just been handed to them by some quango. This has been a long process gathering funds from a variety of places including local donations. The final chunk came from the European Regional Development pot the 6 month application process for which was apparently a nightmare. So I’m guessing this has been fairly well thought through.

The basic plan is to offer a “third space” for freelancers and home workers, the majority of whom in Moseley tend to be in the creative industries. Facilities will include internet access, desk space, secure lockers and the ability to hire the upstairs rooms for meetings and presentations.

More importantly the space will enable folk to mix and network giving the creative community a base which isn’t a pub/cafe or someone’s kitchen. Essentially they’re looking at developing a Co-working space, something I’ve been thinking about a lot recently.

At its heart is a desire to provide something the community can use that will keep people in the area rather than forcing them to go to Digbeth or the Jewellery Quarter, especially for those just starting out or who don’t need a city centre office. There’s also, due to the concentration of SMEs, the opportunity for the business support orgs to use it as an outreach / info spot. And Tony was also keen to stress how the centre could be used to “bridge the digital divide” by providing computer-based tools and skills to those who feel left behind by all the nonsense the likes of me spout.

The beauty of this, as I see it, is that it’s not very prescriptive. There’s a space with facilities that people can use as they see fit. Of course making sure the basic facilities are suitable is the most important thing so I hope they’ll be using all the tools available to get this right. A blog or similar detailing the plans and facilitating feedback at the very least.

But yeah, I’m usually quite cynical about such things but this looks like a good un. Moseley-types – go get involved.

© pete for Created in Birmingham, 2008. | 7 comments |

The 96ft mock-gothic tower in Edgbaston was built in 1758 as an elaborate hunting lodge for the entertainment of the landowner, John Perrott’s wealthy friends. Perrott’s Folly has been closed to the public for many years, and this will be the first opportunity to climb the spectacular tower and see paintings and sculpture by Partenheimer installed on each floor. This project forms part of Ikon’s offsite programme which develops the relationship between art, artists and audiences outside the gallery, challenging expectations of where art can be seen and by whom.

Partenheimer also has an exhibition at the Ikon itself, Discontinuity, Paradox & Precision, running from April 2nd to May 8th.

© pete for Created in Birmingham, 2008. | One comment |

via BhamPostJoanna

© pete for Created in Birmingham, 2008. | 5 comments |

Given that this represents one of the major cultural celebrations in the city, one which has been claimed to be one of the largest outside of New York (if I remember rightly) I’d be interested to hear what you all think.

© pete for Created in Birmingham, 2008. | 28 comments |

News reaches me of the artists who’s work will be in the new Cadbury building in Bournville.

Jo Naden will create a bronze sculpture based on the form of a cocoa seed pod, drawing on the rich history of the plant as a “food of the gods”.

Eryka Issak’s large scale glass sculpture will quite literally “flow” down one of the building’s pure white walls, using overlapping 3D curved glass to give the sense that the work is a flowing stream of Dairy Milk chocolate.

Chris Keenan’s photographic set, Purple Interventions, will use the trademark Cadbury purple coloured props such as balloons, traffic cones, lights, flags and painted blocks to create surreal and playful images of Bournville landscapes and street scenes.

Matthew Robinson will produce a large scale print, taking direct reference from parts of the Cadbury factory building and surrounding area. Taking new digital photographs and melding them with a variety of archived sketches and digital pieces, the work will form a digital montage using manipulation to a point where a new sense of multi-dimensionality is formed.

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Hi Pete I’m pulling together some information on Birmingham’s art scene for the University of the Arts London (which includes St. Martin’s) and Arts newspaper on why London students should consider coming to Birmingham post graduation.

I’ve done a round-up of galleries, theatres, venues etc and wanted to liven it up with some quotes from artists, media and bods that are passionate about the city’s creative scene on why ex London students should come to Birmingham. (I know it’s a bit of a sales pitch but it’s a great inroad for us to talk about Birmingham as a student city.)

If you’d like to give me a couple of lines, or recommend some people with interesting things to say, by Monday that would be great.

I hate these sort of things. 200 lines, sure, but a couple? So I’m passing the buck to you guys. Any ideas? Leave them in the comments and I’ll alert Tracy to their presence.

© pete for Created in Birmingham, 2008. | 2 comments |

If you pop into the Mac today and look on the counter you’ll see a stack of tabloid supplements put together by the Birmingham Post to mark the inemant closure and rebuilding of the centre. And since the two main articles were written by the mighty Terry Grimley, who’s knowledge of the history of Birmingham’s cultural scene is, frankly, as large as the moon, they’re actually well worth reading and not the shallow puff pieces you might imagine.

Sadly these articles have not been put online for the education of the nation which is a real shame as they do go some way to explain the background to some of the controversies that have dogged the Mac this last year. But hark! I have a scanner!

Here’s both of Terry’s pieces in one copyright-busting strip. Enjoy.

There are also some neat photos of the how the new building will look which I’m posting here, again scanned from the supplement (hence the low resolution). Above is the view from across the lake while below is the new entrance across the river from the cark park.

© pete for Created in Birmingham, 2008. | 2 comments |

The launch of this year long show (subject to demolition) is at 12 noon on Thursday 21st Feb. I highly recommend you try to attend.

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First off, go check out UKGraffiti.com, specifically the Birmingham section. This is a massive archive of photos of graffiti art done in the city over the years organized by artist. It’s not the most advanced site by any stretch but it’s the closest I’ve seen to a documented history of the scene in Birmingham and that makes me very happy indeed. So much so I’d dotted them around this post.

I found out about this site at Martin Mullaney’s Graffiti – Art or Vandalism meeting tonight in Moseley which was very interesting indeed and I’m going to tell you all about it.

Taking place in the not-terribly-hip environs of the Community Development Trust building, graffiti artist Mohammed Ali gave a talk on the history of graffiti and tagging while the guys from In A City Arts talked about the history of graffiti in Birmingham and introduced the new “managed” graffiti zone in Kings Heath which they’re running with support from Mullaney.

Neus

Mohammed’s talk started with the New York 70s scene using the seminal book Subway Art, explaining how tagging evolved into painting trains that would travel around the city like public art galleries. He also was keen to emphasise the importance of the words, making a personal connection with Islamic script. Another key point was the scale of the commercial graffiti art scene, from graffiti styles being used in design to the sums paid for graffiti canvases on the international market. One particularly enlightening point was that there were people in the room who came up on the streets of Birmingham who were selling their work to movie stars, which in itself isn’t the only marker of “success” but did indicate that there’s more to graffiti than painting walls and teaching kids. This is a global industry.

Jim, aka Mekz, from In A City talked a bit about their shop but his main thrust was how to get kids who are tagging to move on to more constructive things, be it graffiti art, hip hop or anything else, and to do this by teaching them about the history of the art. The park behind Aldi in Selly Oak was discussed – during the 90s it was a managed graffiti zone where the resident youth workers (both graffiti practitioners) laid down rules about tagging and it became internationally renowned attracting artists from around the world to paint there. Developing this sense of community and history meant the place was safe and the surrounding area clean. The workers moved on after allegedly getting no support and falling out with the council to develop their careers and the place is now a mess and overflows in the surrounding areas.

Esart

But rather than inaccurately repeat the entire event (it was videoed so hopefully that will emerge online) here’s some observations I had.

Birmingham’s graffiti scene is a big part of what some call the creative industries, not just artistically but financially. Artists living here sell their work around the world and bring in vast sums of money. I couldn’t get a rough figure but I’d guess it to be in the hundreds of thousands if not millions. They probably get classified under Fine Artists or Designers or something but they come from the graffiti scene. (An example you might know is Temper and, I discovered, he’s not alone.) This tax paying base struck me as an excellent weapon to wield in getting respect from the bean counters for graffiti and hip hop culture. Maybe Punch Records are already on this, I don’t know.

There’s a history of graffiti and hip hop culture in Birmingham that has great artistic and historical significance stretching back 30 years or more. It struck me that there’s an academic imperative to start archiving and understanding this and making it part of the Birmingham story. A project like Connecting Histories would be a good model. However, in order for this to happen work need to start within the scene to show there is material worth studying here, which is why I found UKGraffiti.com so exciting.

Rome

There are roughly three generations of graf artists in the city. The older guys from the 80s who are now trading as Artists, the 20-something guys like those running In A City and the new kids starting out. What amazed me during the event was how even though they knew each other they didn’t seem to be talking to each other about the issues that so obviously concerned them and their art. I’d assumed the event would be Them explaining what they did to Us but it really felt like this was the first time they’d come together in a vaguely formal way. Obviously I’m in no place to make specific recommendations but some kind of regular meeting – say once a month in a cafe – with no agenda other than to talk and share ideas would do wonders. I also, obviously, think some kind of Created in Birmingham-style blog that simply says what’s happening in the city would be invaluable. Henry Chalfant, the author of the Subway Art book, was in Birmingham last year and some in the audience were horrified they’d not heard about it. On a more local level, two guys who were working with kids in Small Heath realised they were doing so five minutes away from each other in total ignorance. There’s a problem here. (Yes, I’ve offered my services (pro-bono, natch) to help In A City set up a blog and see how it goes.)

Martin Mullaney has a fight on his hands. There are councilors who want him to fail. He admitted a couple of years ago he would have wanted him to fail too and that he’s had a Road To Damascus experience but the fact remains a lot is riding on this managed graffiti zone in Kings Heath. If it goes wrong then it’s probably the end of such experiments, at least for now. That said, Jim talked about a discussion he’d had with Chris Dyer (the Community Safety Lead Officer who liaises between the council and the police) who is looking at establishing a larger graffiti zone in the city centre under Lancaster Circus, so it’s probably fair to say that at a civil servant level there are people who get it but that our elected councillors are, with few exceptions, hopelessly out of touch here. This is why I think they need to be talked to in their own language – financial benefit to the city, the fact that many graffiti artists are voters and, more prosaically, the artistic and cultural value this brings to the city. These might not be things that concern the graffiti / hip hop community but the knock-on effect of making them clear should benefit them.

At the end of the day I’m just an impartial observer looking at this from the outside so it’s up to the people who have an interest in this from all areas to work out how they’re going to take this forward, if at all. The general point – that by recognising Birmingham’s graffiti heritage you can make inroads into stopping kids tagging indiscriminately – is a tough one to buy but having listened to the arguments I think there’s something in it. Get to it, people.

© pete for Created in Birmingham, 2008. | 8 comments |