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 |

a rare opportunity to access the fascinating collections in store. This is no ordinary warehouse! It’s an Aladdin’s cave crammed to the rafters with every type of object you could imagine.

If you go, the good folk at The Big Picture (who flagged this up) would be keen for you to send them any pictures you take there.

The collection is at The Museum Collections Centre, 25 Dollman Street, Nechells, Birmingham B7 4RQ.

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

After many years of a lovely but slightly out of date website, Hunt Emerson has relaunched Large Cow where he’s selling artwork and archiving cool stuff from the past. Of particular note are pieces from the Birmingham Arts Lab which he was heavily involved with in the 1970’s such as this print:

There’s shockingly little online about the Birmingham Arts Lab other than a few mentions here and there. It’s be good if someone could write a decent history of it, or if one’s already written, stick it online and send me a pointer.

© pete for Created in Birmingham, 2008. | 9 comments |

As well as Harry’s initial report more pictures are promised in the next issue of the Eccentric City but if you come across any evidence online do leave a comment and I’ll post it here.

More stuff, to be added to as it comes my way.

Birmingham Mail covers the event. “Flushed with inspiration” indeed!

Harry has a Flickr stream.

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

on this night, two hundred & fifty people went up into the rotunda for the first time, to hear a soundtrack by geir jenssen & bobby bird, made with location recordings taken from around birmingham over the previous week. visual impressions were also commissioned & projected on to the inner curve of the polo-mint shaped room.

the event was a follow-up / return invitation to an event two years previously, when hia / biosphere collaborated in a live concert overlooking tromso, norway as part of the polar music festival, a performance subsequently released as polar sequences.

A CD, with audio and video content, came out in 2004 and is available on eMusic (where you can listen to clips) and Amazon. I have ordered a copy!

Info came from my favourite American Anglophile Kevin Church.

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

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.

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

I used to spend my Sunday afternoons in the dance studios at Birmingham’s (soon to be refurbished) mac. Hip Hop had landed and breakdancing with it. [...] Originally shot for use in sequences in a film about International Youth Year (1985), I have treasured this now fairly gnarly gem, a glimpse into the urban history of this city I call home.

There’s another clip of early beatboxing in that post and Mark promises more to come.

Meanwhile, here’s an amusing graphic found on the Wikipedia page for beatboxing (where I was checking it was actually called that. I make no pretentions here, though I am surprisingly good at it…) so you can have a go at home.

Any other historical gems, feel free to send them my way!

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

No, it’s not the after gig drinks of a Culture Club Tribute Band.

It’s the post premiere toasting of the film Handsworth Songs, now universally acclaimed as a documentary classic, after its world premiering in the Birmingham Film Festival in 1986 at The Triangle Media Centre (R.I.P.).

Yes, that’s the director, John Akomfrah, grinning madly, centre shot, goaded by Pogus Ceasar, of OOM Gallery fame with a skinny me, Festival Director, to the right of Pogus.

Thanks Roger!

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

Spotted on the Punch Records site – a new-ish book about Bhangra by Birmingham-born academic Dr Rajinder Dudrah, senior lecturer in Film and Media Studies at the University of Manchester.

Bhangra music is a genre that comes from the Indian subcontinent and sung in Punjabi. Bhangra: Birmingham and Beyond traces its birth in the UK to when migrant workers from the Indian subcontinent and East Africa arrived in the country in the 1960s, many settling in West Midlands areas such as Birmingham.

Along the way, we learn how stars such as Heera, Alaap, Premi and Malkit Singh stamped their influence on the scene, paving the way for fresh UK based talent such as Apache Indian, Bally Sagoo, Juggy D, Sukshinder Shinda amongst many others, to follow in their footsteps and become successes in their own right.

More…

Priced at £15 you can hopefully find it in the local bookshops or from Amazon. And if you’re in Manchester this weekend there’s a Q&A at the Deansgate Waterstone’s from 12-3pm.

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

Anderton Street terraces, Ladywood, 1968

Little Anne Street / Milk Street, 1953

Bull Ring, 1959

According to the site (and D’log’s research), Nicklin died in 1969 leaving thousands of slides taken for her classes. 450 of these were scanned and released online in 2004/5 as part of the “Chrysalis” project from the West Midlands Museums, Libraries and Archives Council. This project, and the website, seems to be firmly defunct and offline. So the only record we have of these photos (which, you’ll note, were “kindly made available to down-load and redistribute for non-commercial research or private study purposes” by the University) is an unauthorised gallery from Keith Berry who was wise enough to take some copies.

So where are these photos? I’d imagine someone is working in some department where there’s a CD with them on. If they are licensed to be made available it shouldn’t be hard to throw them up on Flickr or similar. Hell, I’ll do it if you post me the disc. Or you could contact The Big Picture – they’re looking for old photos of Birmingham as well as contemporary ones.

[Update: Thanks to Dave Harte in the comments it looks like all 450-odd are here. Yay!]

Above all this is an important lesson about the sustainability of funded online projects, not just about the need to keep them online but that passion is an important part of the process. There must be a middle ground to be found here between those with the means and those with the will.

© pete for Created in Birmingham, 2008. | 15 comments |

What’s going on here is urban exploration where folks gain entry, usually illegally, into abandoned buildings, underground tunnels and other areas not usually visited and make a record. Silent UK in particular takes the most wonderful photos and a fair few of them are in Birmingham. Like this one.

At some point I’m going to get off my arse, get a pair of waders and start doing this myself, but in the meanwhile it’s great to see others recording our hidden architectural heritage (though, unlike that above ground, it’s unlikely to suffer the trials of regeneration.)

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

Then come back to the present in the “projects” section for his photo essay on the Eastside redevelopment and how it’s affecting the current residents.

Wonderful stuff.

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

Got me all intrigued, this has.

Go Kart Mozart represents the further adventures of Birmingham, England, native Lawrence Hayward. He spent the ’70s and ’80s fronting the atmospheric guitar pop band Felt, who drew much inspiration from Television, releasing albums in the ’90s under the Denim moniker. Go Kart Mozart continues the pseudo-novelty direction of the latter, who produced a bubblegum strain of ’70s glam rock that often belied the biting social commentary of their lyrics. With Go Kart Mozart, a true solo project, the name adequately evokes the project’s pull between serious artistry and childish fun. 2000’s Instant Wigwam and Igloo Mixture featured such not-quite ironic tracks as “Hip Op,” which is about the Queen’s hip surgery; “Um Bongo,” which is named after a British soft drink but comments on the genocide in Rwanda; and a synth ditty about murdering a girl called “Depleted Soul.” Consider this another inscrutable twist in the long career of Lawrence Hayward, who has inspired such luminaries in their own right as Belle and Sebastian (Stuart Murdoch is a professed Felt obsessive) and Pulp (who draws obvious influence from Denim). After a five year wait during which Lawrence oversaw the re-release of the entire Felt catalogue and began work on various projects, Go Kart Mozart’s second album finally saw release. The album again was split between novelty and commentary and as a bonus for fans of Denim, contained tracks from the shelved third album titled Denim Take Over.

via Jonny Bins.

© pete for Created in Birmingham, 2008. | 3 comments |

This retrospective exhibition curated by Rob Hewitt and Simon Redgrave draws from reactions to more than 40 years of work at mac and explores memories from audiences, artists and staff, from past and present.

What began in 1962 as the Midlands Arts Centre for Young People, pioneering access to culture for thousands of families, mac has created decades of ‘first times’ which it’s now easy to take for granted. The form of mac has always been shifting; reflecting changes in society and in arts practice. As the building faces major redevelopment we invite you to consider mac’s legacy. This exhibition creates environments drawn from different periods of mac’s pioneering work. We pay tribute to unforgettable personalities and performances with unique archive images, unseen documents and film footage. Drink in some of the most memorable mac moments from thousands of plays, films, shows, concerts and exhibitions.

They’re still welcoming contributions of memories and memorabilia. Details here.

(I think my first time there was watching Leaving Las Vegas in the cinema and then heading straight for the bar afterwards.)

via everyone

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

While Ted’s from Birmingham he doesn’t live here anymore but he did do a gig at Atticus the other day as part of the Comedy Festival. The Atticus blog says it wasn’t that great but surely that was the point? Ooh, the meta-layers…

© pete for Created in Birmingham, 2007. | One comment |

BiNS has news of a series of walks lead by Ben Waddington of Birmingham Library concentrating on the design and typography history of the city as part of the Plus festival. Here are the dates:

Type Tour of Digbeth – 17, 18, 19 October, 12.30 – 14.30pm
Baskerville’s Birmingham – 20 October 12.30 – 14.30pm
City Centre Type Tour – 21 October, 12.30 – 14.30pm
All priced at £10

Waddington has done many of these in the past – here’s more info on his Baskerville walk (from where I nicked the above image). Personally the Digbeth one looks the most fascinating. I’d imagine the letterforms will reflect the random evolution of the area over the last century rather well.

Details to follow on the Plus site.

© pete for Created in Birmingham, 2007. | One comment |

Work on the Charles Parker archive at the Central Library was recently completed and it’s being launched (as it were) at the AGM of the Friends of the Charles Parker Archive on September 28th. All are welcome.

Charles Parker was a pioneer of radio broadcasting and oral history in the 60s and 70s and did most of work in Birmingham with figures such as Ewan McColl and Peggy Seeger.

At his death in 1980 he left a huge archive illustrating all aspects of his life and work including correspondence, notebooks, transcripts of lectures, production books, articles, over 4,500 recordings of speech and music, and a library on the oral tradition, drama, music and politics. He was involved in anti-racist activity from the late 1950s and this is reflected in the collection which also includes rare and significant material on Gypsy and travelling communities. During his research he became increasingly aware of the ill-treatment of travellers and the prejudice which existed towards them. In 1969 a controversial eviction from a site in Birmingham led him to form the West Midlands Gypsy Liaison Group to campaign for travellers’ rights with his long time collaborator Phillip Donnellan.

The archive will be available on the Connecting Histories website and in the library while the AGM takes place at 6.30 pm on Friday 28 September in Conference Room 4 at Birmingham Central Library. For more details contact Pam Bishop on 0121 244 3513 or p.bishop [at] blueyonder.co.uk

© pete for Created in Birmingham, 2007. | 2 comments |