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 |

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 |

Kate Chapman & Charlotte Goodwin - Amplifying the Map

I have to admit to be SUPER excited about the impending re-opening of the mac.  So ANY news, or any work linked to the opening, in turn excites me too.  In addition, my personal interests are deeply rooted in events which involve an element of participation – and with that in mind, I’m particularly excited to touch upon ‘Site and Sounds’.

“Site and Sounds offers a taste of the activities planned for mac’s re-opening in 2010 including workshops, walks and the premiere of a specially composed anthem for mac. mac’s Associate Artists Stan’s Cafe and Motionhouse Dance Theatre will also be presenting work as part of the summer programme including an adventure in the dark and some in-your-face dancing.”

There’s a substantial programme of events leading up to the re-opening – details of which can be found on the macartists website, as well as information on how to book for workshop places.  I was excited to see a screen-printing workshop advertised, then realised I am sadly 16 years too old to take part. Sniffle.  If you DO fit into that age category however, I think it’ll be a lot of fun!

I’m also curious about the recent theme of ‘mapping’ which keeps cropping up in projects and artist’s works of late.  This time, artists Kate Chapman and Charlotte Goodwin are exploring the mapping theme by inviting people who live, work or play close to mac to re-discover familiar places and explore places they have never visited before, sharing their thoughts and observations to create an audio map of the changing landscape.  All of these recordings will feed into an audio map – a web of downloadable audio tracks focusing on different locations in a mile radius of Cannon Hill Park.  I’m wondering if any CiB readers have experienced any other map-themed artworks/projects of late – if so, send me an email or leave a comment.

I will also be interested to see ‘Underground’,  performed by four dancers from Motionhouse Dance Theatre.

“Set within a rocking tubular structure, using physical dance, poignant imagery and surprising aerial encounters, ‘Underground’, explores the reality of train travel.”

Considering the title of the performance, I imagine it would originally by inspired by the experience of underground travel as opposed to regular trains.  How this will translate both to regular train travel as well as the open space of Cannon Hill Park will remain a mystery until the performance itself, which is happening Saturday 18th July at Cannon Hill Park at 11.30am, 1pm and 3pm.

Motionhouse Dance Theatre - Underground

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

The investment means that Hustle will relocate to Birmingham, and the city will provide a new backdrop for the drama which is broadcast across the world. This is a major coup for the city and forms part of a wider strategy by Screen WM to secure and create a more sustainable screen media sector in the West Midlands. The series will bring an estimated £1.2 million into the regional economy and will provide jobs for local crew.

The Hustle team are due to move to Birmingham and will be living in the city for the duration of the filming. In addition to financial investment, Screen WM have played a significant role in attracting the new series of Hustle to the West Midlands, working closely with Film Birmingham, providing locations and crew support. The producers were attracted to the West Midlands on the basis of the region’s diverse locations, excellent facilities and experienced crew.

Simon Crawford Collins, Joint Managing Director of Kudos said: “We are hugely excited about Hustle’s move to Birmingham.  It’s a transformed city whose cool new locations have rarely been used for TV dramas and we will hope it will become a hub for Kudos’s output for many years to come.”

© Kate Spragg for Created in Birmingham, 2009. | Add a comment |

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 |

Found via a tweet from Gecal.

Any thoughts?

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

Ulfah Arts is based at the Highgate Craft Centre and, as the about page says, it’s:

a pioneering arts organisation, which acts as an umbrella to a number of initiatives specialising in faith and the arts. This includes projects around Muslim women in the arts and interfaith work using arts to name just a couple. Over the years we have developed a specific expertise in working with Islam and Muslim communities.

They put on events at The Dum and have worked with BM&AG, Thinktank, Birmingham Uni and Birmingham Eid Mela among many others.  There’s more info on the Ulfah Arts website.

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

I’m often frustrated by the stamp of the council’s logo on everything creative that is sanctioned. Whenever I see that logo, there’s a switch that flips in my mind, and (probably unfairly) signals to me: “Hmmm, probably a bit dull. Move along.”

Would this logo:

turn you off from an arts event?  Do the council need to tag everything they touch?  Aren’t they entitled to let us know when they get behind something cultural?

© chrisunitt for Created in Birmingham, 2008. | 11 comments |

I’ve had a nice email from Sam about Bloco Louco, which I’ll let him tell you about:

Bloco Louco is a samba band/community making some awesome music – arguably some of the best unamplified beats in the city. We were started with Lottery funding, and since that happened a year and a half ago we have gone from strength to strength. Now we are in a position to more than double our numbers, from about 10 currently to a veritable army of 30 drummers.

We rehearse every week at the Ladywood Arts Centre, B16 8TR
7:15pm – 9:45pm every Tuesday
Check out http://www.blocolouco.com/ for more info.

Also to launch this new growth phase, we will be playing 4 SETS at the Birmingham ArtsFest. This will be an amazing extravaganza of talent – among other things there will be a world record attempt during DholFest, so be there!

Thanks, Sam.

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

If you’re interested/involved in any aspect of filmmaking or media come along and join us on Saturday 30th August 2008 from 5:30 pm at Lloyds Bar on Broad Street.

We’ll bring a home made sign or something to put on the table so you can find us when you arrive and I expect we’ll be there for at least a few hours before (maybe) moving on to another venue.

Nothing heavy – just a chance for people who are into the same thing to meet up and have a chat.

There’s a Facebook group for interested peeps to join too.

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

The video has generated a great deal of coverage and no small amount of controversy. You can see it for yourself here:

Jiva is giving a talk at BIAD on 14 May and will be performing a piece called ‘The Terror Of Living‘ at Warwick Arts Centre on 21 May, both as part of the Fierce Festival.

His own website is at www.jivajiva.com.

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

Creative Republic (who fund this blog) are organising a series of events over the next few months, the first of which focuses on the West Midlands Cultural Olympiad which is

a four year celebration of culture and creativity that will be launched over the weekend of 26 September as part of the plans for the London 2012 Games

Details on the background to all this can be found at www.london2012.com/beinspired.

Here’s the invitation to this particular event. Attendance is free but you’re asked to register here and also encouraged to sign up to the Creative Republic Charter (if you agree with the principles, of course).

Update – there’s also a Facebook event for this.

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