Created in Birmingham

Up and to the left a bit, Creative Wolverhampton seem justly chuffed that SP/ARK, the “specialist business incubator for digital creative industries at Wolverhampton Science Park”, is up for the UK Business Incubation (UKBI) Best Established Incubator of the Year Award.

The Flair Designer Maker Fair takes place at Light House in Wolverhampton on Saturday November 17th from 10am - 3pm.

Festive Flair returns for another Christmas season offering some of the region’s best contemporary and unique craft and designer wares. Soak up some festive cheer and stroll around over 40 stalls in the courtyard of the historic Chubb Buildings with a glass of warm mulled wine and buy hand-made craft pieces from high quality makers. Flair, Light House’s regular Designer Maker Fair aims to showcase the creative talent within the region so come and enjoy this original shopping experience, meet the designer makers themselves and find something delightful for everyone on your Christmas list. Admission free. All welcome.

Light House media and arts centre in Wolverhampton is celebrating its 21st birthday on Thursday 11 October with a party, a show and a DVD. The event is really aimed at past trainees and associates - the Light House Family if you will - but I got an invite so it’s not exactly exclusive.

As well as drinks we are presenting the work of director and screenwriter Sean Spencer and launching our new DVD featuring short films produced at the centre over the past 21 years. Light House is an award winning production company with an impressive list of titles to its name and this evening we will be showcasing a number of short films as well as inviting Sean Spencer to take the stage and talk about his career since graduating from Light House in 1999.

The evening will begin with a screening of Sean’s work including a number of edgy and distinctive short films that have been screened worldwide catching the attention of high profile organisations such as the British Film Institute and the BBC. Sean is now regularly approached to undertake consultancy work, script editing and mentoring for companies such as Frontline Productions and currently has a slate of feature films in development.

If you know of anyone who’s been involved with Light House over the years please tell them about this, and if you’d like to go yourself RSVP to plot [at] light-house.co.uk or 01902 716055.

Creative Wolverhampton has a massive listing of Arts & Museums Events for October on their blog, should you fancy a trip out west.

The next Out of Hours at Light House is on Monday 3rd September, 5.30-7.30pm and is all about funding. While it takes place in Wolverhampton a lot of these organisations are West Mids-wide so this is pretty relevant to Birmingham folks. (And Light House is a lovely place to visit.)

Guests at this informal chatting session include:

Marina Ibrahim: SP/ARK

Nigel Jordan: Wolverhampton University Creative Media Technology project.

Matt Stocker: Advantage Creative Fund

Chris Adams: Creative and Knowledge Industries Business Adviser for Business Link West Midlands.

Dave Taylor: TIC

Dave Roberts: Creative Launchpad

Sarah Bell: Music for Media Project

Peter McLuskie: PLOT

They’ll all spend five minutes of so explaining what they do and who they can help and then there’ll be a chance to mingle and ask them stuff.

Début are a publishing house based in Wolverhampton who specialise in art and design books. They’ve currently got two releases, 99 Silhouettes exploring the medium of the shadow “from signage on toilet doors to Japanese shadow puppet theatre” and Free?Fonts listing some of the many shareware and freeware fonts available and putting the culture of free fonts into some context.

Their next project is Branded consisting of logos submitted by 130 Artists, Agencies and Designers. This is due out later this Summer.

Presumably to raise funds for the printing of Branded they’re currently selling 99 Silhouettes and Free?Fonts at 50% off retail in their shop.

What I find interesting about Début is their open submissions system where anyone can enter a contribution for their books. Presumably this gives them a greater depth and range is content. I’ll be watching them with interest.

Hat tip to Creative Wolverhampton.

Ian Reynold’s Nodding at the Back photography exhibition gets another airing at Light House in Wolverhampton with a launch this Wednesday where Ian will be talking about his work at 6.30pm.

Punch Records were inspired to commission Ian Reynolds, one of Birmingham’s maverick image purveyors and a fan of hip-hop culture, to produce this collection of images: to capture live performance, represent the true meaning of hip-hop and re-create moments in history. These images of local, national and international artists represent Ian’s style and his charismatic approach, and give the audience a glimpse of some of the most influential musical artists to have graced Birmingham.

You might remember the exhibition when it was on display at Birmingham’s Central Library last year, as reported in this BBC interview. The Light House show runs until September 14th and there’s an additional “free drop-in DJ workshop on Thursday 9 August, 1-4pm provided by Punch Records. Children, young people and adults welcome.” Email kathryn@light-house.co.uk for more details.

Private View is tonight at The Sheila Cooke Foundation in Wolverhampton, an intriguing little artists boutique shop that I’ve been meaning to check out for a while now. So I will. And then I’ll dash back for the Pub Conversations. Phew!

If you fancy sampling a shedload of creativity and buying some stuff this weekend you could do much worse that go to the Flair Fair in Wolverhampton on Saturday.

Light House’s renowned Flair Designer Maker Fair will return this June. Featuring over 40 of the region’s best artists and makers who will be exhibiting and selling their work in the historic courtyard of the Chubb Buildings. Ranging from illustration and photography to ceramics, textiles and jewellery there will be something to suit your fancy whether it be a gift for someone or a piece of original art for your home. Graduates from Wolverhampton School of Art and Design will also be selling work which will be exhibited at their Degree Show during June - don’t miss this opportunity to buy unique craft and art pieces from the next generation of designers.

Runs from 11am - 4pm at Light House just by Wolverhampton train and bus stations. Admission is free.

The July Out of Hours at Light House in Wolverhampton is a rather pertinent one for this site as it’s all about blogging.

Out Of Hours: Monday 2 July 2007, 5.30-7.30pm.

This evening we’re talking Blogging and we have some experienced bloggers on hand to guide us, including Pete Ashton of Created in Birmingham [that’s me!], Joe Butcher, Steve Campbell of Creative Wolverhampton and Stefan Lewandowski from 3Form, an innovative web development company who have created numerous blogs for both commercial and private applications. If you want to know more about blogging, (is it only a social activity or can it be part of a wider business strategy?) or just want to meet interesting people, then come along to this event.

I gather these are pretty informal events taking place in the cafe and other than reciting my usual mantra of “everyone with something to say should blog and if they blog they must link” I’ll be up for answering any questions you might have about this platform.

More details on the Digital Central site.

Mr Silke is one of those collective things that seems to pop out of nowhere and amaze you with its scale and ambition. Whether it lives up to its aims remains to be seen but whatever happens the side effects should be positive and interesting. This is taken from Creative Wolverhampton:

From off the streets of Wolverhampton comes the Silke Collective. A group of like-minded, inspired individuals, working together to lead fulfilling, creative lives. Members of the 200 strong collective share resources, ideas and initiatives in order to gain visibility in a notoriously difficult part of the country. Artists, in particular, find themselves leaving university with huge debts and very little chance of paying them back through the profession for which they trained. The collective hopes to improve this situation.

Anyone can join the collective, as long as they are willing to help in its success. It is currently considering art exhibitions, music promotions, publishing and even a regular bazaar of small businesses, artists and crafts-persons.

They currently use the Wolverhampton Little Civic as their drop-in and the first official but very informal meeting is on May 26 between 10am and 3pm. There will also be a small exhibition of art, film and photography alongside readings and poetry recitals. In the downstairs café-bar there will be a book-sale specialising in literary fiction and books to inspire creativity. Everyone is welcome.

The Flair Designer Maker Fair at Light House in Wolverhampton on June 23rd features 40 artists and makers from the region exhibiting and selling their work, along with graduates from Wolverhampton School of Art and Design. It runs from 11am to 4pm in the covered courtyard of the Chubb Buildings.

Ranging from illustration and photography to ceramics, textiles and jewellery there will be something to suit your fancy whether it be a gift for someone or a piece of original art for your home.

Artists to be exhibiting include graphic designer Louise Carrier who produces a unique range of prints, cards and bookmarks, Celine Appleyard who produces distinctive ceramic homeware and Claire Buchanan who makes beautiful crochet jewellery.

Full press release here and for more information you can contact Lindsay Wiggin on 01902 716055 or info@light-house.co.uk.

“Makers”… I guess that’s a way of saying “craft” without the oldey worldey connotations?