The organisers of World Aids Day Birmingham are doing a T-shirt competition and are asking for submissions along the following themes:

• Reflection: Let us not forget those whom we have lost to AIDS.
• Education: Saving Lives “Get Tested” “22,000 people in the UK do not know they are infected with HIV”. Being tested and an early diagnosis can save your life.
• Celebration: Rejoice for the lives of those living with HIV & AIDS.

The deadline for entries is 1 November.

Incidentally, the site itself is oddly silent on the fact, but World Aids Day is 1 December.

We’ve got a pair of tickets to see acclaimed comic and Fringe favourite Paul Sinha at Town Hall on Tuesday 23rd November up for grabs.

Here’s a little more about Paul:

Paul Sinha has spent much of the previous decade garnering rave reviews for his self-deprecating tales of his life as a GP, lovelorn gay bachelor, quiz fanatic and social coward. This year, he doesn’t want to discuss turning forty, because he has bigger fish to fry. A racist called him a racist. Paul would like to fight back.

And if that hasn’t tempted you, here’s a selection of glowing reviews from his recent Edinburgh Festival show and more:

‘Superbly crafted and erudite stand-up… highly recommended.’ ***** Scotsgay
‘This is one of the best written shows in Edinburgh right now.’ ***** The Skinny
‘Mesmerising… entertaining and thought provoking’ **** The Scotsman
‘Alluring mix of quick wit, self-deprecation and fierce intelligence’ **** Fest
‘Impressive… a breathless polemic relieved by sharp jokes.’ **** Chortle
‘Intelligent and bitingly radical… genuinely funny… enjoyable and uplifting.’ **** Broadway Baby
‘Fast-paced, surprising twists and laugh-out-loud punchlines’ **** Hairline
‘Paul Sinha is a star.’ **** Edinburghisfunny
‘A triumph…explosive punchlines and laser guided political asides.’ Independent On Sunday
‘Reassuringly intelligent and very funny’ Observer

To win, all you have to do is leave a comment on this post with your name and we’ll pick one winner at random at 12noon tomorrow.

Good luck!

The first Visualise Festival will be held on 21 – 31 October, as a major celebration of young people’s visual creativity. They’re calling for anyone under the age of 24 to submit their artwork as part of the Young People’s Open Visual Art Competition, which will hold a high profile exhibition in Birmingham City centre.

All forms of artwork are accepted (apart from films), and must be no bigger than A3 in size. There are also some prizes up for grabs and will be awarded to 1st, 2nd and 3rd place entries in each of the age brackets, along with an art box for every shortlisted entry.

Deadline for entries is 4th October 2010, and notification of selected entries will be made during the week commencing 18 October.

For more information, visit the Visualise-Birmingham website, or contact the Visualise team at info@visualise-birmingham.org or by calling 07886 367 544 or 07971 824 188

To enter – email the name of your organisation to createdinbirmingham@gmail.com using SUPPORT as the subject.

We’ll draw a winner on Wednesday 7 July at about 5pm.

CiB Supporters is our way of helping to keep Created in Birmingham going. For £75 for 12 months we plaster your name and logo in the blog’s sidebar, in a monthly ‘thank you’ post, on our Supporters page and on our Facebook Page. We also include you in a special Twitter list and give you regular  mentions at the end of CiBmail.

We’ll even send you a Christmas card.

Sounds good? As online advertising goes it’s cheap. It also helps to keep this website going, which hopefully you think of as a Good Thing.

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.

He is now working on another project based around dance, but can’t come up with a title. He would like CiB readers to come up with a snappy title and the winning chosen title gets a signed print and invite to the private view when the exhibition launches.

The work is around dance and was shot in Birmingham, you can view working progress here.

Please put your ideas in the comments and remember to leave your email address (which won’t be shown). Good Luck!

Some brilliant experimental musicians have provided tracks which animators can download for free. The animators need to use the tracks as a starting point to create music videos which can be submitted to the challenge Vimeo group. The best and brightest offerings will then be screened at a special event in Wolverhampton’s Light House Cinema on 21st July.

The bands supplying tunes are Pram (Domino Records), Epic 45 (Make Mine Music), Laurel Collective and Beat To Paris.

To enter:

1. Download one or more of the tracks.
2. Create an animated music video for the track(s) of your choice.
3. Upload the finished video(s) to The Great Animation Challenge Vimeo Group anytime before the 6th July deadline.
4. Contact david.luke.allen@bcu.ac.uk with your full name, email address, phone number and the title of your short.
5. The animators behind the best shorts will then be contacted in July for a screening copy of the piece.

The contest is open to animators across the UK at all levels (entries by studios are welcome) and the winner of the best short will receive a subscription to Imagine Magazine and a copy of  The Imagine Animation Directory at the Light House screenings on 21st July 2009.

Katie Parry aka @supercoolkp, a designer with supercool, did just that and managed to get her tweet read on air on the evening news.

Katie said:

I can’t begin to tell you how chuffed I was – I watch Channel 4 News every weeknight so to see my (Twitter) name on the screen was brilliant.

And it’s another small yet powerful example of the amazing connective potential of Twitter. How else would a graphic designer in Brum get their poem recited on the national news?

The segment is available to watch on YouTube and the best of the rest are on Channel 4 online.

I have two reasons for posting this:

1. It amused me that the site talks up ‘free entry to the splendid Birmingham Artsfest’ when entry is free anyway
2. It’s good to see Birmingham being talked about as a destination for an arty getaway

There’s a few other items bundled into the package that might make it worth throwing your name into the hat. Link to the competition.

Elsewhere on the site there’s a good profile of Studio 4 and mentions given to the Outcrowd Collective, Them Lot, Capsule, Beat13 and Fluid’s Lee Basford. ‘Log’ Roper from Studio4 ‘paints a rosy picture of a thriving, supportive scene, where musicians and artists intermingle’

The winner won’t be paid for their hard work but they will get a bottle of champagne, a couple of tickets for the ball and their work will be seen by 320 of the city’s keenest young suits.

The criteria:

• The Invitation must include space for the venue, time and date as well as sponsorship logos
• The Menu should include space for details of the meal and sponsorship logos
• Designs must be no larger than A4
• It must avoid any special finishes, such as cut-outs
• It must not use bright colours, such as orange (PMS 021), fluorescent colours or metallic inks
• You must have authorization to use any logos/images in your design

Designs need to be in by 21 November, give the Birmingham Future office a shout on 0121 632 2200 if you want to get involved.