Created in Birmingham

Aaron Wright is something of a CiB alumnus having worked in the CiB Shop a year ago. He’s currently at the Live Art Development Agency in London and having a whale of a time from what I can gather.

Anyway, he emailed me to say there’s a couple of shows of particular note that are on in Birmingham in the next week or so.

SHAMS: Reykjavik

This is at the MAC from today until Saturday. Aaron saw it in London the other week and says:

It was really great – innovative immersive theatre done with real style which was unusually matched with great content – one man starting a new life in Iceland. It’s only for 25 audience members at a time and you get to wear a nice boiler suit

nOSTalgie: a cabaret

This is on Saturday at the CBSO Centre. The blurb says:

BCMG presents an evening of political songs and new vocal settings, under the brilliant direction of Dominic Muldowney, former Head of Music at the National Theatre

Buy a drink, take a seat and be transported by our cabaret singers, Mary Carewe and Richard Morris, between 1930s Germany and contemporary Britain, during an evening of entertaining delights from both eras

This month The Producers’ Forum is partnering with Screenwriters Forum and Writing West Midlands to run a speed dating session between writers and producers.

25 May. More info and registration here.

Regional organisations getting together to introduce their members to each other is a VERY SENSIBLE THING. It’s actually kinda baffling that this doesn’t happen more often. More please.

Over the past few months a group of people have been taking part in MOB:

MOB is a project inspired by the current craze of ‘flash mobbing’ where seemingly unplanned ‘happenings’ take place involving hundreds of children, young people and adults. MOB is about creating new ‘disturbances’ that help share the values of the Olympics & Paralympics.

Among various other things (the full list is actually pretty exhausting), they’ve performed at Prince Albert School, spent a day with First Light Movies, did a photoshoot with Adrian Burrows and rode a red bus around the city doing good deeds.

All of the activity has been collected together on this Tumblr.

The final part of the project is an exhibition that’ll be launched at The Drum on Monday 18 April at 6.30pm.

If the text is too small there’s more information on the Light House website.

The poster was a tad long so I’ve cropped it a bit. I’d best give a nod to the people who had their logos on the bottom – Light House, Reference Point, We Make Art and Barnbrook.net.

I was at the Biting Back event on Monday. It was good – I generally come out in a rash when exposed to too much of the more abstract end of artspeak and thankfully (for me – I’m sure some love it) that was avoided, by and large.

I’d been asked to talk about the Created in Birmingham Shop in one of the breakout sessions – I talked over some pics that told the story of how the shop started and finished and how the torch was passed to the folks at We Are Birmingham. I’ll probably put those slides online at some point, but I used a few photos that I’ll need to attribute properly, so that might take me a while.

In the meantime, there are videos of the main sessions online. I’d particularly recommend watching Christiana Galanopoulu’s keynote:

and, with more of a local flavour, Airan Berg’s keynote:

It’s the Biting Back event on Monday. An event about:

how arts sector professionals and individual artists can learn from examples of successful partnerships in austere cultural landscapes

I’m sure there are still some tickets available if you’re still thinking about coming.

The website’s been a hive of activity over the past couple of weeks, with links to similarly themed events happening around the country. Sandra Hall from Friction Arts has written about what she’s hoping to get out of it and Helga Henry’s written about why the event is important.

There’s also been some strong words from Pete in advance of the event.

Today’s the last day for picking up discounted early bird tickets for Biting Back, taking place on 21 March:

a one day event from Birmingham City Council, mac and Sampad that will address how arts sector professionals and individual artists can learn from examples of successful partnerships in austere cultural landscapes.

Tickets will still be available, they’ll just be more expensive and saving money is the name of the game here. With less cash around to make things happen over the coming years, the idea is to hear from people (some from Birmingham, some from much further away) with practical experience of interesting partnerships and different ways of working.

The schedule for the day is here. I’ll be there talking about what we did with the Created in Birmingham Shop last year. Friction Arts, Stan’s Cafe, the Flyover Show, La Tabacalera, MIR Festival and more will feature too.

Biting Back is also on Twitter, Facebook and Lanyrd.

Since we first introduced Project Pigeon, they’ve been busy working on their community pigeon loft, which looks to have had some interesting design suggestions. Tomorrow marks the first of their workshops providing a step by step guide to keeping pigeons.

The workshops will take place from 2-4pm on the dates below, at Project Pigeon’s Loft, Milk Street, Digbeth, Birmingham (in Boxxed’s backyard opposite Birmingham Backpackers under a viaduct). It’s free to go along, but places should be booked in advance via email at: projectpigeondigbeth@gmail.com

Here’s what they’ve got lined up through until April;

Saturday 19th February:  Introduction to pigeon fancying

Find out about the history of pigeon fancying, meet some pigeon fanciers and find out about why they keep pigeons, meet Project Pigeon’s birds and watch some pigeons fly.

Friday 25th February:  A pigeon’s home and life

This workshop will be focused on the different seasons in a pigeons life, from racing season to breeding season.  We will also look at the different kinds of pigeon lofts there are.

Saturday 26th February:  Day to day pigeon loft management

How to keep your pigeons clean and happy – from cleaning the loft to giving the pigeons a bath.

Friday 4th March:  Making nest boxes and perches

A woodwork session where we will design and make essential items for the inside of pigeon lofts and make any loft repairs

Saturday 5th March:  Racing pigeons, Birmingham rollers and tipplers

There are many kinds of pigeons, racing pigeons are used in racing, Birmingham rollers in sequence flying and tipplers in endurance flying.

Friday 11th March:  A pigeon’s diet

Like any athlete a pigeons diet is very important.  In this session you will find out about all the vital vitamins, minerals and foods needed to keep pigeons on top form.

Saturday 12th March:  Veterinary skills

Vets in the UK know little about racing pigeons, and if you took your pigeon to the vet every time there was something wrong it would cost a lot and wouldn’t be practical.  Learn about what kinds of injuries pigeon get and how you can help your pigeon.

Friday 18th March:  Breeding

Come and see and learn about squeekers (baby pigeons)!

Saturday 19th March:  Training and racing

How do pigeons find their way home?  How do you train a racing pigeon?  How do you win a race?!

Saturday 2nd April:  Making a magazine about pigeons

Help Project Pigeon design a magazine based on what we have learnt during the workshops.

Saturday 16th April:  Come and watch a live pigeon race!

You might have been to the horses or to the dogs but have you ever seen a pigeon race?  Now is your chance!  Please email if you intend to come to this because the time of the race will only be known on Saturday morning – the morning of the race.

‘Home, Identity and Citizenship: Preserving, using and making a regional screen heritage’ is taking place on 5 March, at Margaret St Campus. Hosted by Birmingham Centre for Media and Cultural Research and sponsored by Screen West Midlands, the event promises a day of screenings, presentations and workshops.

The event is part of the ongoing project to explore film and television materials concerning the pop music of Birmingham, documentary and workplaces such as Cadbury’s and the BBC at Pebble Mill.

This is an opportunity to see screenings from the midlands collection of film heritage, along with how to use and develop archives in the digital age and hear about the work of these Digital Film Archive Funded projects.

The event is free and open throughout the day to the public from 11am – 4.30pm.

A full schedule is to be announced, subscribe or check back to the website for further information.

Screen West Midlands are hosting City As A Platform, at Aston University Business School and Conference Centre this Thursday, 17 Feb.

In an era of public sector cuts and greater emphasis on local engagement, what happens when a city opens out its public infrastructure, technologies, data and buildings to digital media content developers?

The event starts at 9.30, and contemplates ‘The future for the creative industries’, with a variety of sessions and speakers throughout the day, including keynote speaker Jon Kingsbury, Director, Creative Economy Programmes at NESTA.

Panellists will explore the contours of these emerging ‘urban operating systems’ and consider the implications for society and the built environment through sessions including:

• Open data: the challenges and opportunities
• Contracting: navigating the public sector procurement map
• Make it local: developing public services
• Library as a platform: opening up archives
• Transport: playing the daily commute
• Healthcare: bringing greater benefits through digital

Panellists and speakers come from across the public and private sectors, including the Greater London Authority, Rewired State, Rattle, University of Warwick, Maverick TV, Digital Birmingham, Mudlark, Podnosh, Birmingham City University and In Cahoots.

Limited places are available for this event. For more info, full list of speakers and to sign up, visit the Eventbrite page.

On 22 February, the #KittenCamp tour is heading to Birmingham. Since launching in London last year, it’s developed quite a cult following amongst creative and ‘web-loving, media types’, as a chance to meet up, hear from a few show and tell-ers, have a drink and chat about memes.

The event will be taking place at The Victoria, and will welcome Myles McLeod, Animation Writer and Director of The Brothers McLeod and David Edmundson-Bird, Director of Digital Marketing Communications at Manchester Met University, who’ll be introducing some fun and interesting things.

Director of Rubber Republic, Chris Quigley, will also be parading the event dressed as a giant cat, and talking about the latest internet memes and viral trends.

Tickets are free, and can be booked via Eventbrite, where you can also find more info on the event.

On 14 Janurary, John Parman will be holding a free workshop for arts non-profits, community groups and social enterprises, offering skills in fundraising.

The workshop will take place at 2:00 – 4:30 pm, in Birmingham City University’s Baker Building, room 210, City North Campus, Perry Barr.

This workshop is a seminar in techniques, skills and games that can build or turnaround an organization’s capacity to do easy, effective wide audience development programs. Participants will learn what organizational fund raising takes and ways to test skills and build morale in a professional environment. The session will not be taped or otherwise recorded.

There will be a question and answer session immediately following the training.

John Parman first became involved in fundraising in 2003 as a grants writer and talent researcher at GlobalVision, a documentary film company in New York. He has documented success in group, online and face-to-face stewardship and cultivation. He is studying at Birmingham City University for his Master of Arts degree.

If you’d like to go, register your place at http://newgiving.eventbrite.com

Joined by Aura Satz and a line up of DJ’s playing winter horror, creepy electronica and spectral pop, VIVID are offering an alternative to the office Christmas party, hosting Nightmare Before Christmas on 18 December.

Marking the close of their 2010 programme and LANGUAGE season, with work from artist Aura Satz, who will also be performing.

Satz’s work explores ghostly presence and illusions through performance and sound and is often focussed on unusual sonic devices, early musical instruments and automata.

Music throughout the evening will be provided by COLOUR, John Napier and Dan Le Trap, plus more to be announced.

The party starts at 8.30 and goes on ’til late. Tickets are £5 and can be bought online.

White Horse Harborne are holding their second Christmas Bazaar on Thursday 9 December. They’re giving visitors the delight of picking up some locally produced gifts throughout the day and into the night, starting at 12 noon on to 11pm.

They’ll have an array of artwork, photography, craft, fashion and jewellery, along with a Christmas BBQ – perfect for keeping toastie.

If you happen to have work which you’d like to sell or display at the bazaar, get in touch with shelli.graham@gmail.com

After a great year, raising over £9,000, OxjamBrum are ending 2010 on a high by teaming up with Moseley Folk Festival to present a Chrsitmas Ceilidh on 17 December.

The evening will take place at Moseley All Services Club, from 7:30 – 11:30pm, with entertainment provided by Cut The Mustard, who’ll be performing some Ceilidh classics.

Tickets are £4 which can be bought online or on the door. All proceeds of course going to Oxfam.