Following on from my previous post, I was alerted to another site focusing on the digitisation of collections, offering similar functions to the Pre Raphaelites site, but covering a greater range of collections.

Inspiration Bank showcases rarely seen artworks and decorative objects from Midlands-based gallery, museum and library archives - currently including Birmingham Central Library, New Art Gallery Walsall, the Potteries Museum and Art Gallery and Wolverhampton Arts and Museums Service.  The easy-to-use site contains over 5,000 zoomable images, including artworks by Van Gogh, Lowry and Epstein, glazed ceramics from the heart of the potteries and locally produced objects from the time of the Industrial Revolution.  If you follow the links above, you’ll see that not all of these destinations have their own dedicated site, and so it seems even more important and exciting that Inspiration Bank exists to unlock some of their hidden treasures!

Whilst use of the site is completely free, you do need to register with them in order to collect and comment on your favourite zoomable images using an online album.  Schools and colleges interested in discussing how they could make the most out of the site within the classroom should contact Inspiration Bank manager David Allen at info@inspirationbank.com or 0121 204 9886.

Inspiration Bank was built by and is managed by Birmingham City University’s Media Content Lab, who do lots more interesting projects besides - so go have a browse of their site!

© Adrienne for Created in Birmingham, 2009. | Permalink | One comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags:

Feed enhanced by Better Feed from Ozh

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. | Permalink | 3 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: bmag, tak

Feed enhanced by Better Feed from Ozh

Moseley Festival 2008 at the Patrick Kavanagh

Happening annually for over 30 years, organised entirely by volunteers from Moseley, this year’s festival has the biggest line-up to date featuring over 80 creative and community events in more than 50 locations happening between 26 June and 5 July 2009.  That’s a pretty packed line-up in a short space of time, so to make sure you don’t miss out on anything that particularly tickles your fancy make sure to visit the festival site which has all the latest news and details on all the events.  With a line-up that includes (but is certainly not limited to) Morris Dancing, jazz improvisation, burlesque, farmers markets, open gardens, Rocky Horror, Handel, and an art trail, you’re going to need to be quick on your feet if you want to see even half of what’s on offer!

Live music at the Fighting Cocks 2008

Moseley Festival street fair 2008

© Adrienne for Created in Birmingham, 2009. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags:

Feed enhanced by Better Feed from Ozh

Running from 30th June until 12th July, Snoddy has selected work from the Visual collection, taking nature as his theme.  The exhibition, held at Baskerville House, will feature works by a variety of artists including: Daniel Bosworth, Ian Bratley, Louise Cattrell, previous Ikon exhibitor Ravi Deepres, Anne Guest, the craft-tastic Betty Pepper, and award-winning Birmingham-based photographer Stuart Whipps.

The Art of Ideas II brings a second year of high profile debates to Birmingham audiences, endeavouring to instigate lively debate around the ‘Art of Collecting’ as well as the relationship between museums and collections in the UK.  You might wonder why this is currently so relevant to Birmingham, but with the Ikon gallery in the midst of a feasibility study (in association with Tate Connects) focusing on a proposed museum and permanent collection of contemporary art in Birmingham, it seems exactly the right time to be holding such discussions.  If this subject tickles your fancy, the free discussion, ‘A New Museum for the 21st Century’ will be happening on 8th July from 18:00 - 19:30 at Baskerville House.  I’ll be keen to see whether anyone dare broach the subject of the current economic climate and it’s impact upon collecting!

A wide variety of other free events are happening over the course of the programme, which include tours of the city’s cultural destinations, family fun days and other social events which celebrate the creative industries in Birmingham.  Hooray for summer fun - July looks set to be a lot busier than June, and I’ll be featuring many of these events on CiB!  Full details can be found on the Art of Ideas II site - although please note that many of these events are run by other organisations and you may need to book places.

© Adrienne for Created in Birmingham, 2009. | Permalink | One comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags:

Feed enhanced by Better Feed from Ozh

As was previously mentioned here on CiB, the 4am Project is the genius concept of Karen Strunks, a Birmingham photographer who singlehandedly convinced thousands of strangers across the world that it would be a great idea to stay awake/get up at 4am to document that moment for no other reason than to be part of a larger group of people doing just that.

And people, in their droves, agreed that it was a great idea and stayed up (or set their alarms, like me!) and took photographs and sent them to the 4am website, or tagged them on Flickr so that everyone could see a snapshot of the world, of their world, at such an uncomfortably late/early hour.  Who knew you could create such extensive social capital before breakfast?!

Building upon the success of the previous event, 4am photos have continued to flood in, without being prompted to do so - and Karen has now decided it’s time to coordinate another 4am en masse.  The date of the next event is: 21/06/09.  (And in case you somehow missed it, the time will be 4am, and the place will be wherever you are!)

In addition, the 4am Project has been nominated for the Digital Press Awards, and if you think (like I do) that this project is a fab idea and a lot of fun, then vote for it to win!

© Adrienne for Created in Birmingham, 2009. | Permalink | 2 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: 4am Project, online, Photography, worldwide

Feed enhanced by Better Feed from Ozh

The event which has most piqued my curioisity is entitled “My Dad’s on Twitter but he doesn’t know why”.  More than just another opportunity to ‘talk shop’, this event promises to collate the ideas and input of attendees into a collaborative group mind map exploring how and why people use social media.  In addition, after the event there will be an opportunity for an online audience to have input into the map as well.  I’m keen to see how this will utilise Bubbl.us - something I stumbled across earlier this week, and which looks like another great free tool.

The event which has most piqued my TASTEBUDS however, is definitely the festival finale - a grand high tea for 300 creative workers in Fazeley Studio’s magnificently restored 19th century chapel reception.  Fazeley currently provides a high tea for tenants every Thursday and have decided to build upon the success of this for the festival.  I’ve been promised there are exciting and secretive things planned for this event which will be unveiled on the day, but if the promise of the tea alone isn’t enough of an incentive, there will also be a preview of the latest Ikon Eastside exhibition - an installation by an emerging Chinese artist called Xu Zhen.

For more details on all of the events taking place during the festival, the Fazeley Digital website will keep you in the loop,  as well as provide opportunities to sign-up for certain events and provide feedback/interact with others.

© Adrienne for Created in Birmingham, 2009. | Permalink | One comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Fazeley Digital, fazeley studios, festival

Feed enhanced by Better Feed from Ozh

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. | Permalink | 2 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: cannon hill park, mac, macartists, motionhouse dance theatre

Feed enhanced by Better Feed from Ozh

Friday, 05/06/09, 19:00

Ten high-backed chairs, some seating elderly people and some seating younger people, spanned the back of the stage area at The Door, the studio theatre at Birmingham Rep. Above this seating arrangement was a large screen, showing slow panoramics of the Birmingham skyline. In front of them, a gently-lit bed with a man lying down, a wheeled trolley next to him and a fan pointed at him.

A short film entitled “Hats” began. The first shot panned out to show a woman, with coarse patchy hair and a massive grin cackling as she tried on the most extravagant yellow hat with massive straw brim. She looked into the camera and said, “Yes. This is me.”

At this point, I have to admit to no longer being able to see very well due to the large amounts of tears gushing down my face - so if my descriptions fall short somehow, I apologise.

Rosetta Life is a charity dedicated to working with people who have life-threatening illnesses.  “The Magical Glow of the Co Op” was a rehearsed reading as part of the Rosetta Live celebrations that featured the work of two hospices; Birmingham St Mary’s Hospice in Selly Park and St Giles Hospice Whittington, near Lichfield. Working together, more than 30 hospice users generated a performance script that looked at the choices people face when dying and the difficulties they face when making these choices.  In the 10 chairs sat 3 professional actors (the fourth was lying on the bed), 6 hospice users and one care professional.  Throughout the reading hospice users took to the stage to perform alongside the professional actors which really added weight and poignancy (as well as some unexpected laughs) to the evening.

The performance finished with an aftershow discussion called ‘The Big Conversation – Let’s Talk About Living’.  The audience were invited to ask questions of the panel of hospice users who had taken part in the perfomance, health care practitioners and the actors who were still in character.  Until then, I had kept my eyes focused on the stage, hoping to hide anonymously at the edge of a row.  However once the lights went up, I really looked at the audience - at those people who had chosen to spend a night in the company of such a taboo subject.   The audience consisted of every economic/social/cultural background you can imagine, all sat in one small venue watching their loved ones perform, or the words of their lost loved one performed by their peers.  And there were no dry eyes.  Not one.

I feel excited that Birmingham East and North PCT were brave enough not only to fund this project, but also to enable Birmingham to become the first UK city that is making steps to talk openly about how it’s citizens positively approach life as it draws to a close, as well as how they want to be remembered. Created in Birmingham has always highlighted exciting and relevant creative ventures linked to the city, and I can’t think of a more perfect project to write about in my first post proper.  Actors, hospice users, venue and funders are all citizens of Birmingham, breaking new and important (if at times uncomfortable) ground.  This was a performance that anyone touched by illness should see, not just the friends and families of those performing.

“The Magical Glow of the Co-op” was just one small part of the Rosetta Live celebration running throughout June. It culminates in a film premiere at The Electric Cinema on 29th June commencing at 6.00pm.  To book, please contact bookings@rosettalive.org - I know I’m going to be there.

© Adrienne for Created in Birmingham, 2009. | Permalink | One comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: birmingham rep, cancer, performance, Rosetta Live

Feed enhanced by Better Feed from Ozh

'hello, my name is..'

I’d hoped to slip into CiB under the radar, anonymously, like a blog-thief in the night.  But it hasn’t really happened like that, and I’m now setting sail the CiB ship under what feels like extremely weighty expectations.

So, hi! I’m Adrienne.  I was born and grew up in Wolverhampton, I now work in West Brom, and spend nights out in Birmingham. (that’s not a Midlands hierarchy, just a train of thought..) I’ve worked in the arts forever and have a soft spot for anything handmade.  I ask a lot of questions, and sometimes muddle my words.  I find change stressful, but love being kept on my toes.  With that in mind, if you want to see anything done differently on here, let me know and I’ll see what I can do.

I love email, hate telephones, and as Kate quite rightly pointed out embrace using 140 characters or less.  I love technology, but not when it’s being mean – so I apologise for any error and/or warning messages you may have been seeing recently on the site.  I’m working on figuring it out, with the generous help of the CiB forefathers who’re infinitely more knowledgeable than me about such things.

I’m going to work on collating interesting Birmingham stuff for you to read, and in the meantime, whilst we iron out these glitches, don’t be shy.. say hello, and tell me something interesting!

© Adrienne for Created in Birmingham, 2009. | Permalink | 12 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags:

Feed enhanced by Better Feed from Ozh

I will let Adrienne introduce herself properly in due course, but just to say that she was chosen as editor for her wealth of experience with the arts, her wit and for her hunger to ask the questions that need answering. You can follow Adrienne on Twitter and give her a personal welcome.

I will be going back to write about music on the Colour blog this month, organising live music events in Birmingham, and I will be popping back to CiB to post when I get the itch to write about something relevant. I will also get round to starting my own blog sometime soon as somewhere to put down my wandering thought.

Their are many CiB readers who have helped and inspired me over the last few months but to mention a few: Chris, Pete, Helga, Lyle, Katie Parry, Kay Stanley, Kasper Sorensen, Abby Corfan, Nicky Getgood, Rob at BCMG, everyone who bought tees and totes, but most of all Matthew. Thanks everyone, and so long for now!

© Kate Spragg for Created in Birmingham, 2009. | Permalink | 5 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags:

Feed enhanced by Better Feed from Ozh

© Kate Spragg for Created in Birmingham, 2009. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Liz Hingley

Feed enhanced by Better Feed from Ozh

There will be a weekend of themed activities taking place along-side the performance including film screenings curated by 7 inch Cinema and Outer Sight, family stuff and ooh la la even some fancy French cuisine.

Stan’s Cafe presents: 24 Hour Scalextric. 13 - 14th June. Weekend tickets: £5 / £3

© Kate Spragg for Created in Birmingham, 2009. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: stans cafe

Feed enhanced by Better Feed from Ozh

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. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: BBC, Hustle, Kudos, screen wm, Survivors

Feed enhanced by Better Feed from Ozh

Moseley Folk Festival by H4NUM4N

But thousands upon thousands of music lovers, from metal heads to twee folksters head to the Midlands every year to experience our independently run festivals, well crafted events that are deeply rooted in the community they came from.

So, forget V, Leeds and Glasto, get yourself along to one of these West Mids fests:

BASS Festival (British Arts and Street Sounds) is the UK’s only month long celebration of Black Music and Art. Every June, the UK comes alive with a phenomenal line up of events, new commissions, gigs, exhibitions, master classes, showcases, club nights, theatre, conferences and film. This year’s theme is ‘Inspired by Africa and Africans’, celebrating and exploring Africa’s influence on the UK arts scene.

When: June. Cost: Free - £10

Moseley Folk Festival has been running for 4 years now, programming  a healthy mix of traditional, contemporary and downright experimental folk and acoustic music. The festival is held in what feels like a world away from Brum’s City Centre within the gorgeous woodlands of Moseley Park. This year’s line up includes: Beth Orton, Saint Etienne, Jethro Tull and Kris Drever, John McCusker & Roddy Woomble.

When: 5th, 6th and 7 th September. Cost: £10 - £65.

Supersonic Festival is definitely one for those who don’t like the mud, but do like loud and experimental music. If you think you don’t, go along to this Custard Factory festival anyway and you may just have an audio visual experience to remember, which has to beat standing the rain listening to Kasabian, right? See the Capsule website for the full line-up.

When: 24th - 25th July. Cost: £15 - £75

Indie Tracks Festival is all a twee navelgazer could ever need in a festival; indiepop bands, a museum, churches, farms and most importantly stream trains. Set further afield in Derby, this fairly new and unspoilt festival is certainly worth the journey from Brum, and is steeped in rural Midlandsness.

When: 24th - 25th July. Cost: £30 - £55

Other more than worthy regional mentions to go Gigbeth, Birmingham International Jazz Festival, CoCoMad, Wolvestock and  Summer Sundae. This isn’t a definitive list, so feel free to add your recommendations in the comments.

© Kate Spragg for Created in Birmingham, 2009. | Permalink | 6 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: bass festival, indietracks, Moseley Folk, Supersonic festival

Feed enhanced by Better Feed from Ozh

Jane is a documentary photographer who has recently moved to Birmingham and has just produced an audio visual story about two single mums from Quinton Lynsey, 23, and Carina, 21, who were given the unique opportunity to experience working in Parliament with the Shadow Secretary of State for Wales, MP Cheryl Gillan, they took the chance to speak out about their experiences living on a council estate in Birmingham.

© Kate Spragg for Created in Birmingham, 2009. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Jane Baker

Feed enhanced by Better Feed from Ozh

The teams battling it out for the typically bespoke trophies are from throughout the U:  AC Tortured Birmingham / Dynamo Artists Birmingham / Eastside Projects / Liverpool Relational Athletics/ Real Worcester / Bristol /Stoke Airspace Gallery / Lokomotiv Yorkshire / Jibbering.

Tournament: Saturday May 23rd 1.00pm - 6.00pm (draw takes place at 12.00) Aston Powerleague (just off the M6; 5 minutes from Birmingham New Street by train).

Post Tournament Awards ceremony: 8.00pm onwards The Lamp Tavern (10 minute walk from New Street Station).

© Kate Spragg for Created in Birmingham, 2009. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Artist Premier League, Lamp Tavern

Feed enhanced by Better Feed from Ozh

The film comes out of a number of recent issues where venues key to the Birmingham music scene have been faced with difficulties amounting to eventual closure due to complaints of a very small minority of people and alleged behaviour by the Council and Property Developers which leaves much to be desired.

In response, Project X  have produced this short film to highlight some of the issues and hopefully stir up some action:

© Kate Spragg for Created in Birmingham, 2009. | Permalink | 7 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: project x presents

Feed enhanced by Better Feed from Ozh

Through these acknowledged satires we have become accustomed to the structures and artifices of The News. Gilligan does not take direct aim at newsmedia (it seems rather a redundant target). Instead, her film articulates the advanced Viewer, and the state of dramatic irony we have reached — newsreaders continue to play out their roles as narrators of reality to a distrusting audience.

(...)
Read the rest of Melanie Gilligan, Michael Stevenson, Emily Wardill at International Project Space by Harry Blackett (472 words)

© Harry Blackett for Created in Birmingham, 2009. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: international project space

Feed enhanced by Better Feed from Ozh

Spiderman, drawn by John McCrea

The latest scheme is a continuation of their work with comics, or should I say Comix.To take part in this new scheme you need to be over the age of 16 (which isn’t hard, lets face it) with a passion for comic art and live in the West Midlands. The lucky chosen few will also get to work with people on similar schemes across Europe and get a supported trip to a comic art festival in Spain, as well as a trip to the Birmingham’s International Comics Show.

20 talented individuals will get the opportunity to develop their skills with John McCrea (X-Men, Spiderman and The Hulk), Hunt Emerson (The Beano, Wall Street Journal and Fortean Times), Laura Howell (The Beano, The Guardian), and Andi Watson (Geisha, Buffy) amongst others.

Interested? Pop onto the Hi8us website.

© Kate Spragg for Created in Birmingham, 2009. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Comics, hi8us

Feed enhanced by Better Feed from Ozh

The aim of the game is to move about in the real world to locations that are mapped onto the game world of Love City. Players score points by sending messages to players who share locations with them in the game world. The game was originally launched across 3 cities (Nottingham, Leicester and Derby) on Valentines Day 2007.

Mudlark are currently developing ‘Chromaroma’ a project backed by the 4IP fund and Screen West Midlands. The website describes it as ‘a pervasive online game played in the real world’. It uses smart cards and urban mass transit systems as a currency and environment to allow people to play as they commute, travel and move around their urban environments.

This is one of the most exciting companies I have seen in a long time, who seem to be successfully combining a games company, a TV company and a web company. The website is clean, crisp and outlines what they do without all of the usual alienating mumbo-jumbo speak. They will be getting together with an invited a group of people who are also developing new practices, projects and ideas on a similar ethos on Friday 22nd, and hopefully will be posting any interesting outcomes onto their website.

© Kate Spragg for Created in Birmingham, 2009. | Permalink | One comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Chromaroma, fazeley studios, Mudlark

Feed enhanced by Better Feed from Ozh

To celebrate, mac in association with sampad has awarded six artists’ commissions to create new site specific work. The commissions include three permanent pieces of art for the new building and three projects working with the people of Birmingham to reflect the new mac.

Inside The Building:

Sweet Nothings - conceptual artist Jason Bowman will work with a local glassblower to create a rotating mobile of glass-blown mirrored tears in a kinetic sculpture exploring our emotional responses to art and culture.

Sijelo - Myfanwy Johns, working with members of the Bosnian Cultural Centre Midlands, are creating designs for a new first floor carpet, an area of wood panelling in the new café and floor tiles in the foyer, using the patterns and shapes created through crochet.

50 Tiles - Sara Taylor will create a collection of 50 individually designed tiles representing 50 years since the mac vision was first introduced, with design influences including both the natural setting and trees of Cannon Hill Park and traditional Islamic patterns.

Outside The Building:

Amplifying The Map - Kate Chapman and Charlotte Goodwin are 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.

The City Sings - Artmusic’s Helen Ottaway is composing an anthem for mac to ring out across the city, played and sung by people of all ages and from all backgrounds and culminating in a processional performance leading to the new centre.

Time and Place - writer and artist Laura Guy is leading a participatory work that will gather public information and personal recollections to form a unique archive leading to a creative visual retelling of the story of mac and the significant presence it has in Cannon Hill Park.

The artists have their own website devoted to themselves and the artworks and will be blogging about the progression and development of the work shortly.

© Kate Spragg for Created in Birmingham, 2009. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: mac

Feed enhanced by Better Feed from Ozh

This now means that CiB needs to become self sustainable, and to do this needs to call upon all of those organisations, companies, galleries, theatres, festivals and individuals who have benefited from CiB in the past to invest in the future of the website by advertising.

So, why advertise?

Created in Birmingham reaches approx. 20,0000 visitors a month, which means you could reach that amount of people, letting them know about your services, exhibition, event or anything you want to tell people about.

Unlike most other websites, CiB is dedicated to a particular sector - creative and cultural, which means the audience or potential customers you are trying to reach are right here. It is also dedicated to a particular place - Birmingham, but is not only read by people from the West Midlands, but worldwide.

How much does it cost?

2 week advertising spot: £75.00
4 week advertising spot: £140.00

2 week advertising spot for charities or companies under 6 months old: £50.00
4 week advertising spot for charities or companies under 6 months old: £90.00

Adverts will be a 125pxl x 125pxl image, which will link to your website. At the end of your advertising period I can give you the number of times your advert was clicked on.

Payment options:

Pay via Paypal - to email address: Createdinbirmingham [at] gmail.com
Pay via invoice - please provide full details via email and you will be invoiced on the first day of advertising.

Advertising rates are negotiable.

Email - Createdinbirmingham [at] gmail.com

© Kate Spragg for Created in Birmingham, 2009. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: cib

Feed enhanced by Better Feed from Ozh

JEECamp: Speed - dating by These Digital Times

The entrepreneurial spirit was high at this years JEEcamp, unlike last years event where people were still holding on to their jobs, it was clear that this year was all about looking forward. Kyle MacRae kicked off with the only formal presentation (followed by an interesting Q&A session) of the day, about the rise and fall of Scoopt.com - a venture, trading photos with big media companies on behalf citizen journalists. Kyle and his wife ran the company for a couple of years before selling it to Getty Images, who eventually shut it down a few months ago.

One of the main topics of the day, that kept coming up, was the power of hyper-local journalism. James Hatts, editor of London-SE1, see a future of one or two person publications and stressed the importance of having people on the ground, as opposed to sitting behind a desk. SoGlos.com, a local online magazine covering the area of Gloucestershire, was presented by the co-founder James Fryer. He explained how they make hyper-local work by focusing on high quality content, and something as old-fashioned as email newsletters.

(...)
Read the rest of JEE Camp by Kasper Sorensen (286 words)

© Kasper Sorensen for Created in Birmingham, 2009. | Permalink | 4 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: JEE Camp

Feed enhanced by Better Feed from Ozh

John Akomfrah: Handsworth Riots - Twenty Summers On © Pogus Caesar / OOM Gallery Archive 1985

- The launch of ‘Handsworth Songs’ at the Birmingham Film & TV Festival in October 1986

- Q&A with Dennis Hopper at the Triangle in 1985 or 1986

Please contact Harriet intern@vivid.org.uk or 0121 766 1304.

You can read more about Handsworth Songs in a previous post by Pete.

© Kate Spragg for Created in Birmingham, 2009. | Permalink | One comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Birmingham Film & TV Festival, Dennis Hopper, Handsworth Songs, The Triangle, vivid

Feed enhanced by Better Feed from Ozh

These games, much like the Emergent Game a few years ago prove that interactive play doesn’t have to be homed exclusively online or in the playground but can explore geographical areas in new ways, look at how we now communicate online and off, and give a chance for grown adults to play.

Another Nicky doing good work in the city is Nicky Getgood who writes the blog Digbeth is Good. She uses social media stuff like maps, videos and games within her blog which demand importance in the real world and sets the context firmly within the geographical area and a real community. The most interesting projects I have seen recently rely on this process of interweaving online and offline participation, such as 4am Project and other activities like Flickr meetups which happen in the city.

Now spring has sprung the BARG group are taking games onto the streets of Birmingham, with the aim of  taking a fresh look at neglected parts of the city, and reclaiming them much like how skateboarders do. This Saturday between 2pm and about 7pm they will be hosting an afternoon of play and picnics on Curzon Street. For more information and maps etc go to Nikki’s personal blog.

© Kate Spragg for Created in Birmingham, 2009. | Permalink | 5 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: 4am Project, BARG, digbeth is good, emergent game

Feed enhanced by Better Feed from Ozh

So what is a network anyway? In our case, a free association of individuals bonded by two essential qualities - an interest in creativity and a friendly, open minded attitude. We realised that between ourselves and our immediate friends we have between us a tremendous variety of interests and an urge to be together and be creative. Weekly meetings began and continue still, the network steadily grew. Our fifth event - Xhibition, comes up this Saturday in Moseley.

(...)
Read the rest of Project X & Brum’s creative scene - by Rich Batsford (494 words)

© Kate Spragg for Created in Birmingham, 2009. | Permalink | 2 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: artsfest, drop beats not bombs, friction arts, gigbeth, Project X, stans cafe, supersonic, the rainbow

Feed enhanced by Better Feed from Ozh

Ignoring those of you with fancy Macs, I don’t know how many people actually use the preloaded wallpapers on PC’s, but having an image of Birmingham’s most recognisable building next to the likes of the Guggenheim Museum to choose from can’t be bad. Download here. (Hat tip to D’log)

© Kate Spragg for Created in Birmingham, 2009. | Permalink | One comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Selfridges, Windows 7

Feed enhanced by Better Feed from Ozh

The  items have been lovingly hand screenprinted by Kay Stanley at Cut Out Shop, in her WM based studio. She has used waterbased inks which don’t harm the environment printed onto EarthPostive tees and tote bags.

The t-shirts cost £15.00 and the totes cost £8.00. We have printed a limited edition run of only 50 t-shirts and 50 tote bags, and each item is individually numbered.

I wanted to take some swish pictures of the items being modeled, but have decided to let you do that for me! When you receive your tee or tote through the post, take a quick snap of you modeling it and pop it up on flickr, tagging it ‘CiBT’. Huge thanks to Kay Stanley and Kate Parry for all the help and support.

© Kate Spragg for Created in Birmingham, 2009. | Permalink | 4 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Created in Birmingham

Feed enhanced by Better Feed from Ozh

Athanasios Argianas, Art & Language, Mel Bochner, Susan Collis, Michael Dean, Tatiana Echeverri Fernandez, Lothar Hempel, Torsten Lauschmann, Marko Lulic, David Medalla, Scott Myles, Elizabeth Price, Tommy Støckel, Sue Tompkins, Franz West.

I have linked to articles or websites about all of the artists. Have a look around and I’m sure you will agree this is indeed an exciting exhibition of contemporary works.

Just up the road that evening VIVID will hold a late opening from 6-9 pm, to present new work by Ran Huang and Nika Oblak & Primoz Novak. The artists will be in residence at VIVID throughout Spring 2009 as part of the two year European Media Artists in Residence Exchange programme. Mike Stubbs, Director of FACT will be in conversation with Ran Huang at 6pm.

Next door, IKON Eastside will be opening  Józef Robakowski’s My Very Own Cinema, a highly subjective body of work produced between 1970 and 2000 by a pioneer of Polish Independant Cinema.

If you have never ventured to this historically industrial area of Birmingham, this will be a great opportunity to experience the type of art you might not find on the tourist trail.

© Kate Spragg for Created in Birmingham, 2009. | Permalink | One comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: eastside projects, ikon eastside, vivid

Feed enhanced by Better Feed from Ozh

Birmingham Contemporary Music Group

This initial one year contract will run from July 2009 until June 2010 and if the initial period is deemed a success BCMG will offer a rolling annual contract to the same agency without the need to re-tender.

Birmingham Contemporary Music Group is a very active musical ensemble, performing a year round programme of concerts in Birmingham, touring in the UK, Europe and further a field. BCMG occupies a niche market, commissioning and performing contemporary music by today’s leading composers.

Interested? Find more information here. (Thanks to Dave Harte for the link).

© Kate Spragg for Created in Birmingham, 2009. | Permalink | One comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: bcmg

Feed enhanced by Better Feed from Ozh