Off The Cuff is a new festival happening at The Flapper from 23 to 25 July.
(Spotted via Blue Whale Blog)
Festivals
Two new things (to me, at least) gleaned from the arts bit of the BCC website. First up, Verbalise which culminates in a performance on Thurs 3 June:
A celebration of young people’s written and spoken words. Verbalise showcases the talents of Birmingham’s emerging spoken word artists and performance poets, kicking off with a series of Saturday afternoon workshops led by renowned spoken word artist PolarBear. Verbalise culminates in two days of performances, in and around Birmingham City Centre and appearances as part of the Young Readers festival in Birmingham Central Library and at Aston Hall’s Book Bash.
And Visualise, which is slated for the end of October 2010:
At its heart will be a major open visual arts competition for young people of all ages, to be hosted in a high profile city centre venue. The festival will also offer the chance to see the work of other arts and community organisations from across the city, working with young people and the visual arts.
A coordinator is needed for that one, if you’re interested.
I’ve just had a flick through the programme for the Lichfield Festival (PDF). There’s some good stuff, presided over by a new Festival Director, Fiona Stuart. Names I recognised – Rich Hall, Laura Solon, Jenni Murray, Claire Sweeney, Adrian Edmonson, Andrew Motion, Carol Ann Duffy, Ex Cathedra and Rachel Gillies.
SHOUT is:
Birmingham’s first ever dedicated festival by and for the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community
There’s an impressively packed schedule of things going on from 28 October to 30 November with arts, sport and politics all accounted for. With such a variety, picking out highlights can be a little tricky. Ben’s picked out his personal highlights over on BiNS while David Viney, one of the organisers, has sent me some suggestions from the more arty side of things:
- 3-6 Nov – Birmingham Queer Open – The work of artists from around the world will be projected onto prominent city centre buildings
- 6-27 Nov – CORPUS QUEER: A Del LaGrace Volcano Retrospective – A major retrospective of the work of Del LaGrace Volcano
- 14 Nov – ‘Troubling Desire(s) in Art’: Queer Symposium – Speakers include: Del LaGrace Volcano, Jonathan D Katz, Dominic Johnson, David Dibosa and Mandy Merck. The symposium will be chaired by Gavin Butt of Goldsmiths
- 19-21 Nov – The Pansy Project – Paul Harfleet will plant pansies along Hurst Street; the installation will reclaim the street and create a living memorial to homophobic abuse experienced in the gay village area and the wider city
I’d also chuck in Matthew Bourne’s Dorian Gray at the Hippodrome (10-14 Nov) which looks pretty interesting, and Mrs Barbara Nice’s Comedy Masterclass (1 Nov).
All the info’s on the SHOUT website and there’s an online version of the festival brochure here.
The Event - 2007
The first two weeks of April 2007 saw the culmination of a series of artist-led activities within Birmingham, and this was ‘The Event‘. At that point in time, the number of artists choosing to stay and work within the city had increased, and an intensification of artistic production had taken place. It felt very much like Birmingham projected a unique sense of identity, and it was easy to believe that the city held great potential.
Consisting of exhibitions and performances devised by ten of the brightest young visual art organisations in Birmingham at that point in time, the sixteen-day celebration focused on a myriad of event-based practices and exhibitions in such a way as to implicate the whole city into its logic. Participating organisations included: a.a.s., Capital Art Projects, Colony, [insertspace], International Project Space, Modulate, Periscope, 7inch Cinema, Spectacle, and Springhill Institute.
A lot of interesting work took place, and indeed some of these organisations have developed and flourished (surely most notably 7inch Cinema) – but those without links to their work above, and even some who do have links, are either no longer working as artists / arts organisations, or have begun working under different names without leaving on online breadcrumb trail for me to follow.
In 2007, whilst not all that long ago, there was a definite sense of optimism and indulgence in the arts and arts practice – much moreso than we now have in 2009. The recession will inevitably have played a large part in this shift, with organisations cutting back or closing down – but what other changes has Birmingham faced that has brought us to this point, so different to that of 2007? Is there still intense artistic production? Do people still believe that Birmingham has this great potential? Have artists changed their practice in response to the current financial climate and retreated back into their stereotypical draughty garrets?
In a timely fashion, The Event has returned once more to open up and explore contemporary art making. Through an open submission process, artists are invited to send proposals to be included in the November festival. The deadline for proposals is quite soon – July 13th – but submissions can also be emailed. I’ve included the details taken from the website below, but please send any specific queries to kaye@the-event.org I will be keen to see which artists are selected, and how their practice reflects the current mood of the city – and also how different the artforms will be, if at all. Will The Event be inundated with digital submissions, and will there be any entirely virtual submissions running concurrently?
Open Submission
Deadline Midday 13 July 2009
The Event is a contemporary arts festival in Birmingham, showcasing the best in artist-led activity.
We are currently seeking proposals and submissions from artist projects and artist/curators in the Midlands for inclusion in The Event, November 2009.
Proposals with a budget of up to £2000 can be considered. Deadline for submissions is midday on Monday 13 July, proposals received after the deadline cannot be considered.
Proposals must include the following information:
Project proposal (maximum 200 words)
Brief biog/CV
Indication of project costs
Supporting materialPostal applications should be clearly marked:
BCAF Steering Group
The Event
Eastside Projects
86 Heath Mill Lane Birmingham
B9 4ARNB. Please enclose a SAE for return of material.
e-mailed application should be compiled into one document and emailed to:
kaye@the-event.orgPlease contact Kaye Winwood 07834 244 609 or email kaye@the-event.org with any queries.
Only 3 short months after their launch, Fazeley Studios are now hosting their own digital festival which aims to bring together the city’s creative businesses through a variety of events, including the usual seminars, debates and networking opportunities, but also including Fazeley’s own innovative slant of unconferences, swap shops and media mash-ups including Second Life, Twitter and live video streams.
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.
The line-up for this year’s Glastonbury Festival was announced today, and what a mediocre one it is. Like a lot of huge festivals it relies on the expected roll out of faded heroes and next week’s hipsters. If you are looking for a more, dare I say, ’boutique’ experience there are plenty of music festivals around the UK such as The Green Man Festival, End of the Road and All Tomorrow’s Parties.
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.
Capsule, event organisers of the Supersonic music festival are offering 2 internships to assist with: Artists liaison / Production / Marketing / Festival Management. You will be required to do at least 10 days between April to July. You will receive valuable work experience and be credited as part of the core team that deliver Supersonic Festival.
In addition to this they need a team of volunteers to help deliver the festival over the weekend of the event itself 24th -26th July and in the run up to Supersonic from June onwards. You will be required to do a minimum of 6 hrs over the weekend in return for a day ticket and festival t-shirt.
Interested? Contact info[at]capsule.org.uk with ‘volunteer’ as the subject field.
Last weekend was one the most exciting and eventful of the year, but unfortunately I have come down with a nasty bug which meant I missed it all. I had plans to don my reporters hat and head off to see internationally revered film maker Mike Figgis speaking at the Boilerhouse (Thursday) Flatpack Festival (Friday / Saturday / Sunday) and The Haunting (Friday night). It seems I am not the only one Nicky from Digbeth is Good has also missed out on all the fun due to the mystery bug.
Floodgate Kino by sharl
Thank goodness for Flatpack’s guest blogger Eleanor McKeown. London based Eleanor works for quarterly cinema magazine Electric Sheep and popped up from the capital to experience the weird wonderment of Flatpack Festival, and to stay in the historic back to backs. Her very specific knowlege base and the fact she is an out of towner makes for interesting reading, though photos to illustrate the words would have been nice.
Last Thursday I joined a rowdy bunch of art buffs, film lovers and the Flatpack devotees on the Flatpack Festival installation trail. The trail started at 5.30pm at Urban Outfitters with an introduction from Flatpack director Pip and representatives from the Universities involved in the project. The festival starts tomorrow with ‘Curzonora’ at Town Hall, and the trail runs until 15 March.
The quality of the student work produced went beyond my expectations, which shows when students are given the opportunity to show work outside of University buildings and away from cosy degree shows things can get very exciting for both artist and art lover. I know when I was on a Fine Art degree course I thrived on finding unusal sites to exhibit my work and my practice was all the better for it.
I think it is easy to underestimate how much it means to students when they get asked to participate is such projects and how much they can get out of it. I commend Ian and Pip at Flatpack, and the Universities for taking the time to put this together as I thoroughly enjoyed it.
Following on with my latest obsession with maps, I have put together the installation trail as a Google map with photographs and links to videos I took of the artists introducing the work on the launch night:
View Larger Map
The Capsule ladies have another big year ahead of them. After receiving huge national success with the Home of Metal project last year they are now in the planning stages of what will be the 7th Supersonic Festival.
Here is the line up:
Flatpack 2009 will launch at Town Hall on 11 March with ‘Curzonora’, a show featuring ‘musical whirlwind’ The Destroyers and celebrating Mr Jeffs’ legacy and that of 1900s film-shows in general. Here’s the poster:
The Mr Jeffs referred to is film showman, and patron saint of Flatpack 3, Waller Jeffs who, from 1901 to 1912:
introduced hundreds of thousands of Brummies to the delights of cinema through his annual seasons at the Curzon Hall, Suffolk Street, with light opera, military bands, live sound effects and intriguing novelty acts
Nicky from DiG has been keeping a better eye on the Flatpack website and blog than I have and reports:
The festival, taking place 11-15 March, is set to make the most of Digbeth and Eastside ‘in venues ranging from Floodgate Kino, a warehouse in Birmingham’s Eastside district which will be transformed into a picturehouse for the weekend, to art project spaces IKON Eastside, Eastside Projects, The Edge and the Electric…’ It also looks like they’ll be bringing the poor, neglected Curzon Station to life.
If you want to get involved with the St Patrick’s Festival in Digbeth then follow the instructions on the poster (or that link).
a festival aimed at confronting the legacy of stigma and prejudice associated with HIV and raising awareness of the condition in Birmingham on and around World Aids Day 2008
There’ll be an exhibition in a unit on the lower level of the Pavillions shopping centre from Saturday 29 Nov which will run daily until Saturday 6 Dec. The exhibition will feature work from
BCUs School of Art and Halesowen College alongside artists from Art Pride and Work Artist Group as well as selected invited artists from the Midlands
At 6.30pm on 1 Dec there will be a parade from outside the Waterstones near the Bullring, ending at the Town Hall to mark the beginning of a gala concert.
…be at Gigbeth tonight, but I’ve got to go to a birthday party the other end of the world instead. Humph.
If I could, I’d be checking out The Destroyers (amusingly described as “Oompah oompah oompah oompah oompah oompah pah, OY! x 1m” by one unconverted soul), the Sugar Hill Gang and the 4Talent stage.
In fact, 4Talent can have an extra plug because not only are they hosting the stage debut of CiB-founder Pete Ashton and friends, including this chap:
but they’re also giving away USB wristbands to the first 100 people through the door. They’ve been preloaded with videos, MP3s and a podcast from the acts they’ll be featuring on the night. If you need to know more, here’s what the 4Talent wristbands contain.
