The Big Give Christmas Challenge kicked off this morning (after a false start yesterday when their servers crashed). It’s a big fundraising drive, with the bonus that donations are matched by a combination of Big Givers, so any money you give is doubled.
If you’re after something local:
The programme for Artsfest 2011 is now online (in addition to the PDF brochure that came out a few days back).
As ever, there’s an unfeasibly huge amount happening. I’ve not had time to have a proper browse, but here’s what I’ve spotted after a swift glance through the listings:
I’ll be spending Saturday in the Dancing for the Games-sponsored Dance Marquee before nipping off to the (not Artsfest-affiliated) The Boat That OxJamBrum Rocked, returning to catch the end of Classical Fantasia.
Looking at that list it’s mainly the bigger names that have stood out, which means there’s probably loads of decent stuff I’ve missed – let me know if you’ve got any recommendations.
Today, every so often, I’m going to grab a smattering of tweets and pull them into the timeline below. If you refresh this page every so often you’ll see what’s been added. Or you can see it on the Storify site.
There’s a bigger point to be made behind this. It’s kinda obvious but I might write it up sooner or later.
And it’s not just that I couldn’t think what to write about today (although that too).
Young Professionals on Arts Boards are now recruiting for a fresh set of 8 Midlands based business brains for 2010/11.
This programme, an extension of our Board Bank initiative, is a bold and unique programme aimed at the UK’s brightest corporate prodigies. Our goal is to detect the best up-and-coming talents that British business has to offer and place them on the boards of leading arts charities in the UK.
With full governance training, access to an experience mentor and development support, the programme is open to 18-30 year olds.
If you think this could be beneficial and you’d like to give it a shot visit the website for more information, or contact Carolyn Pugh at carolyn.pugh@artsandbusiness.org.uk or call 0121 248 1200
So the programme for this year’s Artsfest is now up online, complete with a nice little selection of search options so you can filter through the events that you’re interested in.
The festival runs this weekend, from Fri – Sun, and is the biggest free arts and culture festival in the UK, with around 600 performing, visual and digital artists at events taking place all across the city.
I would give you a run down of everything happening, but there are heaps of events, performances, screenings, workshops and all sorts of goings-on, so I’m not even going to attempt it. Chris did, however, mention a few things to look out for the other week.
Arts Council England has opened a consultation on the priorities for the arts over the coming decade.
They want your views to help form a 10-year strategic framework with long-term goals for each artform and find new ways to help those they fund already. Alan Davey, chief executive of Arts Council England, has this to say:
If we are to succeed in supporting art and artists, creativity and excellence, we must identify the key long-term goals that drive our decision-making, our investment priorities and our relationships with artists and audiences.
This consultation sets out our understanding of the current landscape, celebrates the success of the arts and identifies areas for development over the next ten years.
The consultation closes on 14 April 2010, so if you want your voice to be heard and your input used, you can complete the Arts Council’s questionnaire here. For more information on the process and background to the consultation, take a look at the Arts Council website here.
Of all the things on last night I only made it to two out of five. I missed out on the opening of Ryoji Ikeda’s exhibition at Ikon Eastside (which I might go and catch at lunchtime today), Jordan McKenzie’s ‘Day Into Night’ at Vivid and Colour’s night at The Victoria featuring World of Fox’s album launch.
Still, I did make it along to the Arts & Business Awards. The special guest was Patrick Stewart (who walked, not teleported on stage – disappointing) and the winners were:
Congrats to all of them.
After that I wandered down to the Sunflower Lounge for Gallery of Owl’s ‘All You Can Eat Zine’ which was fantastic – billed as ‘a night of Zines, comics, small press, music and performance’. It provided all of that as well as a palpable sense of
I didn’t stay for that long, but long enough to catch Richard Peel‘s entertaining performance of Dracula, have a chat with Claire from ATTA grrl a buy a couple of zines (ATTA grrl and Girls Who Draw, since you asked). There was a good turnout, a great atmosphere and the excitement of knowing there’s loads of interesting stuff going on around the city.
Here’s what I picked up:
And check out the hand stamp too – easily the best one I’ve had in a while:
