I’ve been forwarded the following which has been written by Anita Bhalla, chair of mac’s board of trustees. As it’s an open letter I figure there’s no problem with me reproducing it in full. Excuse me for dispensing with the usual blockquote rigmarole.

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Dear Friends, Colleagues and Supporters,

As you may be aware, Birmingham City Council has recently launched a public consultation process on its budget plans from April 2012 onwards, and we thought it would be of interest to you as a customer and supporter of mac birmingham to hear how the city’s plans are affecting our work.

mac reopened in May 2010 after a £15.2m redevelopment and refurbishment. Birmingham City Council played a major role in the development providing £6.7m of investment and delivering the project under their Partnering Framework with Thomas Vale Construction, one of the region’s award winning construction companies. The rest of the funding came from Arts Council England (£6.2m) and from a highly successful fund-raising appeal with donations from companies, individuals and grant-making trusts (£2.3m). Over 850,000 visits were made to “new” mac in its first year after reopening.

mac’s finances are finely balanced in a mixed economy; in our second year since reopening 26% of our turnover is investment from the City Council. Since our much lauded reopening year our business confidence is established and a growing percentage of our income is earned from box-office, sponsorship and other commercial activities.

As part of its response to the government’s public spending cuts, the City Council has already substantially reduced the amount of funding it gives to all the arts organisations in the city and in April this year mac birmingham’s grant was cut by 14%, a cash reduction of £107,000 per annum.

To cope with this significant reduction in income we have driven further the plans which were developed prior to reopening, maximising efficiency, amending our programming plans and increasing our efforts to maximise all other income streams. Throughout the planning and delivery of the mac/sampad Building Project we sought to maximise future efficiency through, for example, creating a flexible staffing structure, delivering a cost-efficient building with an effective building management system, reducing our carbon footprint and our running costs, increasing recycling, using digital technology to manage our building and our communications. Our shared office space has also allowed us provide improved facilities for our partners sampad and for other artists, arts companies and community agencies who share the mac creative hub.

Whilst we fully recognise that we cannot be exempt from the public spending cuts being imposed at the moment, there are few options available for further reducing costs without severely damaging our services. Whilst we continue to look for greater efficiencies and sharing of services we do fear that any further cuts in BCC funding will lead to a serious “downward spiral” in which the inevitable reductions in artistic activity will lead to lower earned income and funding. Further investment secured from additional sources may well then be withdrawn due to our diminished capacity to deliver our agreed programme.

How you can help

Birmingham’s arts infrastructure and activities have, for so long, been a vital tool in the city’s aim to improve the quality of life for its citizens, its inward investment performance and its status as a true global city. Evidence of the hugely beneficial impact of the creative industries can be found at www.birminghamartspartnership.co.uk

City based cultural organisations contribute £271m to the region’s economy per year. This is generated from almost 2 million attendances, with arts attenders generating £40m in Additional Visitor Spend (AVS). This represents a return on investment of £29 for every £1 that Birmingham City Council spends on funding the arts.

All of the city’s arts organisations believe that we are now at the tipping point where incremental reductions in costs are no longer achievable.

If you share our concerns and would not want to see the City Council reduce its funding to the independent arts organisations any further, I would urge you to make your views known to the City Council before the end of November.

You may have received a similar plea from other arts organisations and we would urge you to respond to any one of us. Representation needs to be made before the end of November in order to be effective.

Thank you for taking the time to read this and for your continuing support of mac birmingham.

Anita Bhalla
Chair of mac Board of Trustees

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Made in Sutton

22nd
Nov
2011

Made in Sutton

Made in Sutton is an arts forum created in Sutton Coldfield. Others have been created across Birmingham (see info on the Birmingham City Council arts pages for the others).

Their first meeting is on Saturday (26 November) and they say:

All local arts organisations are welcome to participate, so whether you run an amateur dramatics society or provide dance classes we’d love to hear from you.

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Via BCMG’s news section:

Birmingham City Council has launched a Public Consultation on its Budget Plans from April 2012. Please support the cultural life of the city by taking part in this. The official deadline for responses is 8 January, however we urge responses by the end of November, as they can then feed in to the Council Cabinet’s decisions on arts spending in early December

A public consultation might not be very exciting, but if you want this city to support culture and creativity then it wouldn’t hurt to mention that to the people who make the decisions – they’re not psychic, y’know.

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There’s a certain amount of kerfuffle going on regarding the proposed move of the wholesale markets from the city centre. I won’t pretend to have looked into it all that much and so couldn’t hazard an opinion about any of it. It’s not really this site’s remit either. However, it seems important, so here are a few links and things.

Here’s a video of a meeting of traders at the market. They’re not at all happy. The Birmingham Mail have been following the story and are on the side of the traders, setting up a petition here and covering a call for shoppers to write to council leader, Mike Whitby.

And in order to provide some balance (look at me, ma! I’m doing journalism!) here’s Birmingham City Council partially rebutting some of the claims that are being made.

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Kindles and comics

28th
May
2011

A couple of things if you’re in the business of making things other people might like to read.

Kindle Camp – A Kindle Publishing Workshop

Digital BirminghamThe New Optimists and Birmingham City Council Web Services Team have joined together to put on a workshop to go through the process of publishing your text to the Kindle.

This looks useful and pretty thorough. It’s free and it’s on 1 June. Only four tickets left.

Comics Launch Pad

Comics Launch Pad is a new and exciting event brought to you by International Comic Shows, the organisation behind the long-running British International Comics Show.

A one-day conference aimed at professionals, aspiring professionals and those with a serious interest in the business of making comics, Launch Pad promises to be an enlightening and fascinating experience.

D’log spotted this one. It’s on 18 June and here’s their website.

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Biting Back

11th
Mar
2011

Biting Back

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.

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Less stuff around

21st
Feb
2011

Following on from Alex’s post about Ikon Eastside closing, let me pile on the joy by presenting a few other things that aren’t going to be around so much.

Birmingham City Council

At least not as we know it.

More Canals Than Venice

Annabel has said that, needing to prioritise paying work, she’s changing her approach to running the site:

I intend to discover the new in the city, but at a more leisurely pace and in more depth

Which doesn’t sound all that bad really.

The Yam Yam

However, The Yam Yam, a Walsall-based aggregator of local news, is shutting up shop completely. Here’s a fuller explanation of what that’s all about. I was aware of the site but, not living in Walsall, had no particular reason for following it very closely – the number and content of the comments tell you how much the site was appreciated though.

Next?

In a few weeks time we’re going to hear about which of the established arts organisations and council services aren’t going to be supported any more. That’s not going to be pleasant. There’ll still be plenty of good stuff for us to write about on CiB, and plenty of individuals doing good things, but we won’t know what we’re missing.

On the web side of things, it’s worth remembering that most of the genuinely interesting websites around are actually quite fragile things and, if they’re run for personal enjoyment, it’s probably best not to assume they’ll be around forever either. See also Jon Bounds’ comments last month when the harmless bit of fun that was Brummie of the Year turned nasty on BiNS:

I’ll continue to ruminate as to whether the site does its job or is best closed.

On the other hand, I’m all for a bit of a shake-up, some new voices and some new ways of doing things. We’ll see how things pan out over the next little while.

UPDATE

I forgot to end this post with some bunnies:

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  • If Birmingham City Council meetings were televised…
    Not strictly arts/culture related, but if you only click one of these links, click this one. Includes chicken dancing, physical abuse of the Respect Party and what gold dealers in the city can be like
  • Why are Birmingham’s Hackers letting FizzPop die?
    Thanks to a bit of nudging from afar, it looks like FizzPop/a Birmingham Hack Space might be back in some form
  • A Sneak Peek Inside New Library of Birmingham
    References to ‘sneak peeks’ in my RSS reader went into overdrive the other day with lots of people posting a CG fly-through of the new library. Nice big escalators.
  • Nigel Singh to step down as CEO – Audiences Central
    “Audiences Central today announces that Nigel Singh is leaving the organisation after three years as Chief Executive Officer”. Due to a serious family illness – best wishes to Ni
  • Behind Gamer Camp: Nano on Vimeo
    “This short promotional documentary about the Gamer Camp: Nano course ran at NTI Birmingham in November to December 2010, to help prepare graduates for working in the games industry.”
  • Team Gozooheck Presents ‘Kung-Fu Night’
    An (early) evening of workshops, networking, screenings of 3D animations and shorts from around Birmingham as well as classic kung fu films and free Marvel comics. There’s also something about a Film Society and Festival but I can’t quite tell how that fits in
  • Culture chief won’t rule out Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery charges in future
    BMAG could be merged into a trust with Thinktank . “Martin Mullaney confirmed moves are under way to form the Trust during questions at the City Council but added that there are currently no plans to end free admission.”
  • Simon Clarke Video Production
    I liked the vid for Munroe Effect
  • Rhubarb Seminars
    Rhubarb Rhubarb are doing a one-day artist development event in March. It’s a similar format to one they ran in London last year that seemed to go down very well (click the link and scroll down the page to ‘The Crossing’)
  • Events – Architecture WM
    A list of architecture-related events happening in Feb
  • Bursary opportunity for West Midlands museum staff
    “OpenCulture is the annual international event for Collections Managers, Curators, Registrars, Archivists, Librarians. Renaissance West Midlands are offering 10 free bursary places to museum staff or volunteers who work at a West Midlands Museum”
  • Soldier On
    “I’ve seen some of the best bands in Birmingham play to a handful of people. It’s actually quite sickening. A terrible waste of talent”.
    Ronan is in a band called Nerve Centre and blogs about that and unsigned music in general
  • Call For Submissions – Crowd6 Online Gallery
    “Crowd6 will soon be launching an online gallery, showing artwork made specifically for the web. This might be time based, code based, illustrative or performative”
  • February at VIVID – We Are Eastside | Birmingham
    “VIVID kicks off its 2011 programme with the launch of ‘The Garage presents…’ a brand new strand of one off events embracing music, live arts, installation, performance, and films”
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CiB celebrated it’s fourth Birthday, a stir was caused when a leaked document of recommended cuts to local art organisations sparked concern over their future, and legendary Birmingham promoters, Leftfoot, celebrated their 1oth anniversary.

Birmingham Royal Ballet and mac managed to raise a decent amount of money through The Big Arts Give, while Moseley Folk and OxjamBrum ended the year with a Christmas Ceilidh and Flatpack released a few highlights set for their 2011 festival.

We also featured a few independently made Christmas cards by local designers, took a look at what can be expected from the new Library of Birmingham interior and the much anticipated budget for Birmingham art organisations was announced by Birmingham City Council.

As the year drew to a close, Rhubarb Radio made a plea for help, the 2010 Twitpanto production of Jack and the Beanstalk took place and we took a look at what Birmingham’s creative minds had come up with for the festive season.

Christmas Day television treated us to Birmingham Royal Ballet, with a prime Christmas dinner slot on BBC1, while Birmingham Opera Company also made it onto BBC4 for post dinner relaxation.

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You may remember some discussion on this site about the impending announcement of Birmingham City Council’s arts budget cuts. Well, following a Cabinet meeting yesterday, the results are in.

My first boss always told me to work from first principles and sources, therefore:

So, if you’re interested, have a look for yourselves.

If you’re in a rush

The cuts don’t quite match those suggested by that leaked document but they aren’t far off. The overall 17% cut for 2010/11 was right, at least.

Here are a few headlines:

  • Performances Birmingham get a 23% cut
  • Birmingham Royal Ballet and The Rep get an 18% cut
  • Birmingham Opera Company,  Ikon, Dancexchange and Ex Cathedra get a 15% cut
  • CBSO, The Drum and sampad get a 9% cut
  • BCMG, Craftspace, Birmingham Jazz, Big Brum, Women & Theatre, Sound It Out, ACE Dance, Tindal Street Press, Stan’s Cafe, Fierce and RBSA will be funded for 6 months (‘transitional’ funding). After that they get nothing
  • Capsule, Chitraleka, Friction Arts, The Playhouse, Punch, Vivid and Reel Access won’t be taken into the council’s portfolio of funded organisations (as was apparently planned before all this kicked off)
  • There’s a project commissioning budget of about £250,000 which those smaller organisations (and others) can apply into

An observation – the project funding post has increased from £40,000 to £250,000. That increase would more than cover the funding taken away from those smaller organisations (£113,000 would do it).

The leaked figures suggested a rather bleak scenario of 2012/13 and 2013/14 – one that’s been described as ‘politically unacceptable’. The idea, as I understand it, is for the figures announced yesterday to hold for the next three years. Funding is to be kept at this level by income generated by (for example) sponsorship secured by the likes of Performances Birmingham (Town Hall/Symphony Hall to you and I). I must admit I’m a bit fuzzy on how this is meant to work. Would be happy for any clarification.

If you want the really quick version

Dave Harte says: “Sounds like there was some retreat from Brum arts cuts as leaked but with an expected 6000% increase in need for bid writing.”

If you want some other views

If you’d rather see some cute photos of hedgehogs taking a bath

Then that would be completely understandable. Here you go.

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Last night I was sent a link to a document showing what appears to be the amount of funding Birmingham City Council will put into arts organisations over the next few years. I ummed and ahhed about posting it but it’s all over Twitter this morning anyway.

Big caveat on this – I’ve not heard an official announcement about this (or even much speculation, to be honest – there’s been more focus on the Arts Council England and the UK Film Council). Who’s been informed of these figures and whether they’re 100% correct, I have no idea. That said, I’ve asked around a few people and the general gist of it seems to be correct.

The document says these figures are ‘recommended’. If I understand rightly, they’ll be put to a public cabinet meeting on 13 December. If anyone has any info on that then feel free to share it. Info might be at birmingham.gov.uk/democracy but, well…

If they are right it doesn’t look good, but then not much news coming out of the council is at the moment. Savings of £300k a day need to be made and 10,000 jobs are going.

I’m not going to go through that document an pull apart the figures but the comment box is below if you want to discuss things. Just be aware that I’d rather not have to moderate any potentially defamatory comments.

UPDATE

The Business Desk have done some digging and been told (if I’m reading this right) that the doc that’s doing the rounds may be an example of ‘scenario planning’. Which isn’t to say it’s necessarily right or wrong.

Related to that planning, Birmingham City Council have released their budget consultation with a proposed business plan (PDF) which includes:

  • Considering a “trust” and new operating model for museums and review of commercial approach
  • Reviewing support for arts organisations (additional to existing savings of £0.525m in 2011/12)

See the doc for figures. Comments are welcomed, the deadline is 17 January 2011.

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Pete found this:
Birmingham model for cultural entitlement

I had no idea what it meant or where it had come from, so I had a little look around. The Cultural Learning Alliance came up with the goods:

Since 2006, strategic partners in Birmingham have been working together to develop A Creative Future, a strategy for children and young people (0-19 years) and the arts. The aim of the strategy is to increase access to the arts, raise the quality of arts activities and recognise the achievements of children and young people in the arts.

‘Strategic partners’ isn’t expanded upon, but Birmingham City Council seem to be leading on things and the pic on the CLA’s website is attributed to Craftspace.

To explain the diagram above:

The Birmingham model for cultural entitlement illustrates how the Creative Future roles overlap (see Venn diagram). The vertical axis shows how we would like to see young people progress through from first-time experiences to independent engagement, and on the horizontal axis how they develop skills and understanding from basic to advanced

I also found an interview with Val Birchall, head of BCC Arts Team, about one of the projects that came as a result of the strategy.

So there you go.

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a site specific unique music event sponsored by Birmingham City Council and the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra

on the 9th October 2010 the engine house of Ladywood Fire Station was transformed into a performance space

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