Created in Birmingham

• Tower of Song
  Birmingham’s foremost acoustic and roots music venue, it says here. In Cotteridge with lots of events going on
• First Person: Playwright Nicholas McInerny « Script Online
  The Chair of Script discussing a recent workshop of his new play
• STUDIO4 GALLERY: Chris setting up show
  “Just finished setting up Chris Bourkes Storm in a Teacup Exhibition with Chris and his lovely wife Jo. Opening Thursday 29th April and on for a month, lots of very nice new lino prints from the blistered hands of Mr. Bourke, come join us for a beer from 6.30pm”
• We Are Fierce» Blog Archive » DIY 7: Fierce and the Black Country
  “Fierce are pleased to be a partner organisation on this year’s DIY 7 with a specific project opportunity: ‘The Black Country and its Living Museum’”
• Interview with ARC « More Canals than Venice
  An interview with organisers Laura Coult and Shamrez Marawat
• Birmingham Central: Musical dome to complete Birmingham’s redbrick vision
  Birmingham Uni’s £16m music project
• Facebook | Black Country Visual Arts Network
  “BC VAN is open to anyone with an interest in the visual or creative arts”

• Prime Objective Blog :: Victor Man Documentary
  For the Ikon’s latest show Chris Keenan spent a few days “filming the installation down at Ikon and discussing Victor’s work with curator Nigel Prince. The edited video is now live on the Ikon site to aid a greater understanding of the work” I like this sort of stuff
• Folk Monthly from the Traditional Arts Team
  I didn’t know about this. “It covers folk and related events across the Midlands, featuring adverts for clubs, festivals, sessions, bands etc, central diary pages, articles, news and reviews” and costs £12 for 11 issues a year
• Artfall – Birmingham University Exhibition
  “Members of Birmingham Print Makers have put up an exhibition in Staff House at the University of Birmingham which runs until December 23rd”
• début
  début was going to be a paid-to-submit-content magazine. I’m not sure if that’s still happening but for now at least it’s in a blog format. There’s plenty being posted up too. Definitely worth checking regularly

No, nothing to do with the Digbeth music venue, Sanctuary Newspapers claim to be “the UK’s leading student newspaper network”.  Monthly editions are produced by students in 12 different cities with the content tailored to their areas.  A new Birmingham edition has just been launched with a website that looks thusly:

I’ve not found an actual, physical copy yet but I thought the content on the website was a bit hit and miss – head for music and film but give news (woefully sub-Onion) a miss.

What struck me is that, although it’s written by people in Birmingham there’s precious little about Birmingham.  Aside from a couple of questions put to The Electric‘s Thomas Lawes and an interview with the promoter of student night ‘Naked Lunch‘ there’s not much to differentiate the paper from something that could be produced nationally.

Still, it’s early days.  There’s a Facebook group here that says:

If you are interested in contributing to the next one let me know via facebook or email to Sanctuaryplaylist@live.co.uk

Presumably you need to be at Birmingham Uni but I’m not certain about that.

In September 2007 CiB mentioned a research project from the University of Birmingham called ACRE.  Phase two of the project has now come round and involves interviewing people born outside the UK who are working in Birmingham’s creative industries.

Here’s the blurb in full:

Do you work in the arts in Birmingham and were born outside of the UK?

We want to hear your views on the city and its creative industries for a major EU research project being undertaken by the Centre for Urban and Regional Studies (CURS) at the University of Birmingham.

Accommodating Creative Knowledge – Competitiveness of European Metropolitan Regions (ACRE) is a research project involving researchers, creative practitioners and policy-makers in 13 countries across Europe.

Aimed at examining the factors that attract highly skilled, creative people to certain locations, we are interested in obtaining the views of those who have come to work in Birmingham from overseas on the following:

• Is Birmingham a good place to live and work?
• Is Birmingham a socially inclusive and tolerant city?
• Is Birmingham a vibrant and creative city?

If you are currently living and working in Birmingham, and would like to take part in this research, please email Rosalie White, ACRE research assistant, r.c.white@bham.ac.uk, or call 0121 414 2237.

Further details on the project can be found at: http://www2.fmg.uva.nl/acre/index.html. For further information about CURS, please see: http://www.curs.bham.ac.uk/.