Created in Birmingham

• Report – Birmingham Municipal Bank / TSB, Broad Street Birmingham, Jan 2010 – UK Urban Exploration Forums
  “The vaults are amazing, this is real hollywood film territory”
• Decibel performing arts showcase: Artists’ information sessions
  At the Arts Council offices on 5 Oct, 11am to 1pm
• Filmrats September 28th « Art, music, film and luna riot
  Nice write-up of Filmrats from the other night. Includes some of the films that were shown
• Adventures In New York City and House Dance Elements =] « Dancegeek’s Blog
  Champion dancer from Birmingham heads to NY and shows the locals how it’s done
• Interview with: Hannah Geddes, Freelance Creative Designer | Creative Boom Birmingham
  Specialising in theatrical performance art, designing for bands and artwork for weddings and civil ceremonies
• Moseley Road Baths Memorabilia Day
  On 30 Oct, with guided tours, displays of the history of the Baths and a speaker from Manchster’s Victoria Baths
• Digbeth is Good » Getgood Link: YouTube – Inside the Custard Factory-Bryn: Freelance Artist
  “Bryn talks about his practice and how having a studio at the Custard Factory has helped him”
• Soho Road – from the Five Rivers to the Five Boroughs (1 of 5) « Thinking & Thumping
  “I’m on the road again. This time to the USA, as Punch Records, the producers of “Soho Road to the Punjab“, will take it to New York next year”. Worth reading the other posts in this short series too
• GOTOJAIL – The Cell Project | Arts Nation West Midlands
  “Imagine if you could walk in to a prison cell and talk to a serving prisoner… now you can.” It’s a compelling sales pitch
• Radio Pebble Mill
  The emergings of a new online radio station, maybe
• photosynthesis » a collective of photographers from the Birmingham Botanical Gardens
  Lots of names I’d not come across before

This is interesting. The New Optimists is a website and book, which records the answers given by over 80 scientists who were asked the question ‘What are you optimistic about?’

The idea for “The New Optimists” began in early 2009 with me (Kate Cooper) sitting in front of my laptop on the kitchen table, realising that web-based technologies had dramatically changed the publishing game. And that this gave me the opportunity to showcase some of the ground-breaking research going on locally at the 2010 British Science Festival in my home city of Birmingham.

If you’d like to hear more about the project, there’s a series of events happening around Birmingham to tie in with the book’s launch, which takes places on Tuesday 14 September at the Botanical Gardens.

This is followed by a Q&A session on 15 September at the Science Festival, Aston University, and a lunchtime session at Waterstones on 16 September with Kate Cooper and editor Keith Richards.

You can buy tickets to the launch here.

Emma Hardicker is a local artist who’s exhibited in that many places around Birmingham that I’m surprised I’ve not come across her before:

This print is based on Birmingham’s iconic buildings. There are twelve recognisable pieces of architecture in the silkscreen print, placed together to create an architectural pattern in an illustrative way. Have fun trying to find them all

On her about page we learn the following:

I work as an artist producing clean, crisp prints, full of colour, texture and strong pattern. I am a member of Birmingham Printmakers, where I specialise in silkscreen printing. I design and hand print my work to make quality finished pieces of art for your wall. Working from my studio, I also create paintings in oils and acrylics creating landscapes of pattern in rich colours

She has a few prints and cards on sale as well as a poster available via the TfL website, created as part of The Outer Limits – Beyond Zone 1 Poster Competition.

Thanks to Rob Strong, who saw Emma’s work at the Botanical Gardens over the weekend, for the heads up.