Created in Birmingham

Following the closure of the Creative Partnerships Programme, Bright Space announced that they would be closing. Today’s their last day.

This from Stan’s Cafe:

It’s sad because Brightspace were behind a huge number of inspirational projects that took artists into schools to work creatively with students and teachers. Now, despite a great report from OFSTED setting out the great value of these projects, the plug as been pulled, the axe has fallen, the bubble burst, the goose cooked, the turkey plucked, the swan sung and the full stopped.

I’d lost track of what’s happening with Creative England - I thought it was going to be based on a partnership of all the screen agencies but here’s a press release:

On Friday 30th September 2011, regional screen agency Screen WM will bring the curtain down on nine years of support for the screen media industries in the West Midlands and welcome Creative England as the new umbrella body for the creative sector.

The closure of Screen WM follows the coalition government’s decision to replace the UK Film Council’s support for film-making, which core-funded the regional screen agencies, with funding through the British Film Institute.

All the best to the folks working at these organisations who are moving on.

Sadly, I’m predicting a few more posts like this over the next few months.

• Birmingham’s flagship garden show to be held in derelict bank
  Sounds pretty cool to me.
• Project Platform Review – Bright Space- Eventbrite
  Project Platform was an interesting thing and here’s an invite to a follow-up discussion. Given some challenging circumstances, ‘how can we build on our successes and improve the relationship between youth and culture in Birmingham’?
• Birmingham City Council insists on £2,000 tea at three-hour meeting
  In April, the Local Government Chronicle did a list of ‘the 50 most influential people in local government’. People asked why there was nobody from Birmingham City Council. Here’s your answer.
• Sarah Ray illustration: Art markets this weekend
  Moseley market and Harborne carnival are both on this weekend. Sarah will be at both
• Dirty Bristow Issue Two: Beast | Dirty Bristow
  “80 pages packed with essays, stories, opinion pieces and artwork on the theme of ‘Beast’”
• Piccadilly Arcade – Part II « Birmingham Conservation Trust
  A look at the ceiling of Piccadilly Arcade
• Birmingham Royal Ballet – Carmina burana rehearsals on Vimeo
  “Céline Gittens and Tyrone Singleton in early studio rehearsals for David Bintley’s ballet, Carmina Burana”
• Fierce Festival Caravan of Artists 2011 – 12 | Fierce Festival
  “These are the artists that will form the core of the festival in Spring 2012. Over a nine month period they will develop their ideas with us, through city walks, discussion and residencies in Birmingham. We will share the process and development of these works over the year, online, through ad-hoc events, words and pictures. We invite you to follow and share that journey.” With pics and vids and everything
• People’s Festival « Active Arts
  “The Castle Vale Active Arts People’s Festival brings together performances, workshops and activities across the area.” 29 June to 9 July
• Museum Network Warwickshire
  “News, useful resources, events, training, joint projects, support and issues will all be here”
• IdeasTap Student Ambassador x 4
  One wanted for Birmingham City University. Could be a good thing to be involved in
• Urban Breakfast
  “Birmingham’s Premium Weekend Breakfast Delivery Service”. Granted, it’s not yer usual CiB thing but it’s a compelling service all the same

Our weekly jobs and opportunities digest, powered by Jobplot – a creative talent, jobs and opportunities board for the West Mids.

Jobs:

• Creative media trainer, Playwright Media
• Outdoor Creative Practitioner, Bright Space
• Outdoor Creative Practitioner, Bright Space
• Outdoor and Drama/Story-Telling Creatives, Bright Space
• Sculptor or Artist, Bright Space
• Project Co-ordinator – Birmingham Contemporary Art Forum, Bright Space

Opportunities:

• Creative stall holder, Tiger Bam House

If you’re a film maker, photographer, artist, sound engineer, web designer, writer, radio presenter, arts organisation or whatever then get yourself listed on Jobplot.

• Culture Guide September Issue « Area Culture Guide
  “The September edition of the Culture Guide is awaiting your perusal”
• Job going at Bright Space
  They’re after a new new Creative Programmer for Primary, Early Years and Special Schools
• Creative Networks: Interactive Music & Sound Design
  “Creative Networks welcomes Matt Black, Audio Manager at Blitz Games Studios, whose talk will focus on interactive music used in production of the company’s games title”
• Committee launches a new inquiry into The Funding of the Arts and Heritage – UK Parliament
  Bit slow in this, but here’s your chance to have your say. Deadline is 2 Sept
• artsfunding – Arts Funding Information
  Have I mentioned the artsfunding network that’s been set up? Well, I have now. Get involved to contribute to the ongoing debate/discussion
• My First Seminar – Music Photography — — Steve Gerrard Photography
  “November 10th 2010 will be the date of my very first seminar, taking place at Calumet in Birmingham. The subject is Music Photography”. Steve knows his stuff
• Heritage Open Days 2010 | Birmingham Conservation Trust
  “The HODs this year will run from 9-12 September and the event directory for this year’s events is now live”
• Heritage Open Days – West Midlands
  …and here’s the list
• Breakfast Meeting 1st Oct
  “Creative Alliance would like to invite you to an Employers Breakfast Meeting on Friday 1st October from 9am until 11am”
• The International Queer Video Open 2010
  Call for submissions – deadline is 2 October
• Midlands Best Dance Crew 2010 « Dancegeek’s Blog
  “Register now and Step Up for the chance of your crew to go head to head and claim the title of Midlands Best Dance Crew 2010″. To be held at the Town Hall on 12 November
• UK Sound Map
  “Join the British Library in creating the first nationwide sound map”. Or don’t. Your call

• Bright space – Events
  Bright Space have a good list of events, some of which I’d not seen mentioned anywhere else
• Researching cultural entrepreneurship by exploring discourse analysis and semiosis « Annette Naudin’s Blog
  Annette researches Cultural Entrepreneurship and Entrepreneurship Education at BCU. I found this post interesting, although my head’s clearly been away from academic-land for a while – I had to squint at the longer words
• An Endless Supply | Issue 14 Launch, Wednesday 16 June 6–8pm
  This launched the other day. Speaking of whom…
• ARC #5 – curated by An Endless Supply « ARC’s blog
  “join ARC at The Vaults on Wednesday 30 June, 6-8pm, for ‘Peace Out June! (Piece in June)’, an exhibition curated by Robin Kirkham and Harry Blackett, the artists behind publishing collaboration An Endless Supply”
• call for submissions « ARC’s blog
  “I am currently seeking submissions for an exhibition I am developing which explores the physicality of sound”
• Ceramics in Birmingham | Birmingham Conservation Trust
  “Ceramic tiles cover walls and floors, roofs and pavements, furniture and stoves, and can be seen in churches, mosques, pubs, shops, hospitals and homes in Birmingham” Here are some examples…
• genzai·chi » Prototyping games for the whale hat
  On Monday I went to a Pervasive Games Lab at the MAC, organised by Fierce with Hide & Seek. It was interesting and fun. Here’s Nikki Pugh’s write-up
• ‘Rhymes’ Performance Poetry Special
  “After a brief interlude, ‘Rhymes’, Birmingham’s premier platform for Performance Poetry and spoken word is back with a special one-off format to celebrate it’s first year”
• Screen WM – Driving innovation and excellence in screen media : Blogs
  “Professor Roger Shannon, Co – Exec Producer of the new music documentary, MADE IN BIRMINGHAM – Reggae Punk Bhangra”
• Ped Shayer: More from Digbeth
  Some photos from the walls of the most decorated buildings around town

Some people send a press release. Some people go a little further.

First up is this film for Bright Space’s Platform project. Filmed by Courtney Salmon and starring Matt Windle.

And secondly, there’s this rather good promo for the Birmingham European Theatre Festival 2010 (30 June to 3 July).

Update: seems the BE Festival trailer’s been deleted. Shame that.

Bright Space are doing a project called Platform and they’re after youngsters:

Platform will be a blog written by 16-19 year olds, featuring articles, reviews, events listings and much more. Written by young people for young people it will represent a unique perspective on arts activity in Birmingham.

We are now looking to recruit 15 young people aged 16-19 years old who are interested in reporting, reviewing and attending the many cultural events in and around the city, including exhibitions, theatre, dance, launches and gigs.

Successful applicants will receive a £200 bursary and the opportunity to attend a week long intensive summer school in August, which will highlight the many techniques and skills they will need to become fully fledged Platform bloggers

Which sounds like a pretty decent deal. All you have to do to take advantage is write a 200 word article on a creative passion that you have, including your name, address, date of birth and contact details and send it to Bright Space. You need to be 16-19 years old and available on certain dates. More info on all that on the Platform website.

Seems a shame to let the young folks get all the fun though – I reckon doing a project like this with OAPS/accountants/badminton players/whatever could be fun.

A potentially fascinating opportunity for someone, this:

We, the Waverley Youth Panel (which consists of 15 young people from years 7 to 8) who want to make our school an exciting place for pupils and staff, and to allow them all to be active learners together. We will be working with our teachers to help them set up our Bright Space/Waverley Change school programme. Our initial ideas are to employ/commission one creative person or even an organisation to work with us to ‘find our voice’ and to support us in finding out what is already in our school and how we all want to use it. We also want to continue to draw on the strengths our school and community

If anyone wants to get involved then further details (incl contact info) are on the Arts News item.