Created in Birmingham

Three nights of animation are coming to The Custard Factory this week for The British Animation Awards Public Choice screenings.

Animation Forum WM have teamed up with Dice Productions and Flip Festival to bring three separate programmes of screenings of the best UK animated films of 2010 and 2011 to Birmingham. The shorts will be screened on Thursday 9th, Friday 10th, and Saturday 11th February from 7pm each night at The Custard Factory Theatre and you can vote to help determine the Public Choice winners.

Buy tickets and get more information on the Animation Forum WM website.

Hello Culture is a one day conference with a series of keynotes, panels and workshops exploring how those in the cultural sector can work with digital technology to improve their audience development, organisational operating process, raise their profile and collaborate across the digital sector and with new partners to develop and innovate new cultural product and practice..

17 November at Zellig (Custard Factory).

Links:

• A ‘save the date’ email with more info
• The Eventbrite ticket-booking page
• Hello Culture on Lanyrd
• helloculture.net might be the website (but there’s nothing there at the time of posting)

FlixFixer launched at the Custard Factory last night. It’s been on my radar for a while but I’ve not had much chance to check it out. I’ve just had a look and I suspect it might be a genius idea.

It’s really quite simple:

• You pick a cinema (just the Custard Factory for now)
• You pick a date
• You pick a film (you can show what you like if you own the rights or you can pick something from Park Circus‘s list)
• You pay a minimum amount

Tickets for the screening then go on general sale, and if at least 20 random punters come along then you’ll break even. Any more and you could even earn a bit extra for some popcorn.

Most people would be surprised just how easy and affordable it is to hire a cinema. What FlixFixer does is simplify the whole process and, on top of that, it gives you a hand promoting the screening and helping you earn your money back.

It’ll be interesting to see if they can sign up some other venues, making it a kind of Newspaper Club for cinema.

For now though, there’s already a programme of interesting events coming together and people are being encouraged to get involved putting on their own screenings.

One to watch.

Boxxed – the art, film, music and education venue on Floodgate Street in Digbeth – is to close its doors.

The venue – which hosted the shoot for Juice Aleem’s Rock My Hologram music video and more – made this announcement on their Facebook page:

It’s with a great deal of sadness that we have to announce BOXXED ceased trading on Monday the 19th Sept 2011. We’ve had fun and we hope everyone that experienced our unique space did too, but it’s time for us to bow out.

Massive thanks go to everyone that was part of our project, particularly Dave Checkley, Ksmk Neil, all the graff guys that painted our walls just for the love of it (especially Hoaks & Fluid), The Project Pigeon Crew and everyone that volunteered their time to help us out. You know who you are.

According to Digbeth is Good (hat-tip for posting about this originally), Project Pigeon, which is based on Boxxed’s Custard Factory grounds, will be unaffected for now and there will be a couple of closing parties at the venue to see it off in style. Inquiries should be directed to the Boxxed team on 07826 523 650.

Lewis Maxwell Bloor does photography, design, typography, digital manipulation and post production. He’s on Carbonmade and Tumblr (which is where I spotted a version of the pic above), has accounts on Flickr and Twitter and he’s available for freelance work.

I thought I recognised the name, but I was probably thinking of Simon and Tom Bloor who are from Birmingham too.

On Saturday Electric Carnival is taking over half of Digbeth – the HMV Institute, Custard Factory, Air, Heath Mill Lane car park and the Rainbow venues – and they’ve got space for 9,000 people (1,500 more than last year). That’s kinda big.

Via Digbeth is Good, who also have a map of road closures for the more logistically minded.

There’s been a little flurry of blog posts from BCU’s Interactive Cultures team announcing a few events and such, including:

• Animation Explosion 2011
• Creative Enterprise Conference
• The Online Mainline

There’s also a set of Creative Metropoles Case Studies which looks interesting (if you like that sort of thing) and features a range of European projects, including the Advantage Creative Fund, Custard Factory and Fazeley Studios office spaces, the PLOT Project and Brilliantly Birmingham from our own fair city.

Meanwhile, the other day, D’log posted about some notes about some other articles including some mentions of Birmingham in a paper called “Enabling and Inhibiting the Creative Economy: The Role of the Local and Regional Dimensions in England“.

Last Friday evening saw the launch party of Zellig‘s newest residents, LeKeux Events. The vintage, rockabilly inspired team put on an evening of treats, live music, dancing and discounted beauty services, transforming guests into glamorous vintage style pin ups.

With their new premises officially christened, they’ve announced a list of events, workshops and salon services taking place over the next few weeks, which include beginners hair tutorials, afternoon tea drop ins for mums and toddlers, 40′s dance classes and pin up photo shoots. Their in-store salon offers make-up, manicures and hair styling from a variety of inspiring eras.

Teaming up with the Boutique Baking Co. (very good cakes, I recommend) they’ll also be hosting tea parties and cake decorating classes, plus private hires for hen parties and such.

For a full list of what they’ve got to offer, take a look at their website and facebook page.

Photos from the launch are taken from their Facebook Page – I forgot to bring my camera to take my own.

The Eastern Electronic Festival is a new six day festival, taking place from 28 February – 5 March, featuring music, film screenings, art exhibitions, panel debates and world premieres of visual-artworks.

The festival will celebrate progressive Asian music and multimedia art, spreading itself across the city, with events taking place at venues including The Custard Factory, The Rainbow and The Hockley.

They’ll also be showcasing the work of four emerging South Asian artists in online exhibition “M-V Future”. From 28 Feb, the exhibition with feature work from film director Mandeep Singh Jutla, live-music photographer Gobinder Jhitta, VJ-visual artist Coco Edwards and contemporary conceptual artist Kulwinder Bajar, .

There’s plenty of free events going on, including a film and karaoke night, with the premier screening of Sholay flip-animation (1 March),  a panel discussion entitled “Is it time to stop calling is Asian music?” (2 March), and Unplugged with Sanchita Farruque (2 March).

For a full line-up of performers, exhibitions and events, take a look at the online programme.

Events from 28 Feb – 3 Mar are free entry, but should be pre-booked, and tickets are £10 a day for Fri 4/ Sat 5, or £18 for both. Visit the website for information on how and where to book.

Pop-up arts gallery, BlowCreates, is due to open in the Custard Factory’s Zellig building on 25 January.

This newly established PR and marketing venture had been set up by two Birmingham City University students. Follow their progress on Facebook and Tumblr, where they’ve been offering sneak peeks into the kind of artists we can expect to see in the gallery.

Blow will bring a new, exciting and innovative arts venue to Birmingham, selling work by painters, photographers, illustrators, sculptors, designers and more, many of whom are current students or graduates from Arts Universities.

The launch event looks set to be an interesting evening, with music, drinks and live art from local illustrator Joel Millerchip.

• Tributes to Tessa Sidey, fine art curator at Birmingham Museum & Art Gallery
  One of many tributes to Tessa Sidley
• Digital journalist & shameless parish gossip « Custard Factory
  Having read the job description, is journalist a more acceptable word for marketer these days? Either way, there’s an interesting job going
• Birmingham music groups urged to share facilities and staff
  BCMG and Birmingham Jazz: “following concerted lobbying, the two music groups will be given an extra six months funding if they make moves to join a cost-saving music hub with the Symphony Hall, CBSO, Town Hall, Ex-Cathedra and other groups”
• Creative England
  First glimpse of Creative England – the new configuration of the regional screen agencies. Sign up to their mailing list to keep up with news/opportunities/etc
• SOUNDkitchen | Feed your ears!
  This is “an organisation dedicated to the promotion of composers and artists working in the field of sound”
• Matt Edgar – Green Sand and Subterfuge
  A story about Matthew Murray from Leeds and his battles with Boulton & Watt of Birmingham – dirty tricks in business during the Industrial Revolution
• YouTube – ‘Tornadoes, Moons, Bridges and Balloons’ – A 16 song Compilation Cover by Muchuu
  I like this – Muchuu covering The Smiths, Beirut, Bon Iver, Rihanna, Coco Rosie and a whole bunch of others
• Thinktank museum given funding for Made In Birmingham gallery
  “Birmingham’s Thinktank science museum has been awarded £900,000 Lottery funding to bring some of its artefacts out of cold storage”
• Michelin Guide recognises West Midlands restaurants
  “Birmingham’s trio of Purnell’s, Simpsons and Turners all retained their one-star rating in the guide, as did La Bécasse and Mr Underhill’s in south Shropshire”

The CiB Shop wound up after three hectic months, with Pete announcing the impending announcing the impending closure. Before that, INKwell popped into the shop for some screen printing, the City of Culture bid got it’s send-off and The Story Exchange popped in.

The Created in Birmingham closed its shutters for the last time at the end of the month. Someone kissed the feedback book:

International Dance Festival Birmingham came to an end too, while Ian looked forward to what was in store at the 2010 BASS Festival and I had a peek at the Lichfield Festival’s line-up.

RoguePlay left the Custard Factory, I noticed Writing West Midlands for the first time, Ikon announced their series of ‘Favourite Things’ talks, the Daze-Ray exhibition occupied a corner of the Jewellery Quarter and IPEX took over the NEC.

hobbypopMUSEUM spent some time at Eastside Projects, the annual Cure Leukemia Art Auction took place, Ben Javens made a tea towel, end-of-year-show season started up and there was a photography exhibition at the Custard Factory.

I went to visit the flashy gizmos at University of Birmingham’s Heritage and Culture Learning Hub too.

Celebrating a a year of craftism, Craftspace are holding a free day of crafty activities on Saturday 4 December in the Gallery at The Custard Factory from 1 – 5pm.

Activites include pin badge making, t-shirt printing, sweet graffti, DIY gaming, giant drawing with pins and a few festive activities including pom pom snow balls and greeting card printing.

The day is aimed at 16-25 year olds, so you get stuck into craft making without feeling you should be there with a child, plus there’s free lunches if you take a copy of this flyer.

The Union Black Film Festival is the UK’s first region specific film festival, celebrating Black British cinema based in central Birmingham, and is taking place from Thursday 14 – Sunday 17 October.

The festival will bring panel discussions, debates, events and film screenings. From commercial hits, to classics, here’s what’s on offer;

14 October – Burning an Illusion (1981), 9pm at The Custard Factory

15 October – Pressure (1975), 9pm at The Custard Factory

16 October – Precious (2009), 11am at Odeon Cinema, New St.

17 October – The Princess and the Frog (2009), 1.30pm at mac, which will include mask making and story telling as part of the festival’s family morning.

Aside from the family morning, other educational events include;

14 October – Mirror Mirror; Reflections of Black Women in the Media, 7pm at The Custard Factory. The evening will welcome a panel of leading black women within British media to discuss whether current images of scantily clad black women to victims of gang violence are having a negative impact on the self image and self-esteem of young black girls. A short documentary by a group of Birmingham based teen girls will follow the debate, focusing on this topic.

15 October – Glorious Technicolour, 7pm at The Custard Factory. This event will examine the reasons why black people still remain under-represented both in front of and behind the camera in Britain’s media industry. For all the regions film makers this also provides an opportunity to ask those already established how best to get their work funded and/or commissioned.

• 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