Created in Birmingham

Four days of training to learn how to talk to people (or audiences/clients/peers/customers if you want to see them that way) about your art – in real life and online.

I rate Helga and Pete on those subjects and think there’s a real need for some people to get their heads around this stuff and see that it’s not as scary or difficult as they might think. That, and I’m still shaking my head at the berk who told me “Oh, I don’t do business cards” when I asked if he had any contact details.

More info (including booking) on the Fierce Earth website.

If want to read about the purpose of/thinking behind the course then Pete’s written about that here.

• Know Your Place
  “If you are a freelancer, recent graduate or SME then why not come and be inspired at the third Know Your Place event” On 23 August at Zellig. These get good reviews – worth signing up for
• Ben Javens: Time Out Cover Illustration #2
  Nice work by Ben, although Time Out are still in my bad books after one of their writers described Birmingham as ‘scum’
• Funding launched for young am-dram groups – Audiences Central
  “Individual grants of up to £5,000 will be on offer to non-professional theatre groups that are either made up entirely of members under the age of 25, or which have a youth section and are involved in musical theatre productions.”
• Birmingham Museums and Art Gallerys – Your Birmingham event
  “Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery is asking the public to help in exploring the history of Birmingham. The first opportunity to do this in person will be at the Museum Collections Centre Open Day on Sunday August 22nd”
• We Are Fierce» Blog Archive » Fierce’s Dirty Cash!!!
  “Help Fierce Festival discover the filthiest way to spend 250 quid”
• Capsule zine no.5 : Capsule Blog
  “this edition has been designed by our brand new intern Tom J Hughes, a mighty fine illustrator who has done us proud”
• View from the top of a crane! « BrumCityCentre.com
  That crane being the one at the site of the new library. It’s quite high up
• New stats on the West Midlands creative workforce « D’log
  “More statistics on the West Midlands creative workforce”
• Fierce Earth finds new home « Fierce Earth
  The differences between Fierce Earth and the Fierce Festival are now that bit more pronounced. The former has an office, the latter has gone all virtual. Fierce Earth will “have a new strategic focus on training and consultancy for the creative sector and developing creative talent”
• The Yellow Door Bindery
  “The Yellow Door Bindery is a Birmingham-based workshop offering a bespoke bookbinding, box-making and portfolio making service”
• Matthew Sefton
  Good stuff from Matthew, blogging about getting into the regional media industry
• Photography in Birmingham: a review of three exhibitions « In Birmingham
  Steve McCurry at BMAG, Harold Edgerton at the Pallasades and Sheldon Nadelman at Trove
• OxjamBrum Speed Dating Event- Top 40 Singles « Area Culture Guide
  “The people behind the OxjamBrum Takeover festival are looking for 20 male and 20 female music lovers, also known as the Top 40 Singles, to come along to their charitable and cheeky new speed dating event on Thursday 26th August 2010″
• Attractions vie for tourism excellence award – Audiences Central
  “The shortlist for the Heart of England Excellence in Tourism awards 2010 has been announced”
• Birmingham Post – £30m plans for new Birmingham Conservatoire
  BCU have some ambitious plans
• meorwithlou
  The blog of Louise Whitmore, a designer who had some work in the CiB Shop and who I bumped into again earlier

Tomorrow afternoon at Zellig (the new Custard Factory bit – that name’s still not sitting right with me) there’s an event for creative freelancers called Know Your Place. Those who are well tuned in to this sort of thing will know that a similar thing ran at Fazeley Studios a few months back (I even spoke at it). It seemed to go well and is now back by dope demand. It’s free but I’m not sure whether there are places left, so be quick.

Speakers include Andy Hartwell (Substrakt), Helga Henry (Fierce Earth), Eryka Isaak, Julia Higginbottom (Aquila TV) and Alexa Torlo (BCU).

There’s a little more besides so head for the website and the Facebook event for details.

• Snow in B29.
  The Flickr group: B29 will be tracking and rating the incoming snow via twitter over the next week, and gathering any photographs taken within the postcode.
• Desk space for rent at the Fierce Earth office.
  The Fierce Earth office have a desk for rent in a prime city centre location for a bargain £200 a month (plus VAT). For more details visit the site or contact Helga at helga@fierceearth.com or call 0121 244 8080.
• Zhang Enli in Conversation at Ikon.
  On Monday 2 February, artist Zhang Enli will discuss his work and forthcoming exhibition at Ikon which opens on Wednesday 4th.  The event takes place in the Lecture Theatre at the School of Art, Birmingham City University, 6.30pm – 8pm. Places are free but should be reserved by calling Ikon on 0121 248 0708.
• Gane vs Iddon at Three White Walls Gallery.
  An exhibition of works from landscape photographers Jo Gane and Henry Iddon. The exhibition explores the photographic relationship with the night, where long exposures offer a view of the landscape unseen by the human eye. Runs until 2nd March.
• Home of Metal open day.
  The third open day is being held on Saturday 7th February at Birmingham Museum & Art Gallery 11am – 4.00pm. Fans are encouraged to bring memorabilia along with their personal stories to the gallery to be recorded – all of which will go towards the new digital archive, which aims to tell the true story of the birth place of metal. – Think antiques roadshow for Metal fans!

• november listings « Ian’s 7inch blog
  Ian’s invaluable guide to the month’s film happenings might be taking a bit of a break with the Flatpack Festival demanding attention, so get it while you can
• Time for Birmingham to support the independent arts
  Fierce Earth’s Helga Henry asks – “creating a civic arts hub – a suitably bold and progressive move in these stormy economic times?”
• SelfCtrl
  Stef Grindley is “a designer and creative based in Birmingham in the UK. I work as Senior Designer at Made Media and I am a member of the Outcrowd Collective”
• Lost in S.P.A.C.E video
  “a short film showcasing the art on display during the Lost In S.P.A.C.E. group show from artists based at the Custard Factory that ran in the Gallery at the end of October”
• Black Velvet 58
  For the amount of effort the Black Velvet folk put in they probably deserve a bigger profile. Or at least a better online one. You can only buy this at Dale News, along from the Academy btw

Typical.  I write a post about the Fierce Earth blog and what happens?  A few hours later Helga Henry, managing director of Fierce Earth, uses that same blog to make a couple of key announcements – the biggest of which is that:

at present I think it’s fair to say that there will not be a Fierce Festival in 2009 but that we will aim to produce 2-3 large scale ambitious public projects throughout ‘09, one of which may be at the festival time. Our partners too, may still want to programme audacious and risky work in May and June, and we will certainly be working with them as usual to promote performances if they do.

We’d like to deliver a bigger, more ambitious programme, and it may take some time to sort that out.

So it’s not all bad and a reflection of their ambitions more than anything.  It’s worth reading the whole post for more about the whys and wherefores but, as Helga says, watch the blog for developments.

There’s also information about Fierce’s Creative Learning work and the announcement that:

We’re considering announcing a call for projects and inviting ideas for innovative and exciting creative learning projects with people who would be willing to partner Fierce Earth

So if that sounds like something you’d be interested in then that’s another reason to watch that space.

Which makes me very pleased indeed.  Gemma’s posts over at My Fierce Placement have given a great insight into the breadth of work that Fierce Earth are involved with so it’ll be interesting to see what’s posted on the Fierce Earth blog.

As well as producing the Fierce Festival, Fierce Earth provide training via Metapod (for start-up creatives) and Momentum (for producers/curators).  They also offer consultancy services, having recently worked with Birmingham Jazz (amongst several others) and are soon to start working with Tindal Street Press.

It looks like they’ll also be using the blog to spread the word about interesting opportunities that they come across.  Worth keeping an eye on.