Created in Birmingham

• Autumn Glory reviews « Birmingham Royal Ballet’s tour blog
  This is good – an even-looking spread of reviews from BRB’s recent tour (from both big newspapers and individual tweets) with links through to the source
• Open Studio at Birmingham Printmakers
  “At Birmingham Printmakers we are holding an Open Studio on Saturday 26th November from 10am to 4pm”
• Living Books Wanted! for Fierce Festival 2012
  We are looking for people to take part in a unique performance project that will involve the step-by-step memorisation of an entire book. Don’t worry, you don’t need to be a memory expert and no performance experience is necessary, but you will need a passion for stories and an interest in developing performing skills
• Birmingham’s Theatre-ish Christmas Party – 14 December « mid * point
  “Everyone connected with the wider world of theatre in Birmingham and beyond is invited to share a night together. Cheap bar and dancing…Chill out room and conversation…Cabaret stage and laughter…Basic food and sophisticated company!
  This event is being organised collaboratively. If you wish to contribute, please tell us. If you plan on coming and bringing people, an RSVP would help.” Details via the link
• More detail on the BBC Birmingham losses « D’log
  More details on the losses at BBC Birmingham. I had no idea all those shows are/were made here.
• Television Drama Studio Campaign – Equity
  Equity are campaigning to save BBC Birmingham and establish another large television studio in the region. If you use the form letter you may want to use a spellchecker.
• Arts Council condemned for spending millions on The Public, in West Bromwich
  “The Public is a clear example of a project where the execution did not reflect the original vision.”
• Moseley Record Fair in its Twelfth Edition – Domestic City
  This is from Ross Cotton’s blog
• Fashiny blogger mingle | Fashiny
  Fashiny (a fashion-related tech start-up based at Birmingham Science Park) recently held a get-together for some local fashion bloggers
• Notes from Producer Discussions and Forums during First Bite « mid * point
  I was saying the other day how the West Mids theatre lot seem to have got their online act together recently. I’ve certainly hearing about more about that kind of thing recently.

• Nirvana – Lithium – Birmingham 1991 – YouTube
  Footage from The Hummingbird (now Birmingham Ballroom). There are a few more here too
• Interactive/film and video artists wanted – The Public
  The Public are currently inviting interactive artists and artists working in film and video to submit work to two unique open exhibitions, taking place early 2012.
• Supersonic Festival picks | I Am Pete Ashton
  Supersonic kicks off today. It all looks good, but if you want recommendations then Pete (and some commenters) have got em. And here’s the non-musical stuff that’s happening
• Play More
  “This is the temporary page for the newly created Birmingham based arts collective Play More; a group of artists who aim to promote play one ridiculous event at a time.”
• Activating Contemporary Circus in the West Midlands « mid * point
  Birmingham Hippodrome invite you to join leading practitioners to explore
  creatively how we can develop a future for contemporary circus in the region
• All together now – AMA Commons
  I thing I wrote for the Arts Marketing Association about online collaboration and mentioning a few Birmingham-based case studies

If you fancy performing then fling an email over to creativejourneys@me.com. I’ve no idea how careers karaoke might work – could be interesting. Also, Tan Matthews might be a name worth watching.

• Thriller In The City
  “a mass thriller Flash mob will be descending on a secret city centre location on 1pm on Saturday 16th April”
• Vudu Club
  New club from the folks behind Subculture and Subside. Opening soon
• Time For Change: On Birmingham’s Buses – The Official Blog for the Campaign to get change on Birmingham’s buses (and also other improvements)
  Joe’s a comedian (a very good one) but he’s very serious about this
• Theatre Network Event – Events | The Public
  The title is ‘theatre networking event’ but the description reads more like an open day for people who might be interested in putting on theatre at The Public. Either way.
• TRASHION loves… Urban Village vintage « Trashion Magazine
  Pics and excitable blurb
• Media Circus 2 – Digital for 2011
  “In May we will be exhibiting some of the very latest technologies for delivering digital content, including Augmented Reality, large multi-touch touch screens and glasses-free 3D. We are inviting collaboration between digital agencies, freelance individuals, non digital creative industries and university graduates to create content and ideas around the theme of using digital WITH non digital”

As you may have realised, we haven’t been posting as much recently, leaving it to our guest contributors to fill the pages on CiB. As a result, I wouldn’t want anyone to miss out on what’s going on, so I’m just going to mention a few things that have been coming in through the CiB inbox recently.

SEARCH ENGINE

Starting next Monday is Grand Union‘s six-week open residency programme, which will run from 21 March – 30 April 2011. Three artist groups have been invited to work in the project space for two weeks each, starting with Manu Luksch & Mukul Patel.

MANU LUKSCH & MUKUL PATEL, Kayak Libre <<free thinking, free transport>>

Thursday 24 March, 6-9 pm: Opening
Artists’ talk at Grand Union, 6.30 pm
Screening of shorts by Manu Luksch at VIVID , 9 pm

Thursday 24 Mar – Sunday 27 March:
WATER TAXI available to book from 19 March.
For booking please contact info@grand-union.org.uk

Saturday 2 April, 12-2 pm: Final open workshop

Behna (Sisters)

This unique and intimate theatre production by Kali Theatre will be performed in the kitchens of Punjabi households across the Black Country from 22 March to 15 April.

It’s the day before a wedding, Ladies’ Sangeet Night, in a Punjabi household. The bride is having her henna done and the guests are busy eating, singing and dancing. But in the kitchen, sibling jealousy simmers alongside the samosas.  Fast-paced, funny and moving, Behna takes a look through the keyhole of a family house to reveal the secrets and lies of two generations of sisters.

For more information and to book tickets, visit The Public’s website.

One, Nineteen

One, Nineteen from local ‘Archers’ writer, Tim Stimpson, is on at The Old Joint Stock Theatre on 18 & 19 March.

19th January: Freak storms bring devastating floods to the English coast, but before the rescue effort arrives, the media are already in town spinning their story. A play about the power of the news, the strength of the government, the question of climate change, and of course, and the search for Sam, Jack and little Chloe…

After premiering in London, it was given a 4 star review from Time Out, so it’s probably worth a watch.

For more info and how to book tickets, visit The Old Joint Stock’s website.

LUNÄ Talks

Ikon and the Lunar Society present this series of evening talks revisiting themes discussed by the original 18th century Lunar Society within a contemporary context.

The next talk is happening on Wednesday 23 March, from 7 – 9pm and focuses on Education. The panel of speakers looks a bit like this:

Felicity Allen: Artist, writer, educator. Former Head of Learning, Tate Britain (2003-10). www.felicityallen.co.uk

Nancy Evans: Education Manager Birmingham Contemporary Music Group, freelance musician and trainer working in early years education

Colin Gale: Head of School of Fashion and Textiles and Course Director for MA Textiles, Fashion & Surface Design, Birmingham Institute of Art and Design

Kate Iles: PhD student, University of Birmingham; Constructing the 18th Century woman; The life and education of Sabrina Sidney

For more information on the future talks, entitled ‘Urban design and regeneration’ and ‘Medicine and science’, visit Ikon’s website.

Tickets cost £10 (£8 concessions), to book call Ikon Shop on 0121 248 0711.

From time to time a disgruntled promoter will write something accusing the people of Birmingham of being an apathetic bunch who’d rather stay at home than go out and have a good time. See this post from a year ago for an example.

James Cook has joined this cohort with a post titled ‘Why the Birmingham comedy scene repeatedly dies on its hole…‘. His gripes are that (and I apologise for paraphrasing):

• research shows that residents of Birmingham are the most risk averse in the country. We have a drinking culture, but not much of a ‘going out’ culture. This makes things difficult for promoters
• there are too many poor quality comedy night charging people good money to see new, unpaid acts. These nights are rubbish and will put people off ever going to a comedy night again

I don’t claim to know too much about this – I go to the occasional stand-up show, but I don’t have James’s experience of the local comedy scene and he’s not the first to have made this complaint. However, from a lay punter’s point of view, I was under the impression that if comedy’s your thing then Birmingham caters for you pretty well. We’ve got:

• the NIA and LG Arena for the big, mainstream touring shows
• Town Hall and Alexandra Theatre for other biggish touring shows
• two main stand-up venues - The Glee Club and Highlight
• other occasional shows at The Public and the MAC. Warwick Arts Centre and various places in Wolverhampton are fairly close too
• some smaller, regular nights bringing in some decent national names (Comedy Junction and Popcorn Comedy)
• there’s a proliferation of other, smaller nights at pubs and bars around over the city too

In terms of general promotion, we’ve got a dedicated comedy website and (almost?) every year the Birmingham Comedy Festival draws a ring around a load of shows happening over the space of a month and shouts about them.

That seems like a pretty healthy spread to me. Certainly a good deal more than many other towns and cities can claim. Does it constitute a ‘scene’? If not, is it just the audiences for the smaller gigs that are missing, or something else?

I’d be interested in hearing what people think. Or, seeing as how he started the discussion, leave a comment on James’s post.

Tomorrow, I’ll be at The Public for the showcase event of the DCD Programme. In case you’d not heard of it:

Arts Council England West Midlands’ Digital Content Development (DCD) Programme is a three year programme of investment which aims to catalyse the creation and creative use of digital content platforms for arts organisations across the West Midlands region

The website went up recently and the map on the homepage shows some of the projects, along with how much money they received. Further information is due on the website at some point, but if you look at the page source then you can glean a little more. On the basis that you probably don’t want to ruin your eyes, here’s what I found:

• Birmingham Repertory Theatre – Towards the development of an online multi-user playwriting resource (£27,884)
• Pesky People – Development of a multiplatform approach to venue access information (£25,000)
• Leamington Spa Art Gallery & Museum – PostCart: creative digital access of art gallery and museum collections (£24,750)
• Library of Birmingham – Development of an Alternate Reality Game for young people (£23,750)
• Talking Birds Theatre Company – Development of The Difference Engine – a multiplatform real time access tool. Some mention of it here (£1,500 + £20,860)
• The Play House – Develop an online resource to match the company’s participatory ethos (£22,349)
• Eastside Projects and Birmingham City University – Piloting a 3D online art gallery (£22,000)
• The MAC – Playground: exploring the use of digital technologies in a new-built art centre (£20,500)
• Royal Shakespeare Company – Creation of a new digital arena for the creativity of the RSC. Pretty sure this was Such Tweet Sorrow (£20,000)
• Audiences Central – To develop a web platform and plug-in for cross regional arts marketing (£18,000)
• B Arts – Development of a new form of arts centre/collaboration (£17,380)
• Rhubarb Rhubarb – To create an online evaluation tool (£17,000)
• Shropshire County Council – Citizen Journalism (£15,612)
• Rideout – To explore the production of creative digital content engaging youth crime statistics (£15,000)
• Radio To Go – A collaboration with the British Library to pilot an online music archive. Called The Pilot Project (£13,750)
• Rosie Kay Dance Company – To create an online version of the touring production, 5 Soldiers (£12,500)
• Indigo Ltd – The development of a pilot online platform exploring new forms of crowd-source fundraising in the arts (launching soon and called Angel Shares) (£11,750)
• Wolverhampton Arts & Museums / Black Country Museums – Research and Development of a collaborative online resource for the Black Country Museums (£10,550)
• Black Country Touring – Exploration of enhancing a site specific, theatrical experience through live streaming (£10,348)
• Multistory – To create a new media platform for celebrating local stories as part of place-making (£10,235)
• Fierce Festival – Towards a Viral Online research game (£8,253)
• Birmingham Opera – Exploring new models of ownership and sales of published works (£6,737)
• Borderlines Film Festival Ltd – Experimenting with mScapes technologies (£5,600)
• Orchestra of the Swan – Research and development towards a strategic plan (£5,000)
• Capsule – To support digitally enhanced new marketing and distribution opportunities (£4,880)
• Welsh National Opera – research and development of phase one of iMaestro. To allow Welsh National Opera to research digital copyright law and the possibility of exploiting full-length opera samples under the Creative Commons license (info about that here) (£4,600)
• Ikon Gallery – Towards the development of a social media project (£3,500)
• The Other Way Works – Professional development around Augmented Reality and Transmedia (£2,575)
• Ex Cathedra – Market development, engaging an online music aggregator (£1,323)
• Dance Consortium – Exploring social media in relation to contemporary dance marketing (£1,000)
• MADE – To explore the use of digital platforms in placing making (£1,000)

As well as these projects, the programme supported a range of other activities including workshops, innovation labs and other events.

I’ve heard of one or two of these projects, but the vast majority are new to me so it’ll be interesting to hear a little more. I should probably also add that I’m involved in the Rosie Kay Dance Company project – that’ll launch next week so I’ll blab a bit more about it then.

The Public are hosting two open exhibitions in 2011, and have pushed back the deadline for submissions to Friday 31 December 2010.

TOUCHINTERACTIVE 2011 is to be the UK’s first open exhibition specifically for digital interactive artwork, and SCREENING 2011 will offer film and video artists a chance to exhibit work.

Both exhibitions are free to enter and are open internationally to both early career and professional interactive, film and video artists, although priority will be given to those around the West Midlands or at early stages in their career.

Selected applicants will be exhibited in Febuary 2011. For more information and how to download the application form, see The Public’s website.

The Disability Film Festival Day takes place on 3 December, at various venues arcoss the country, including  The Public, mac and Light House.

The festival will be packed full of international shorts, a selection of films from Oska Bright, themed discussions and archived films, in the UK’s first celebration of disability and film.

The Public and mac will also be screening the BBC’s feature length film ‘Raspberry Ripple’, while Light House will be hosting a directors workshop in association with Film Nation.

Entry to all events is free. For more information on events and screenings, take a look at the full rundown over at the list of venues.

Multistory in association with The Public present Martin Parr’s unique look at life in the Black Country. After spending a year documenting modern day society and culture, The Public are preparing to unveil this collection of over 750 photographs.

Parr’s process of documenting and recording is fuelled by his passion and a curiosity, taking inspiration from his surroundings.  His intimate approach, photographing his subjects in their own environment, gives him space to explore their lives and values in ways that often involve inadvertent humour.

Running alongside this will be an exhibition of photographs by students and staff of Sandwell College Photography Department. ‘Show Me A Secret’ will explore and display their own interpretations of Black Country life following Martin Parr’s mentoring.

Both exhibitions run from Thursday 11 November 2010 to Sunday 23 January 2011; opening daily, 10am – 6pm, and have free entry.

• Call for submissions – Interactive artwork for touch-screens
  Shiny tech stuff at The Public – “Submissions are now being accepted for TOUCHinteractive, UK’s first open submission exhibition specifically for digital-interactive artwork”
• Mark Harris
  “My work has a strong interest in systems and generative processes in art and music – I have developed a number of software applications which allow me to work with these processes in a live performance environment.”
• BBC News – Ten ‘most threatened’ buildings in England and Wales
  Includes the former Moseley School of Art, Moseley Road, Birmingham
• Birmingham newspaper war: Chris Bullivant closes the Birmingham Press and the Free Press and complains to Office of Fair Trading
  “Chris Bullivant says he fears “there is no future for independent publishing in the UK” after deciding to close The Birmingham Press and The Birmingham Free Press, admitting he cannot compete with ad rates he claims are being offered to estate agents by the Birmingham Mail.”
• Birmingham Post – Arts funding cuts will hit West Midlands hard, admits Ed Vaizey
  ‘Birmingham’s arts organisations will lose out to London when they are forced to bid for private investment to keep afloat amid Government cuts, Culture Minister Ed Vaizey said”
• Birmingham Mail – Brum lap-dancing clubs left out of pocket by Tories
  Question is, when referring to ‘one of Birmingham’s leading industries’ was John Lamb referring to Birmingham’s entertainment sector in general or lap-dancing in particular? I should probably be asking Jon Griffin that, but then I’m no journalist
• A&B Awards 2010 announced – Audiences Central
  People got dressed up and were given statues. Yay!
• Screen WM – Birmingham International Film Society wins Film Society of the Year Award
  Awarded at the annual conference of the British Federation of Film Societies
• contemporary monkey //
  A Birmingham-based online art critic who isn’t afraid to call something rubbish if he thinks it’s rubbish. That’s refreshing (says Cheerleader No. 1, despairing of himself)
• de papel
  I’m not sure who’s behind this blog, but CiB is in the blogroll (a list of ‘Super Blogs’, no less) so I’m giving a courteous nod back
• About DANCE BOX « Dancebox’s Blog
  “DANCE BOX is a dance network for young people who LOVE TO DANCE, in Coventry, Solihull and Warwickshire”
• Radio Wildfire
  “Radio Wildfire broadcasts to you from the West Midlands of England. It concentrates on live literature, spoken word performances and oral art”
• William Gallagher
  A writer and photographer from Birmingham. Seems to write knowledgeably on Strictly too

Leading contemporary video artist Bill Viola is currently exhibiting ‘The Fall into Paradise’ at The Public, which runs until 17 October.

Viola’s video installations – submersive environments that envelop the viewer in image and sound – employ state-of-the-art technologies and are distinguished by their precision and direct simplicity.  Using the inner language of subjective thoughts and collective memories, his videos communicate to a wide audience, allowing viewers to experience the work directly, and in their own personal way.

The ten minute film was also created as part of a series to be featured in Wagner’s Tristan and Isolde, which premieres at Symphony Hall Birmingham on Thursday 23 September.

If you fancy popping down to see exhibition, it’s open Wednesday to Sunday, 10am to 6pm and is free to visit.

For more information about all events and exhibitions at The Public visit www.thepublic.com or call the box office on 0121 533 7161

Beth White (of LovLi Design) is putting together an exhibition in the cafe area of The Public in West Brom. The plan is:

to produce some really fantastic bunting using over 150 different artists. Each artist can create more that one piece of bunting, but each piece must be completely unique.  The final piece will be used again and again through the years

The deadline is 6 July. If you want to get involved you can download some artists info and a proper bunting brief (Word docs).

The Public art gallery in West Bromwich has joined forces with ITV Fixers to present an exhibition of works, including painting, sculpture, photography and short film, by young and up-and-coming artists. Here’s the background:

Fixer Todd Wooton (22) is a young artist. Throughout school and university he has found it almost impossible to get his art seen. So he has become a Fixer to sort it out. With the help of his Young People’s Co-ordinator, Todd has organised for the work of about 17 young aspiring artists to be exhibited at The Public, a community arts space, in West Bromwich. The exhibition will last two weeks from 19th April to 3rd May 2010 and will display pieces by undiscovered Midlands-based artists.

For some more info on Works of Ours at The Public, go to the ITV Fixers website here.

• ‘Re-building the TV Drama industry in the West Midlands’ – Public meeting
  “With TV drama series like Hustle and Survivors now filming here, we look at how we can rebuild our TV drama industry in the region”
• Avatars-Live! and other stories : Adventures in interactive art and drama at The Public
  “Could you write a piece for performance using digital artworks at The Public art gallery in West Bromwich?” That is the question, what is the answer?
• Getgood Link: YouTube – Hobgoblin Birmingham Courtesy Of Birmingham Business Showcase
  Nicky’s spotted this: “Nice little film of Hobgoblin music store in the Custard Factory, who sell everything from £3 penny whistles to £1,000 accordions”
• Theatre Sandbox
  “Theatre Sandbox, a new opportunity for theatre artists, companies and collectives, is offering six £10,000 commissions to support the research and development of experimental pieces of performance which engage with Pervasive Media Technologies”. Workshop in Brum on 12 April if you’re interested