Created in Birmingham

CiB celebrated it’s fourth Birthday, a stir was caused when a leaked document of recommended cuts to local art organisations sparked concern over their future, and legendary Birmingham promoters, Leftfoot, celebrated their 1oth anniversary.

Birmingham Royal Ballet and mac managed to raise a decent amount of money through The Big Arts Give, while Moseley Folk and OxjamBrum ended the year with a Christmas Ceilidh and Flatpack released a few highlights set for their 2011 festival.

We also featured a few independently made Christmas cards by local designers, took a look at what can be expected from the new Library of Birmingham interior and the much anticipated budget for Birmingham art organisations was announced by Birmingham City Council.

As the year drew to a close, Rhubarb Radio made a plea for help, the 2010 Twitpanto production of Jack and the Beanstalk took place and we took a look at what Birmingham’s creative minds had come up with for the festive season.

Christmas Day television treated us to Birmingham Royal Ballet, with a prime Christmas dinner slot on BBC1, while Birmingham Opera Company also made it onto BBC4 for post dinner relaxation.

I’ve never witnessed a Twitpanto before, so I’m quite intrigued/ excited to see what goes down. This year’s production is ‘Jack and the Beanstalk’.

The star studded cast features plenty of familiar Brum tweeters, including a cameo from CiB’s Chris Unitt, who’ll be appearing as a member of ‘The Riot Police’.

The fun starts at 2pm this afternoon, and you can watch the whole thing online from the comfort of your home/ bed/ office. Perfect.

• Twitpanto Narrator (twitpanto on Twitter) was nominated for a Shorty Award
  Go vote for Twitpanto. Please
• Birmingham City Council Art in Empty Shops
  “Birmingham’s Community Arts Team are looking for an arts led organisation with registered charity status to produce, co-ordinate and programme exhibitions accompanied by a minimum of 50 days participatory activity at five empty shop venues across the city between February 2010 and March 2011″
• MULL IT OVER
  Interview with Luke Halliley
• Skeptics In The Pub – Birmingham
  “Skeptics in the Pub (SitP) exists to provide an opportunity for people who are interested in science, skepticism, rationalism, critical thinking to socialise and discuss matters of interest”. Do they really?
• Twitter / Chris Addison
  “I gots to tell ya, The Comedy Junction in Sutton Coldfield has to be one of the best (& best run) gigs in the country”. Ringing endorsement from the chap from The Thick of It
• Digbeth is Good » January at The Mixing Bowl Theatre
  Nicky rounds up what’s happening at the Custard Factory’s theatre. Which is good, cos it was on my list but I’d not got round to doing it
• Kate Hindley artwork « Get Frank
  Ex-CiBster and current songwriter/radio presenter/drama student/Maverick TV intern (I think)/etc Frankie Ward got some artwork by Kate Hindley for Christmas

• CiB needs votes
  Drat, we’re languishing in 2nd now. Please vote (again, if you already have). If CiB has ever promoted anything of yours, please could you return the favour?
• Art Stalking: One Day Comic & Feature: Architecture
  “Works by Henrik Schrat (with guests) & Shezad Dawood form an installation at ESP that feels very different from the opening exhibition there”
• It’s behind me. Twitter pantomime, a social media experiment
  Jon Bounds rounds up and generally tries to explain what Twitpanto, the Twitter pantomime, was all about
• Laundry – an association of multi-disciplinary artists
  Members of Laundry have visited “Hania, Crete, to negotiate and plan a Creative Laboratory with the Etz Hayyim Synagogue, as part of the Intercultural Dialogue project with Borderland Foundation and New Culture Foundation”
• 7 Inch Cinema » The Way We Were
  Ian rounds up an interesting and varied 2008 when he should be writing the Flatpack brochure
• Media Talent Bank – January member of the month
  Garazi Gardner is member of the month for January and is “a freelance photographer based in Birmingham who specialises in fashion, portrait and both live and promotional music photography”
• Enduring America
  Enduring America is a blog about US politics and foreign policy straight outta Birmingham Uni. Contributors include Scott Lucas, Prof of American Studies, and PhD student Mike Dunn

Twitpanto – 23 December at 2pm

Featuring:

• Paul Groves as Cinderella
• Nicky Getgood as Prince Charming

With special guests:

• Tom Watson MP (West Brom) as Baron Tweetup
• Jemima Kiss (Guardian tech correspondent) as Baroness Tweetup, the wicked stepmother

I’m going to be one of the ugly sisters. Follow @twitpanto on Twitter or check this Twitter search every so often to keep up to date.