On 21st April I went to Creative Republic’s Media Skills Masterclass at Fazeley Studios. Birmingham creatives were given tips in getting publicity for their work by guest speakers Ian Taylor (Marketing Birmingham), Anna Blackaby (Creative industries editor, Birmingham Post), Marverine Cole (Sky News) and Jon Bounds, who gave a lovely speech about how we should listen and converse with the people we want to notice us.
We were then set the task of drafting a press release about something we’d like a bit of buzz about. Here’s my effort, inspired by the book A Mis-Guide to Anywhere. Big up to the lovely Karen Strunks for her great help and choice words.
Birmingham Bed Swap
Wake up in someone else’s bed.
Birmingham and Black Country bloggers, twitterers, photographers and writers will swap homes for one night only, and talk about their change of scene and routine.
Nicky Getgood, author of the Digbeth is Good blog [that's me!], will be encouraging people from the West Midlands to take a mini-holiday by swapping homes with like-minded locals. Participants will be invited to blog, tweet and record online how they settle into their new homes.
A list of odd jobs such as nipping to the shops for a pint of milk, borrowing a cup of sugar from a neighbour and walking the dog/feeding the cat will force people to explore and interact with their new surroundings and should make for some interesting observations.
Recording these experiences online will hopefully create an archive of a fresh pair of eyes on West Midlands areas.
And that’s as far as I got. THSH PR Manager Lyle Bignon has since very kindly offered to help create some publicity around this so I guess I need to know before I accept – are people up for this? Would you like to spend the night in an unfamiliar part of town and let someone else sleep in your bed, walk your dog and harass your neighbours for demerara? Let me know!
Creative Republic Chair Helga Henry ended the evening by telling us we’re exciting, courageous, inspiring, funny and clever. And we should shout about this more loudly. All brilliantly rousing stuff.
Make, Do and More – Some pictures from Friction Arts’ ‘Make and Do’ party at The Edge, where 20 artists created, collaborated and had fun. Photos are of John McQueen’s work made using a ‘demi-boat’ and projection screen. However, I particulatly liked the above photo of one seriously creepy baby created by Antonio Roberts.
Big City Plan Consultation – my two penn’orth – Dave Harte offers us his thoughts, which are to (please!) sort the High Street out ‘to prevent it feeling like the place where the city centre stops’, possibly using Fazeley Street as an alternative connection route and better utilising the canals. ‘Making Fazeley St. a focus would revitalise Typhoo wharf as the gateway to the canal system.’ I love the Typhoo basin, it’s a lovely spot that’s currently wasted. Dave also found a Digital Question in there.
Created in Birmingham » Michael Wolff video – CiB shows the film of the Michael Wolff’s truly inspirational Creative Repulblic masterclass at Fazeley Studios a couple of weeks ago.
YouTube – Blast! Curzon Street Station 14-16th Sept 07 – Yesterday Stef Lewandowski asked what should be done with Curzon Street Station and my reply was Something, Anything! It’s such a pity to see this gorgeous building stand empty and unused. Here’s a reminder of its fantastic potential, last year’s Blast! which the film-maker describes as:
The event of the season. Weirdest gig I ever filmed – absolutely amazing experience spectacle in the grounds of the Curzon Street Station. A performance of pyrotechnics, projections and orchestrated bangs whistles and explosions!
Birmingham City Council assistant director of regeneration Philip Singleton said he believed the figure of a creative director may not be best for Birmingham, instead suggesting it could be an organisation that fulfilled the role.’
Only as a united force will Birmingham be able to outshine other major British cities and secure the placement of the “major events”, large-scale productions and international exhibitions that are so important to a region’s prosperity.
Michael Wolff led some serious brainstorming at Creative Republic in Fazeley Studios on Thursday evening, helping answer the question ‘does Birmingham need a creative director?’, which Stef Lewandowski recently posed in Design Week. If they can generate the discussion and ideas that emerged on Thursday, the answer is an unequivocal YES.
Fierce Earth posted their memories of the event, which consisted of tables of teams creatively addressing key areas of the city – the elderly, transport, healthcare, culture, housing, young people and brand. Michael Wolff encouraged us to be totally unreasonable, which was lots of fun and resulted in the Birmingham brand becoming a ‘rough blue curry’. I was in the education team that came up with learning in pubs, obviously.
Local cartoonist Alex Hughes was there scribbling away, as you can see.
Harry Palmer: Birmingham’s hedgehog crisis. – Make it to St Martin’s Church on Saturday afternoon to hear plight of the ickle, prickly things. ‘This will be followed by Dominik Kai Brotherton who will publicly speak about alternative relationships and why they have a lasting impact.’ Sounds bizarre enough to be fascinating.
Custard Factory Flea Market – The Antiques Diva gives us the lowdown on the Sunday arts and crafts market. ‘Stalls range from the bizarre to the truly wonderful. Japanese baby clothes, vintage and handmade garments, rare records, original photography and art, crepe suzettes, pottery, kitsch collectables and homemade fudge are a small taste of what’s available.’
A Creative Masterclass with Michael Wolff – Creative Republic offer you the chance to join the team of Michael Wolff ‘a champion of design and innovation’. ‘We have invited Michael to take on the challenge of developing a fantasy brief for that imaginary role, a creative director for Birmingham. This event is not a lecture – those attending will be participating and expected to contribute actively during the evening…we plan to run a session as if we, the creatives, were part of Michael ’s team . How would this team market the creativity of the city? How would Michael brief the first meeting of this campaign team? What would the immediate actions and priorities be in the first 90 days? Come along to find out.’ The event is at Fazeley Studios next Thursday 27th November from 5.30pm and is well worth signing up to the Creative Republic Charter for.
Birmingham Central – The Big City plans outlines the options for each of the policy areas. Let’s see, do we want Digbeth to be Start-up Digbeth, Business Digbeth or Living and Working Digbeth? Or all of the above? And how will it connect to the core and other outer quarters? Ta to D’log for bringing this to the wider web.
UB40’s Red Red Wine pub becomes a victim of the Credit Crunch – Birmingham Eastside blog features the Sunday Mercury’s coverage of the closed-down pub, with UB40’s Red, Red Wine video that was filmed there for those feeling nostalgic. Local ‘UB40 fanatic’ Helena Payne said, “The Eagle & Tun was an historical venue for UB40 and their fans, so it’s really sad to see it boarded up and shut down…it’s been closed for a while now, so although we really hope someone will take it over, we’re not hopeful that will happen. I don’t know what’s in store for the building. It may turn into apartments or it could even be knocked down.”
Islam Awareness Week 2008: Celebrating the Best of Britain- Promoting Shared Values – ‘South Birmingham College are proud to be holding an event for Islam Awareness Week. Activities include a series of monologues followed by a Question Time session, a light buffet and an opportunity to view some displays.’ On Thurs 20th November 2-4pm. Part of a series of events going on around Birmingham.
Lizzy Piffany Digbeth Lost Heritage Project – Liz’ pictures of the project on her Myspace account. In her words, “A group of protesters squatted the Kingfield Heath building on Bradford Street for a weekend in April, took loads of piccies, made a bit of art and generally got very excited about the whole idea of free space for all.” Apparently the owners are planning to flatten it and build a new road right through the middle of it, with luxury apartments on either side. How original.
Custard Factory « Inspiraculum – Melinda Schwakhofer’s visit to the Custard Factory, featuring some great pictures of Fragile Design’s stock and a vintage Lambretta. The tiny Birmingham Forward jug she bought from the Sunday Flea was actually part of a pair with a tiny chamber pot, which I bought for Jon Bounds. A case of seeing it and thinking of him.
You can’t win a raffle without buying a ticket | Birmingham: It’s Not Shit – The Eccentric City newspaper Auction and International Prize Draw is on Tuesday 23rd September 2008, 7.30pm in the Anchor Pub, Digbeth. ‘A cross between Ebay and a CarBoot’, sell and buy items to raise money for the emotional newspaper and enter the raffle to win a page of newspaper to do with as you will.
