We Are Eastside | Birmingham – Another new local website is live and raring to go! We Are Eastside is ‘your guide to the organisations that host and produce bold new work across film, digital media, crafts, music, visual arts, literature and photography all based in Eastside,’ I suspect the site will be getting particularly busy this month, in the lead up to the fantastic Flatpack Festival, which will inhabit lots of local venues such as Ikon Eastside, VIVID, The Bond and The Rainbow. Tickets for events have just gone on sale and are already selling fast so get in quick!
We Are Eastside has some very useful local information, such as a We Are Eastside map (which I’ll be replacing my old Digbeth arty trail with), and guides to Shopping, Entertainment, Eating Out and Places to Stay. Contributions to the blog are from the local cultural aces that are:
On Friday The Bond launched the Birmingham in Print exhibition in association with Birmingham Printmakers. Here’s the introduction by The Bond’s Tim Davis, Birmingham Printmakers’ Ann Crewes and local etcher John Howard, who will this year be mostly etching the back of boats, apparently. I particularly liked the fact that street artist Zoot’s work made it into Liverpool Street by Victoria Linehan (apologies for dire photography):
Artfall – ‘Birmingham in Print:then & now’ | None | Artfall – Birmingham Printmakers have teamed up with John Howard to present an exhibition ‘Birmingham in Print: then & now’ which opens on March 20th at The Bond till April 24th. Private view on March 20th.
The two things I decided to link to today made me think that’s Digbeth’s feel for the day:
Eastside Projects gallery launches tonight – I’m planning on going to the launch of this “artist-run space as public gallery and incubator of new ideas” later. But what really grabbed me about the Custard Factory blog’s link to it was the last paragraph:
‘Lets see now. Along with Vivid, Ikon Eastside, The Edge, Studio4, Sara Preisler and the Custard Factory’s own gallery space that brings the number of Art venues in this area up to seven. Unless I’ve missed any. And I know of at least couple more in the pipeline waiting to be signed off, not to mention a massive international touring show looking to land in one of the warehouses nearby. Future’s looking good.’
There is a high and growing concentration of art spaces and galleries in what’s quite a small area. It reminded me of Birmingham Post’s Arts Editor Terry Grimley’s speech at the launch of Abstract Edge at The Bond. He said that Digbeth was being labelled a ‘creative quarter’ back in 1998 and now, after after 10 years “with The Bond and The Custard Factory lapping at each others heels”, he feels we’re finally getting there.
This is in fact the reason Digbeth is Good was born – Pete Ashton felt this hive of activity should be documented and from the amount of time I spend on this blog, I feel like the local creative community just keeps growing and growing. Let’s just hope Mr Elephant’s fears of this developer-friendly trend alienating the older industrial community aren’t realised.
And then I read that Gigbeth is aiming to be bigger than the Edinburgh Fringe. From today’s interweb trawl I feel like Digbeth is optimistic and ambitious when pessimism reigns over the rest of the UK, which is a nice feeling on a sunny Friday afternoon.
In fact, it makes me feel good enough to try and fit in my canal bike ride between now and the Eastside Projects launch, which I’ll hopefully see you at later!
LTD Edition – Another great affordable art market in The Custard Factory’s reception as part of the Sunday Flea on 28th September at 11am-4pm. Steve Rack will be there again with his shiny happy crayon creations.
Developers dig Digbeth – Property Week – Very enlightening article about how the lowering of the inner ring road, the Custard Factory and The Bond have turned Digbeth into a location, location, location that developers love – just not right now. Seems they are ‘taking stock’ and putting plans ‘on hold’ as the credit crunch hits hard. Clive Dutton, director of planning and regeneration with Birmingham City Council says, ‘The trick will be allowing the place to thrive without losing its character.’ Too right.
MADE in Birmingham – D’log summarizes MADE’s forthcoming autumn events. “Organic Eastside: Creative approaches to regenerating Eastside” on 28th October 2008 is one I’ll definately be signing up for.
Killriculum – Now I love a good, nasty horror film that messes with my head for a few days after I’ve seen it. I actually really like Wolf Creek, and all those Japanese films with scary little girl ghosts. So it’s great to see a Bond-based company making it with young people, I’m only disappointed I’m too old to participate. They held free live workshops at The Bond over the weekend and are currently looking for a team of young writers to help write a spooky script. There’s the opportunity to submit your own creations, which if shortlisted will be screened at Killriculum’s showcase event in Millennium Point on 26 October, followed by ‘Bride of Frankenstein’ and a Q&A session with film director John Hough.
Gigbeth at Artsfest – Now I don’t know Claire Burgess, but something tells me she doesn’t look like the sort of person who raps old Sugarhill Gang hits effortlessly, which is why her doing exactly that and getting customers to do the same at their Artfest stall puts a great picture in my head.
Betty’s Utility Room: The Digbeth Coach Station of Blogging – A rather bizarre blog, not at all about Digbeth coach station, but about 10cc top tens that make Sarah Palin explode and Sir Bill Cotton. Betty says that ‘bloggers are a bunch of c***ts’, which really makes me warm to her.
