Bright Space recruiting youth bloggers for new arts and social media project
Bright Space is launching a new and exciting social media project entitled Platform(www.projectplatform.org.uk) for 16-19 years olds living in Birmingham. Platform will be a blog featuring articles, reviews, events listings and much more, written by young people for young people and will represent a unique perspective on arts activity in Birmingham. Bright Space is now looking to recruit 15 young people who are interested in reporting, reviewing and attending the many cultural events in and around the city. This includes theatre, dance, exhibitions, launches and gigs. Deadline for applications is Monday 19th July 2010.
Successful applicants will receive a £200 bursary and the opportunity to attend a week long intensive summer school, which will highlight the many techniques and skills they will need to become fully fledged Platformbloggers. During the week they will take part in workshops led by industry experts including; journalists, photographers, bloggers and film-makers. Subjects covered will include:
Journalism, writing, reviewing and interview techniques
Podcasting with audio and video
Photo blogging and social media tools
Events management, promotion and marketing
The Platform bloggers will then organise a live launch of the website to their peers, parents, friends and mentors. The group will meet regularly throughout the project with continued access to and mentoring from industry professionals who will support them in creating content, researching articles and building their on-line readership.
The core group will improve skills in; ICT, literacy, independent learning and critical thinking. The project will also support those wishing to pursue a career within the creative and cultural industries.
The aspiration for Platform is to amplify young people as unique, dynamic, cultural commentators that successfully communicate, inspire and engage other young people, while at the same time propose significant debate about their cultural offer. It is also hoped that Platform will become a vehicle that cultural organisations, venues and promoters connect with to ensure their programming reflects the breadth and individuality of young people in Birmingham.
How to apply:
Applicants need to write a 200 word article on a creative passion that they have
Include their name, address, date of birth and contact details
Send the completed article with all the necessary contact details to: Bright Space, Studio 222 The Custard Factory, Gibb Street, Birmingham, B9 4AA
Bright Space (www.brightspace.org.uk) is committed to developing and encouraging activity that helps young people find creative progression routes in and beyond the arts. Bright Space works actively to encourage sustainable cross-sector partnerships that broaden the horizons and opportunities available to young people.
Merz Party is about everyone making collage. With an exciting array of printed material waiting at Eastside Projects to be cut up, and stuck back together, it uses a group dynamic to generate new ideas by swapping, sharing, obliterating and adding to each others’ work. Bring your best scissors and help artist Elizabeth Rowe bring a collage revolution to Birmingham!
Underneath Eastside’s arches you’ll find a whole host of organisations making and presenting film, music, visual arts, digital media, craft, literature, and photography – and some great pubs and cafes too. We Are Eastside is a guide to some of these hidden treasures.
A couple of exciting developments in the We are Eastside camp in Digbeth, Birmingham is the addition of a new photographic gallery space called Rhubarb East Gallery situated in the Rhubarb Building and a performance by Japanese artist Atsuhiro Ito.
Vivid and Capsule are combining forces to present Atsuhiro Ito. Atsuhiro uses a fluorescent light with pick up mics attached, and alters the voltage applied to tubes causing the lights to flicker. Microphones pick up electromagnetic noise perfectly synchronised with the flickering lights in a light/noise/electric eye festival at only a fiver it is well worth a look next week on Wednesday 10th March 2010, more information can be found here.
6 February – 23 May / Waterhall Birmingham Museum & Art Gallery
Since the mid-1960s Bridget Riley has been celebrated for her distinctive, optically vibrant paintings that actively engage the viewer’s sensations and perceptions.
The exhibition is a first in a new series of solo artist’s exhibitions from the Arts Council Collection; it includes the iconic Movement in Squares (1962), which Riley credits as the beginning of her breakthrough into abstraction.
The exhibition also includes paintings and over 30 works on paper from the artist’s own collection that have never been exhibited before.
A Hayward Touring Exhibition from Southbank Centre
The project is aimed at diverse young people aged 16 -19 from inner city Birmingham (some of whom are not in education, employment and training) but who have some interest/ability in the arts. The project will focus on ideas of guerrilla craft, DIY Craft and Craftivism – with a view to developing a young people led craft collective which will then organise a series of interventions throughout the city.
Here is a collection of alternative Christmas gifts available from creative folks in and around Birmingham. Firstly a Christmas type mix of records from me. Feel free to wang this mix on whilst wrapping your presents or mulling your pies… enjoy!
At the top of the page we have the infamous Spinwell Bobble Beanie – which had almost sold out from this Birmingham based cycle blog, before the delivery had even arrived. Thankfully some are still available and now in stock ready for Christmas, very reasonably priced at £15 a pop. You will look hot when you are cold.
Spinwell Projects No.1 will be the Spinwell Bobble Beanie. Limited to 30 pieces and available in two colour options – Red/Grey/White and Grey/Red/White ( unfortunately not the colour pictured, this is my special sample! ).
Current State is the work of Birmingham based designer and illustrator Jane Anderson. Current State do lovely bold prints and are often feature in Fused Magazine. You can purchase postcards and Eco bags from Studio 4 Gallery aka The Framers along with a whole bunch of other stylish prints, postcards, bags and stickers from other artists and designers. Picture of Current State’s Eco Bag below - online shop and information here.
Mouldy Loaf is an independent company and brand which stocks the best in men’s and women’s wares. We have created an innovative and alternative brand which provides a great change to mainstream, high street fashion.
I say amen to that! Mouldy Loaf also run We Create* in Oasis Market. To go peep their wares just head down to the Custard Factory or look online here.
From mouldy bread to tasty and mouldy (if you so please) cheese! I love cheese and I love this shop! Newly opened in Kings Heath with a tasty collection of cheese, deli goodies and chutneys.
Capeling and Co is a specialist cheese shop and delicatessen on York Road, Kings Heath. We sell a large range of artisan cheeses, charcuterie, olives, antipasti, chutneys, vinegars, oils and lots more!
You can find out more here and become a fan on facebook. Support your local independent cheese retailer!
Pioneering typographer, sleeve designer and artist Swifty will be setting up shop at the Sauce Gallery in Birmingham’s Custard Factory from Saturday 12th December. Everything from originals and one off prints to T-shirts, skateboards and stickers will be for sale in The Swifty Pop Shop.
The Pop Shop, which is being brought to Birmingham by Sauce Gallery and Punch Records, will feature Swifty’s Newsagents installation. This life size shop front was partly inspired by Peter Blake’s ‘Toy Shop’ and the artist’s fond memories of a local village newsagent in Lancashire. The Shop will also be home to the A-Z of Swifty Show, including pieces based around everything from Action Man to Zebedee from the Magic Roundabout.
The Pop Shop is the latest branch of Swifty’s expansive career. Having studied design at Manchester Polytechnic, at the age of 21 he trained under Neville Brody at The Face magazine. His work at The Face and later led him to be recognised as one of the top new talents in the specialist world of typography.
In 1989 he joined the team at Straight No Chaser, a publication aimed at the jazz, jive and soul community. As art editor he drove the creative style that went on to embody the magazine as a whole. At the same time he established his own font company, Swifty Typograpfix, and spread himself between the magazine and producing fonts, record sleeves, club flyer designs and many other sidelines. Swifty dominated the scene, being the designer of choice for nearly every acid jazz label.
Punch Director Ammo Talwar said:
“Swifty is a design legend whose work cuts across all typography boundaries. Bringing the Pop Shop to Birmingham is a real scoop for the city, and will give visitors a rare opportunity to see many of Swifty’s personal projects first hand.”
The Pop Shop will be open to the public at the Sauce Gallery, 5 The Custard Factory, Gibb Street, Digbeth from 11th December to 10th January 2009. For more information visit www.punch-records.co.uk
Grand Union is a new artist-led initiative that supports the development of artists and curators within Birmingham. It aims to establish and nurture dialogue between contemporary visual artists and facilitate links between local, national and international art organisations.
On Friday 6th November at Fazeley Studios in Digbeths, Grand Union will host an artists’ publishing fair (12pm – 9pm), including stall holders such as Via Vaudeville, Ellie Harrison, Milk Two Sugars, Public Works, BAZ, Serena Korda, Caitlin Griffiths, Pest Publications, 4hb, [insertspace], Leisure Centre and a performance by The Artists’ Association of Autonomous Book Arts & Magazines (A.A.A.B.A.M.).
A.A.A.B.A.M. representative Calum F. Kerr will present A.A.A.B.A.M. RESTORED: That Was 2004. This Is Now. He’ll be wearing The Book Coat, a portable garment containing over 50 individual artist books.
Performance times Friday 6th November, 2-5pm and 6-9pm.
Grand Union will celebrate their opening with a new publication, with contributions from group members Helen Brown, Ian England, Mark Essen, Cheryl Jones, Karin Kihlberg & Reuben Henry, Charlie Levine, Alex Lockett, David Miller, Harminder Singh Judge, Joanna Spencer, Matt Westbrook, and Stuart Whipps.
The publication will be available at Grand Union, alongside a reading room full of artists’ books’ and independent publishing.
Grand Union is a not-for-profit organisation supported by the Arts Council and Birmingham City Council.
The Bodies Revealed Exhibition opens next week at the Custard Factory and features real life dead bodies, if you know what I mean, like proper dead human beings. Tickets are from £10, details below.
BODIES REVEALED the incredible exhibition about the amazing and complex machine we call the human body. Using real human specimens, painstakingly prepared and respectfully displayed, BODIES REVEALED lets visitors of all ages explore deep within the human body.
BODIES REVEALED demonstrates how our bodies work, what we need to survive, what destroys us and what revives us. BODIES REVEALED is a celebration of the human body, inviting you to become a more informed participant in your own wellbeing. The exhibition takes visitors through galleries providing an up-close and personal look inside the skeletal, muscular, reproductive, respiratory and circulatory systems of the human body.
The remarkable exhibition is both fascinating and educational having been used as a teaching aid within the medical profession in cities such as New York, Las Vegas, Dublin, Vienna and Athens. The BODIES REVEALED exhibition promises the unique opportunity to enlighten, empower, fascinate, and inspire all its visitors.
