Creative Midlands Articles |
- Stage: Birmingham poet Jodi returns to stage after battling back from stroke
- Stage: Review: The Heart Of Robin Hood, at Royal Shakespeare Theatre, Stratford
- Music: Review: Birmingham Schools' Symphony Orchestra, at Adrian Boult Hall
- Music: Review: CBSO conducted by Robert Spano, at Symphony Hall
- Post Features: Books for Christmas: Biographies of Madin, Chamberlain and Bright
- Music: Review: The Orchestra Of St John, at St John's Church, Bromsgrove
- Music: Review: Birmingham Ensemble, at Adrian Boult Hall
- Stage: Malcolm Stent is the unsung hero of life's pantomime
- LeftLion Photographer teams up with Paul Smith
- Coventry’s Shop Front Theatre reopens for business!
- It’s not feasible, it’s vital
- Top Design Award for Birmingham Pub
- DanceXchange hosts world premiere from rising dance star
- IDEA Birmingham exhibition highlights city's innovation and design talent
- The changing world of schools and children’s centres
- The Magazine: Issue 246
- ARTISTS' NEWS & OPPORTUNITIES BULLETIN 30
- Haven't started your christmas shopping yet? Oh dear. Don't worry though - get y...
- writingwestmids: RT @FlarestackPoets: Flarestack Poets Pamphlet Competition 2012 http://t.co/DjLC7GbS
- Ruth Singer's Big Idea
| Stage: Birmingham poet Jodi returns to stage after battling back from stroke Posted: 08 Dec 2011 07:00 AM PST Kings Heath poet Jodi Ann Bickley is on the comeback trail after a stroke left her partially paralysed. |
| Stage: Review: The Heart Of Robin Hood, at Royal Shakespeare Theatre, Stratford Posted: 09 Dec 2011 12:00 AM PST The Heart Of Robin Hood is one of the finest shows of the Christmas season. |
| Music: Review: Birmingham Schools' Symphony Orchestra, at Adrian Boult Hall Posted: 09 Dec 2011 12:00 AM PST One has to keep remembering that this is an orchestra consisting of school pupils – not students or keen adults but young people, often with other equally demanding interests. |
| Music: Review: CBSO conducted by Robert Spano, at Symphony Hall Posted: 09 Dec 2011 12:00 AM PST Taking up the CBSO where Louis Fremaux had left it, Simon Rattle described it as "the best French orchestra in the land". |
| Post Features: Books for Christmas: Biographies of Madin, Chamberlain and Bright Posted: 09 Dec 2011 12:22 AM PST Chris Upton picks his favourite books of the year with an eye to the past. |
| Music: Review: The Orchestra Of St John, at St John's Church, Bromsgrove Posted: 09 Dec 2011 12:00 AM PST This was the debut concert of a brand-new orchestra formed with the laudable aim of allowing student musicians the opportunity to learn from playing alongside seasoned professionals, and it deserves to do well. |
| Music: Review: Birmingham Ensemble, at Adrian Boult Hall Posted: 09 Dec 2011 12:00 AM PST Sit back and enjoy! What better than lovely music played on a cold Sunday for friends and by friend? The true definition of chamber music. It was delightful to hear Peter Thomas (15 years as leader of the CBSO) heading the Birmingham Ensemble – what a treat. |
| Stage: Malcolm Stent is the unsung hero of life's pantomime Posted: 09 Dec 2011 12:00 AM PST Midlands entertainer Malcolm Stent tells Graham Young the secrets of his success. |
| LeftLion Photographer teams up with Paul Smith Posted: 30 Nov 2011 04:00 PM PST Our boy David Baird creates limited edition series of music prints to be sold on the Paul Smith website in aid of The Music Exchange |
| Coventry’s Shop Front Theatre reopens for business! Posted: 09 Dec 2011 01:51 AM PST The UK's first professional Shop Front Theatre is to re-open its doors again after closing briefly during the late summer. Theatre Absolute is delighted to announce that after having reworked its business model, a new three-year lease has been secured with Coventry City Council. Julia Negus and Chris O'Connell from Theatre Absolute founded the Shop Front Theatre in City Arcade, Coventry in 2009. The 18-month pilot programme was a huge success with over 2,000 people visiting the shop as audiences, actors and participants. However in March this year the company saw a cut in its core funding from Art Council England and had to halt the shop's artistic programme as it looked to develop a new way forward. Chris O'Connell, artistic director said: "Although we closed the doors in July we actually never left the shop. We continued to do what we do best – support and nurture new writers, develop new plays and just this month we delivered a great writing and performance project for teenage boys in Coventry working with sporting mentors including Dave Moorcroft and the team at Coventry Blaze." During the next three years the shop will not only host work created by Theatre Absolute, but there will be a new emphasis on making it available as an alternative space for other theatre makers to create and show their work. Producer Julia Negus said: "We would like to thank the hundreds of people and organisations from all over Coventry, the UK and beyond who have offered support in many forms to keep our unique Shop Front Theatre open. Visitors to the shop immediately warm to it and know that it is something special and that the theatre work is high quality yet affordable, an important point in these difficult times. We're very proud to be hanging the 'Open' sign on the door again!" A new programme of theatre work and events at the Shop Front Theatre will be announced shortly, starting with the now legendary Writing Gym, led by Chris O'Connell, described as a creative workout for beginner writers, on January 14th 2012. To book a place for the Writing Gym or to find out more about the Shop and its work contact Julia@theatreabsolute.co.uk or 07799 292957. Theatre Absolute, Shop Front Theatre, 38 City Arcade, Coventry, CV1 3HW Twitter: @theatreabsolute Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Theatre-Absolute         |
| Posted: 09 Dec 2011 01:48 AM PST MidPoint member Ben Pacey has written an article as a response to one of the Open Space discussions in July: It's not feasible, it's vital. This is something which Graeme Rose started, by telling a story. A story about a keen young man, and a mysterious mentor. The young man is rushing headlong down a tunnel, anxious to get going, to become an artist and to start making work. He's asking himself if he can really do it. If it makes sense. If it's possible. He thinks yes – I'll do it – if it's feasible. "It's not feasible", the older man says, "it's vital". And the keen young man rolls his eyes, but does get on with it. And he finds that this seemingly glib advice is stuck in his head forever. * Which – with a quick fast-forward – brings us the Open Space event in July, where Graeme convened a group under this ambiguous, provocative title, and which quickly had me hooked. The discussion from the open space is documented elsewhere(1). Here, I'd like to briefly share some of what it got me thinking about: the vitality of making "art" (which you may define as you wish) and the feasibility of so doing. It's taken me a couple of months longer than I'd hoped to write this up, but I hope it's still a useful addendum to the conversation. And perhaps the less feasible something feels – and the more challenging the circumstances surrounding it become – the more pressure there is to interrogate the vitality of what we are trying to do. These questions (Why am I doing this? Can I keep going?) are perennial, yet of the zeitgeist. All but the most single-minded artists and makers must revisit this territory from time to time? Listening to the open space debate, it felt important to question exactly what it is that we are suggesting is vital. I won't unpack this too far, but for me, what isn't vital – necessarily – is the maintenance of the status quo. The current modes of production, and the means of funding, managing and promoting these, are not – necessarily – what's vital. They are merely a means to an end. The vital bit is located somewhere else. The vital bit is making work. And ok, that's obvious, but the constant struggle for feasibility can distract us. The vital bit isn't administrative. The vital bit is about looking. Questioning. Exploring. Thinking. Having ideas. Trying to make sense of it all. Reflecting. Imagining a different world. And about the alchemical process of forming all that into something else: into whatever gets the message across to other people. The vital bit is quiet, hidden and a little bit secret: it happens in the shower, or whilst walking to the bus-stop. The vital bit is shouting so loud you can be heard in a crowd, it's standing up at the front, or maybe just slipping a note into a stranger's pocket while the band plays. The vital bit is a process of discovery. And it's the art of communicating what you found. Which is pretty exciting, I think. But who is it vital to? It must be vital to us, as artists and makers. We've chosen to be here. We've all learned that it's far from feasible, but we're doing it anyway. We've worked dead-end jobs to be here. We've dreamed from the top decks of gridlocked buses, and in the lavatories of stultifying offices. We've made notes on the backs of envelopes, and lived in dodgy bedsits with no central heating. It may not be good for our prospects, but we're doing it anyway. It's vital for us that we learn, explore and dream. It's about connecting to the world, and trying to understand. It's a vital search for meaning. And it's vital to audiences, too. It's the cherished escape into a novel, or into the sonic world beneath your headphones – and that moment when the words, or the music, make you gasp and look up. The moment when you see things differently. When something changes. When you suddenly make a connection, the idea forms, the frown cracks, and when the lights flicker back on and you're in a fresh new world. Or at least, you're in a world which has undergone a subtle shift, which shimmers with renewed potential. Not to mention those shared moments when the crowd collectively holds its breath, as the performance thrillingly sidesteps them into unexpected new territory. Perhaps I'm labouring the point. The making, and receiving, of art is vital. Drawings, songs and stories have been around for ever. And these forms will prevail, irrespective of political and social change; irrespective of publicly subsidised arts provision; irrespective of the feasibility of being a professional artist. People will always be dreaming, imagining better ways of doing things, and finding ways to celebrate what they have, or to make something new. Even in the bleakest of authoritarian futures, there's resistance. At least, that is, in authoritarian futures imagined by artists! There's bright socks under grey uniforms. There's illicit goings on in the woods and storerooms. Someone in a crowd hums a tune – it'll be ok. And if it isn't, it won't be long before someone imagines how one day it will be ok, and tells their friends. A low subversive murmur pervades. And whether the murmur for change comes from fools, tricksters or artists, the future's bright, just so long as someone's imaging it so. But, right now, it's easy to feel disheartened. All that abstract vitality is vivifying and wonderful, but doesn't solve the problem. Art itself will survive, but is the art made by professional artists vital? Can professional artists find a way to make their work feasible? Is this feasibility at odds with the vitality of the art they make? For a few, their work leads to financial as well as artistic reward, through talent, hard work, luck and cunning. For others, family circumstances provide a private path to feasibility. But for many artists, existing on modest means for decades at a time, the tension between the feasible and the vital is a constant – and this tension doesn't necessarily bear any correlation to the vitality or validity of their work. There's a dark side to this. It can feel like we're living strange, strained lives trying to make work and make ends meet. Our lives can feel distorted or fragmented by the contortions necessary to meet the requirements of funding bodies. Our work risks becoming less vital as a consequence, shaped to suit the funders, producers, venues and their schedules. This is, perhaps, particularly acute in performance, where the work may require a collaborative team of makers to both create and present it, and where (usually) there isn't a tangible or marketable object legacy after that team of people disperse. The resultant state of administrative tension can lessen our potential to act spontaneously. The time spent pursuing funding, and the energy drained by necessitated administration, may leave us less able to contribute creatively to our communities, friendship groups and families. Our ability to freely gift our energy and creativity may be diminished. By struggling for professional feasibility, do we risk undermining the vitality of our work? But maybe this tension is useful? No one wants to flog a dead horse. Trying to maintain feasibility forces us to interrogate our work and vitality – and perhaps quitting is ok, if our work isn't vital? Perhaps surviving as a "professional artist" is only desirable if there is a glimmer of feasibility about it? Professional art may not be vital, per se. The art itself is vital, but there will always be outsiders, credible amateurs and others to actually make it. The thinking and making will persist, one way or another. But let's look at it another way. Gavin Grindon and John Jordan, in their pamphlet A Users Guide To The Impossible(2), tell a story of freedom, in which a collective of activist artists are commissioned by a big gallery to deliver a series of workshops. "Just don't embarrass our sponsors", says the gallery, by email. The collective decide to use the email as the starting point for their workshops. You can probably see where this is going… And yes, the collective do the vital thing: they say and do what must be said and done. The sponsors are embarrassed; the collective are vital and authentic. The gallery's not pleased, of course, and for the collective, a potentially lucrative relationship comes to an abrupt end. Grindon and Jordan delight in the collective's new found freedom to explore its own path: now free from any need to compromise their work. The collective maintains their vitality, but at a high cost. They have also freed themselves from getting paid, from other future commissions, and potentially from long term professional feasibility. Has their apparent liberation conversely diminished their ability to keep working together, and potentially muted their collective voice? Feasibility may compromise the vital, yet perhaps it's also necessary to sustain it. In the face of this dilemma, it seems that feasibility is vital too, if we are to adequately nourish both ourselves and our work. Suddenly arts funding – and especially public arts funding – does seem vital. The bureaucracy required to access public funding may be an undesirable burden, but accepting public money may reduce the risk of compromise to the work (especially if, as above, private funds explicitly require compromise!), whilst increasing the feasibility, and the possibility of actually getting the work made. At a time when public arts funding is under threat, it's worth remembering how brilliant a resource it is, and how vital it is to fight to maintain this aspect of the status quo: both its existence and the freedom it allows. Speaking of this need to defend public arts funding, Alan Lane(3) makes a compelling case for vitality: "…we will have to create a passion, an amazement in the public. A certainty in the people that stories matter, that the arts matter – not as peripheral to the central parts of their life but as a component of the very marrow of their being. We must become in their minds vital. You don't win someone's love and support by begging for it – that's like crying at the doorway as your lover leaves for the last time. We will get the ferocious support of the public by seducing it from them. By telling them stories, by dancing them stories and singing them and building them and playing them". Alan proposes the creation by seduction of a powerfully virtuous circle, where the vitality of art is perpetually reaffirmed, as the art itself perpetually and powerfully revitalises and reaffirms life and lives. It's an alluring prospect – and perhaps it is feasible. Like the subversive dream of change shared by the crowd, we've already imagined it. Luckily, in the UK, we are all in a position where we can – possibly – access public funds to help us make our work, and to make it feasible. It's an extraordinary position to be in. There may well be risks to ourselves and our work if we lose focus and become caught up in the struggle for feasibility, but it's a risk we'll have to try to mitigate as best we can. Take time out, rest, reflect. That's vital too. But that virtuous circle is – possibly – within our reach, if we can only keep going, and stay vital. Here's Chris Thorpe(4), speaking at Forest Fringe in 2010: "Do not give up. Do not leave your ideas half-born. Do not walk away. Because otherwise the only ones left going forward are the cunts of this world. And if we give up and fade into the background, their voices will be loud and their signal will be on all the frequencies. Do not stop. Do not stop. Or they will win". Chris may not be making a call to action – more pre-emptively raging against inaction – but I can't help but find his words compelling. And although he doesn't address feasibility, like the mentor in Graeme's story he is convinced and convincing in his passion for vitality. Feasibility will have to find its way… And perhaps that's no answer at all? Or perhaps it's the best answer there is? I've found that engaging with Graeme's provocation has itself been energising. Thanks for reading, and please consider sharing your responses. What's your experience of searching for feasibility and vitality in your practice? Can you propose or sketch a route map through this shifting territory? Keep going. Stay vital. Ben Pacey, 2011. By the way, I recommend checking out the references: 1. Midpoint Open Space "What more can we do to create a better future for theatre in the West Midlands?" 23-24 June 2011 at AEHarris, Birmingham. 2. A Users Guide To The Impossible. Gavin Grindon and John Jordan, 2010. 3. Stories Matter. Cancer, West Berlin, pianos and ideas above your station. Alan Lane, 2011. 4. One Minute Manifesto. Chris Thorpe, 2010. http://midpointopenspace.wordpress.com/2011/06/30/its-not-feasible-its-vital/         |
| Top Design Award for Birmingham Pub Posted: 09 Dec 2011 12:00 AM PST 9th Dec 2011 ⁄ West Midlands ⁄ An upmarket design consultancy that specialise in the leisure and hospitality sector has scooped the 'Best Bar and Restaurant Design' award, for transforming a Birmingham gastro pub into a booming... |
| DanceXchange hosts world premiere from rising dance star Posted: 09 Dec 2011 12:00 AM PST 9th Dec 2011 ⁄ West Midlands ⁄ Aakash Odedra, an upcoming star of British South Asian Dance, will be helping DanceXchange (dx) celebrate ten years at Birmingham Hippodrome with the world premiere of his latest work. The evening rep... |
| IDEA Birmingham exhibition highlights city's innovation and design talent Posted: 07 Dec 2011 11:58 PM PST The very best of Birmingham innovation, design and business acumen is going on show in the city tonight. |
| The changing world of schools and children’s centres Posted: 08 Dec 2011 04:21 AM PST |
| Posted: 08 Dec 2011 10:01 PM PST The Magazine: Issue 246
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| ARTISTS' NEWS & OPPORTUNITIES BULLETIN 30 Posted: 08 Dec 2011 10:10 AM PST |
| Haven't started your christmas shopping yet? Oh dear. Don't worry though - get y... Posted: 08 Dec 2011 08:26 AM PST Haven't started your christmas shopping yet? Oh dear. Don't worry though - get yourself down to the Nottingham Contemporary Christmas craft/design market this weekend. Loads of our graduates will be selling their wares, and you'll be able to get your mits on some fantastic things to give your nearest and dearest (or just keep for yourself)!  Shop | Nottingham Contemporary www.nottinghamcontemporary.org Social Shop Online Shop Now Open >> Craft.Design.Contemporary. 10th & 11th December Nottingham Contemporary will be hosting it's second Craf... |
| Posted: 08 Dec 2011 05:18 AM PST writingwestmids: RT @FlarestackPoets: Flarestack Poets Pamphlet Competition 2012 http://t.co/DjLC7GbS |
| Posted: 07 Dec 2011 09:07 PM PST Ruth Singer's Big Idea Leicester-based textile artist Ruth Singer (a former Creative Leicestershire bursary winner and Made in Leicestershire member) has been shortlisted for THE BIG IDEA, a competition supported by The Leicester Mercury and the Haymarket Shopping Centre to win a free shop unit for a month, a cash prize of £1000 and support from the businesses involved.Ruth impressed the judges with her pitch to cre... This post has been generated by Page2RSS %7Cutmcsr%3Dhttp%3A%2F%2Fwww%2Ecreativeleicestershire%2Eorg%2Euk%2Findex%2Ehtm%7Cutmcmd%3Datom%3B%2B){kind=small}  |
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