Nice to see this post blog post from Custard Factory creative director Simon Jones which approaches the issue of the creativity of Birmingham in a positive “call to arms”.
Far too many of the articles I see about Birmingham and its creative renown seem to focus on wailing about how we are the poorer relation to London (inevitably) and Manchester (allegedly). These articles cry out for a city voice, somehow unifying all the different elements in one fell swoop and shooting us into the creative stratosphere over night.
One thing Simon’s article does is to recognise that there is in fact a tremendous amount of creative endeavour going on here all the time (and always has been, tho from what I can tell personally, it has sky rocketed in recent years).
My only addition to the stirring piece would be to emphasize the remarkable quality of our homegrown talent. Whilst Simon is strong on recognising the hard work done by promoters and venues to bring world class talent to Brum to perform, lets also recognise that in fact the majority of the top quality entertainment happening in the City this weekend will be Birmingham based and Birmingham developed.
Our very lack of one homogenised “scene” may have cost us some kudos points in the past – particularly in terms of London based journalists looking for something easy to write about – but that very diversity is our strength and there is a place for everyone in this most fertile of creative genepools.
We have an incredible opportunity to reach out to one another and continue to blend these disparate elements into an output to match anything, anywhere, but more importantly which can fulfil our own wants and needs as creative individuals – as artists, promoters and audiences and very often, all three.
Lets crack on, but lets feel some pride and recognise the value in what we’re doing.
Xx
[…] Batsford picks up on this with a post title Encouraging Signs. Just an excerpt this […]
Yes mate! I’ve been keeping a keen eye on this debate on brum’s talent for some time now, and it seems with blog posts like this and Simons/Pete’s that its getting another welcome ignition of interest again.
It seems that one common thread is that the Birmingham venue owners, promoters, artists, and audiences often seem pretty well connected with each other in this city, but that the national media and the council don’t really get behind whats really going on, therefore meaning the view of Birmingham from other cities is somewhat different from the reality.
I dont think things like so much money being spent on shopping malls, buildings that are structurally sound, and broad street’s nightlife do much for the cities cultural reputation, and i wonder what i might think if i’d just got off a train from another city/country, and how easy/difficult it would be for me to find out about all the stuff we have going on.
This from a tourist point of view i imagine keeps things more underground, which while it might have benefits in terms of creative freedom, might also be contradicting that tagline of Birmingham as a global city with a local heart.
I expect the current housing developments and “eastside regeneration project might further affect this perception, but i do often wonder what it would be like if a tiny portion of the money could go to support promotors, and if there is a way of creating a dialogue with the people who make the decisions and the local promoters who create the events.
The process of funding applications don’t always seem to lend themselves to the nature of building up events, and i wonder if there could be also be a dialogue between local companies or suitable sponsors?
Also having events which happen in areas of our city, which might not have been utilised, like green spaces, and disused buildings could also be another great way of shining a light on our culture and bringing it to different demographs, (i.e those that dont go to night clubs), although from what i gather it seems that is increasingly difficult, extremely expensive, or impossible to do, because of the amount of red tape you have to battle with.
I don’t know very much about the workings of this side of things, (hence the reason for the latest Mr Elephant exploration), but the support seems to be the difference from other cities, and certainly is internationally, which i assume is more to do with the national government, than local?
We all know how time consuming and financially difficult it is to promote events, (and of course the real reasons for doing it), but i imagine if there was support from the council, and to(and from) all the venues, both promotionally and financially, then it would allow a lot more growth, collaboration, and freedom for people who work hard to create these events, and the city’s culture would have a much larger platform to express itself.
Then maybe our visiting tourists and the national media would be able to see a lot more of what’s going on, and everyone could benefit?
Definitly seems to be going in the right direction though 🙂
[…] just checked out this very interesting post from Rich Batsford in response to this other 2 interesting posts from Simon Harris and Pete Ashton […]
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