CiB Year in Review: June

A daily look at the last 12 months

June, and the Summer of Art starts to pick up steam, despite the rain.

The Festival of Xtreme Building launched with some success and continued for four somewhat rainy months.

Birmingham Words come onto the radar with their Perfectly Formed anthology.

Birminghamusic.com open a studio free of charge for local bands prompting questions about whether this was the right thing for a funded org to do, undercutting other businesses in the region.

Hi8us launch Artpeeps, a portfolio site for illustrators who’ve gone through their programmmes.

Mark Scully’s Little Moscow is published set in a skuzzy bar in Birmingham.

Francisco Lopez brings his “dreadful abyss” to Modulate on Green Street.

Ensemble Interakt do their Invented Instruments concert with the legendary “Piece for Large Metal Sheet”.

Concreation pop onto the radar expressing a love for all things concrete. I approve.

The Museum of Lost Heritage continued to do work at 144 Newhall Street.

The first ever Symposium on Heavy Metal was scheduled as part of the Supersonic Festival.

There was a Big Debate in Birmingham with Christopher Frayling, Germaine Greer, Anthony Sargent, Terry Grimley and Richard Morrison asking the question “Is there life in the regional arts?” A brief report was later posted.

The Quiet Digbeth debate began.

New Generation Arts was a-going on with the Mixed Media show on Floodgate Street probably being the highlight. Or at least the biggest bit. There were launch photos.

Paul Birch and Andrew Dubber got into a fight about the latter criticizing the music industry on his blog and Dubber’s posting of the conversation went viral, crashing his server and cementing his rep. Highly entertaining.

In another key topic of the year Birmingham Artists had their funding slashed by the council and were given one month to vacate their premises, oddly enough located in a major regeneration zone. The council responded and I picked through their statement. After the sentence was commuted to December I understand they’ve got a new space in Digbeth but the whole thing was very disconcerting.

The Zulu Warriors came to Rootsville and it was good.

The MAC was flooded as the summer rain continued to hamper the arts.

Tower of Song was a new venue opened in Cotteridge.

The Decibel Performing Arts Showcase got a schedule for September.

The Moseley Festival’s Music in the Park was announced though later postponed as the park flooded.

I went to see the BritArt-heavy “How To Improve The Word show at the Gas Hall and thought it very good indeed.

IKON Eastside’s program continued with perhaps the highlight, Florilegium, where the warehouse was turned into a field.

Misty’s Big Adventure start their own record label, Grumpy Fun Records.

Then, finally, the hot topic of the year kicks in as The Spotted Dog is served with a noise abatement notice and landlord John Tighe goes on the warpath.

Profiles included Phil Wilkinson, Chrissy Van Dyke, KateGoes…, Beat Union, Sian Hindle, Jivan Astfalck, Tom Lewis, The Kings of Spain, Roys Boys,