CiB Year in Review: November

A daily look at the last 12 months

November saw the year start drawing to a close with Gigbeth and a whole bunch of awards…

The nominations for Brummie of the Year were posted with voting lasting all month.

Gigbeth happened.

The IKON had their Eastside closing party curated in the main by 7inch Cinema which made me think a Digbeth warehouse is the perfect venue for an art house cinema – screen, benches, bar, what more do you need?

There was Kipple. Kipple there was.

Project X Presents took place and was generally considered a good thing.

The Digital Festival was confimed for October 08 with Birmingham declared a “pioneer of the digital world”.

Jibbering Records turned seven.

IKON got a new website.

Nikki Pugh got involved with the international 4649 sticker project.

Chloe Blackwell won the Student Bands compo at Gigbeth.

The Flamenco Festival started at the Town Hall.

Birmingham Museum & Art Gallery, Ikon Gallery and Walsall’s New Art Gallery together won £1m to spend on contemporary art which was seen to be a stepping stone towards a new modern art gallery in Birmingham, possibly in the old bank building on Broad St.

Screen West Midlands went and got £4 to spend on film and digital media over the next four years.

Capsule started feeding music reviewers to Plan B magazine with the hope of developing more awareness of the live scene in the press.

The Place I Love, a new venue connected with the Sunflower Lounge and hosting an NME night, was announced to open in Feb.

Catherine O’Flynn was shortlisted for loads of awards this year – not bad for a first novel.

The film Birmingham: The Creative City was unearthed.

I got very excited by Richard Kaye’s Slit-Scan Photography.

Brilliantly Birmingham – the annual jewellery showcase festival – began.

An international dance festival was announced for spring 2008.

Sticking illiterate captions on photographs of Birmingham councillors became the obsession of some.

There weren’t no art in Bearwood. Actually there was quite a lot of art in Bearwood this year.

Councillor Ray Hassall was quzzed by Adrian Stirrer about how Artsfest and the proposed bi-annual dance and music festivals were going to work. Still not quite sure myself.

Taking their cue from the defacto eviction of Birmingham Artists, the Pub Conversations folks found their event about studio space was so popular they had to move it out of the pub and into Vivid’s warehouse space.

Plans were afoot to monetise this here blog with the dread spectre of advertising. We hope it won’t be too painful.

It was discovered that Curzon Street Station, home to many an art event this year, was to be boarded up to save money until a permanent use was decided upon. Booo.

The much hated (by me anyway) BBC Big Screen was turned off due, it appeared, to a paperwork cockup. Aledgedy.

The entire Black Country was shortlisted for an ITV lottery popularity contest thing to get £50m for a massive redevelopment plan. They didn’t get it.

Profles included Simon Winnall, Karen Osborne, Dave Hilliard, Ivan Brackenbury, Kate Beatty and Mary Rochford.