Thoughts on Birmingham’s Creative Director

Creative Republic managed to snatch victory from defeat the other night – the star turn couldn’t make the ‘Creative Masterclass with Michael Wolff‘ so instead we were given a chance to ponder what the Birmingham’s presentation of our very important (as we’re constantly being told at the mo) creative scene.

Stef Lewandowski kicked things off with a pretty scathing presentation of Birmingham from a tourist-eye view.  He had walked the city, camera in hand, trying (and generally failing) to find signs of creativity. He’s keen to point out that his negativity was slightly exaggerated but it was interesting that the vast majority of his criticisms went unchallenged.

Stef’s presentation is online.  The slides are good quality but you’ll have to excuse the audio in places:

Sat in groups, we were then given the chance to chew over some of the points raised before reporting back to the rest of the class people there.

The chat has continued away from the event though.

• As well as uploading the slides and audio, Stef has put up a blog post called ‘A creative director for Birmingham?‘ with many of the photos used, text to explain them and a few extra thoughts too.  The comments following his post are worth a read too.
• Graphiquillan wasn’t at the event but the subject of Stef’s talk chimed with her, prompting musings on the subject of ‘finding the creative needles in Birmingham’s haystack‘.
• Paul Groves’ post ‘Creating a stir in Birmingham‘ rounds up the thinking and suggests that despite “a lack of clarity and vision in recent times” we now seem to be getting “the sort of lively and informed discussion that is long overdue”.
• Dave Harte has picked up Stef’s theme on his Birmingham Post blog with ‘Birmingham – The Uncreative City?‘ suggesting that, as well as making some good moves in rejuvenating the city, mistakes have been made – privatising public spaces, pricing out independent retail and approving uninspiring architecture.

The idea is for some of the thoughts collected over the course of the evening (and since) to go towards informing a future event with Michael Wolff and perhaps a submission to the Big City Plan itself.  There’s still plenty of time for anyone to join the discussion.