Copied over wholesale from the Hello Digital blog (cos I’m not writing this twice):
The East Birmingham & North Solihull Regeneration Zone (ebns Ltd), supported by Advantage West Midlands, have been investing in the development of Digbeth and Eastside as a Learning and Leisure Quarter and a centre for the creative industries, particularly the digital media sector. They have been working with a range of partners including Birmingham City Council, the Custard Factory, the Bond, Vivid, Groundwork, the Learning & Skills Council and others to develop a range of projects, create new workspace and provide new learning opportunities.
One of the project ideas now under discussion is the establishment of a Creative Marketplace, and they would like your input to help decide whether there is the demand for this, and if so what it should be.
During Hello Digital they are interested in canvassing your views. Would you like to see a Creative Marketplace in Digbeth / Eastside?
If you’re wondering what a creative marketplace is then read the comment here.
The comment doesn’t quite explain it actually. It seems to suggest both showcasing and some kind of support service. Just some clarity about how it would function might be useful. For the record The Cox review from 2005 suggested:
A national support programme, modelled on the Design Council’s work with businesses, to help SMEs use design.
A review of whether strategic design work should be eligible for R&D tax credits.
Centres of excellence in higher education for multi-disciplinary courses combining management studies, engineering and technology and creative disciplines.
A new approach to public procurement to encourage suppliers to be more innovative.
Raising the profile of the creative industries through a national network of design centres.
The full report is here
Whilst I don’t fear, I fear the tragic impact of culure via the industry that aims to please!!??. I was recently inspired by the link on this blogsite to Anthony J Hughes regarding the negative impact of cultural industry(come on everybody, it’s not that much cop and there’s very little that shakes the foundation of the soul in 99 per cent of cultural industry activity! Words like contrived / pretentious comes to mind). Anthony J Hughes makes some clear sense about this. I quote:
‘…Funding procedures and practice and the funding and economic redevelopment projects aimed at supporting ‘creative industries’ has actually become a system supporting government ‘intervention[1]’ and policy. That policy has either intentionally or inadvertently become a controlling factor in the human act of creativity and now acts in a legislative, often excluding manner and is often damaging for the industries it claims to ‘support’[2].
LINK:
http://anthonyjhughes.vox.com/library/post/mad-as-a-march-hare-march-madness-beware-the-eyes-of-march.html
I published my response to his article on my blogsite at:
http://birminghamcounterculture.blogspot.com/2008/10/following-article-appealed-growing.html
– Mr/Miss/Mrs/Ms B.
I’ve gone and tried to fill in the questionnaire twice now, but I just found it difficult to understand what is being suggested (maybe that’s the point?).
The trouble is there’s a lot to argue _for_ in there, but there’s also plenty to potentially argue _against_. The Cox review was right about a lot of things, but how that actually comes out in the real world could be interpreted in many ways – and potentially in ways that many might disagree with.
For instance – a ‘brokerage service’ sounds great until you realise that there are plenty of businesses that are already based on brokering the services of a variety of people. Interfering in that dynamic with a potentially free or subsidised service could be pretty damaging.
For instance – universities giving away free design services to companies could have a knock on effect in the perceived value of design services as a whole, and thus detrimentally affect the viability of small design service companies.
Thus, a free or subsidised ‘brokerage service’ could have a knock on effect for PR, event management, software, TV, design, art direction and so on.
The flip side would be that something like this could potentially bring in a lot of extra business to the region if managed and built correctly, especially given the growing trend for UK creative service business to be done outside of London.
So to be honest, I need a little more info. Sorry if that’s not what you wanted to hear.
Without a stronger definition of what a “Creative Marketplace” might be I’m unable to answer most of the questions in this survey, despite being interested in its content.
was just looking through sites to find artists working around the image of the march hare got led to this site full of shit info with endless info about ARTISTS no ARTif people spent less time up their own hareses and more working it might not be so hard to find images that make the heart beat faster.So, come on stop talking about yourselves leave it to the all knowing critics and work till your heart bleeds.I wonder if Picasso ever wrote about who he was ?There are people out there doing it i’ve seen it it made me feel alive,connected ,hopeful,worth living.The last time was wandering down a storm drain in alicante the power of the visual dialouge burnt in the isolation of the human need to communicate feeds me with hope that remains with me everyday .The visual equivalent of the spanish sun that fed my english interior ‘so please stop the self propoganda and change someone’s head and heart today, ta [contact me :-gerald ratio @ mizone32@live.co.uk ]