There’s a Big City Video too:

Spotted at last night’s creative industries debate – a document called Birmingham’s Cultural Capital (PDF) and referred to by the Hippodrome’s Stuart Griffiths as Birmingham’s arts manifesto. Apparently it was produced in October 2009 and was produced by the Birmingham Arts Partnership.

The BAP (who are presumably distinct from the Birmingham Cultural Partnership) includes:

Birmingham Hippodrome, Symphony Hall/Town Hall, The Drum, The Rep, Ikon, Fierce, mac, Birmingham Royal Ballet, City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, Birmingham Opera Company, sampad and Birmingham Contemporary Music Group

Their aims are:

1. To work with key partners in the city and region to ensure that culture plays a central part in the development agenda for Birmingham
2. To support and strengthen the brand recognition and ranking of Birmingham as a culturally rich regional capital
3. To ensure high and growing levels of participation and engagement in culture and the resultant flow of intangible personal, social and societal benefits throughout the city
4. To demonstrate to policy-makers and decision-influencers that investment in culture brings significant regenerative benefits

There’s an explanation of how that’s going to work but it’s the standard arts measurement/engagement/excellence waffle so I’ll spare you.

Other than a statement of intent, what can BAP be credited with thus far? There are two things that I can find:

• a commissioned Cultural Impact Study on the impact of the arts in Birmingham (PDF) from Sept 09 which, having skimmed though it, seems to set out the terms for BAP’s engagement but also looks suspiciously like an exercise in stating the bleeding obvious (culture is good, etc)
• a response to the Big City Plan back in Feb 09

Worth a skim through if you’ve got the time and it’ll be interesting to see what comes of it all.

Currently our success has happened in spite of the city rather than because of it,  just think what could be achieved if we worked together.  Travelling frequently to other cities these are some suggestions to make Digbeth blossom as a cultural quarter:

• Why do people get on planes and trains to come to Supersonic – because we offer them a totally unique experience of the highest quality.  There is a real opportunity to acknowledge what makes Birmingham a unique city and invest in independent and niche activity.  Steer clear of a homogenised approach – learn from those that do it well and have a track record.
• Lets learn from other cities like Berlin, Glasgow and Manchester and take risks with our empty buildings – an opportunity to invest in content to be housed in these empty spaces to animate the area, lets not be so precious i.e. noise restrictions – creativity is often loud and messy lets embrace and celebrate this.
• Encourage more creative companies to have the opportunity to be able to buy their own buildings rather than be tied to short-term leases.
• Create flexible spaces that can house a variety of activity which changes from week to week, this will keep the area vibrant.
• Don’t just invest in a couple of landlords this creates a monopoly.
• Lets get the basics right – look at infrastructure: cash points, post offices, signage, and streetlights.
• Think about the visitors experience as well as what its like to work in this area, lets make it the highest quality experience – currently feels like quite an intimidating, unfriendly area.
• Creative quarters need to grow organically, invest in supporting growth rather than imposing structured ideas of what you think creativity should be.
• Remember areas develop over time not over night.

Meanwhile, Shona McQuillan (Graphiquillan) has thrown in her 2p on ‘the recent stirrings’ and ends with what she calls ‘The Break Free Manifesto’:

No logo

Evolution is imperative and the need for it must be acknowledged and respected by official bodies.

It’s not about self-interest – it embraces all who trade, visit, consume or adore. It brings elements together where it makes sense to do so – it’s more about healthy benevolence, but allows those who should benefit to do so.

It’s not about the establishment. It recognises many forms of creativity: art, music, dance, theatre, multimedia, skate culture, tattoos, grafitti et al.

It recognises that the state’s not going to do this and that those most qualified to do so, the city’s creatives, are the leads on this.

Break free. Time to do it ourselves?

As far as the Big City Plan is concerned, so far there’s been plenty to talk about but nothing in writing to pick apart. Birmingham Central have picked out highlights of the

City Centre Masterplan (Big City Plan) Report from Acting Strategic Director of Development at Birmingham City Council to the Cabinet meeting on the 24th November

There follows multitudinous charts, maps and options. Worth a read if you’re interested in what’s being planned. (via D’log)

In fact, if that floats your boat then you might be interested in the next Creative Republic event. They’ve rescheduled the Creative Masterclass with Michael Wolff for Thurs 27 Nov at Fazeley Studios. The aim will be for Michael to

take on the challenge of developing a fantasy brief for that imaginary role, a creative director for Birmingham

Attendance is free but you’ll need to sign up via their website.

On Thursday evening last week, Creative Republic brought together council leader Mike Whitby and head of the Birmingham Chamber of Commerce, Jerry Blackett to discuss the role of Birmingham’s creative industries in the Big City Plan.  Mark Ball (at the lecturn in the pic) hosted.

Rhubarb Radio were there to record the proceedings and have a link to an audio file of the speeches.  There are some photos in the gallery on the Creative Republic site and here are Pete Aston’s notes in mindmap form.

What I took away from the evening was that nothing’s yet set in stone and there’s still a lot of work to be done on developing the plan.

The thing is, things are currently at the talking stage.  It’s hard to get a sense of what direction things are taking as there doesn’t seem to be anything we can really get our teeth into, dissect and inspect.  I think I remember Mike Whitby saying that there might be something more tangible to look at in October.  A follow-up event is in the offing.

The other thing that was impressed upon us all is that, in terms of employees and Gross Value Added, the creative sector is comparable in size to the city’s lauded financial sector.  There’s a lot of latent power there that could influence the way the city develops.

We were told that if anyone wants to get involved in shaping the plan then there’s no need to wait for an invite.  Unfortunately the mechanism for getting involved isn’t that clear, although according to the Big City Plan site, Richard Healy is the initial point of contact for anyone wanting to get in touch.  You can call him on 0121 303 3075 or email richard.healy@birmingham.gov.uk.

Helga Henry from Creative Republic said that they would be asking everyone who was there to submit one big idea for Birmingham.  They’ll be collected together and presented to the Big City Plan peeps.

To feed into that, and perhaps addressing anyone who hasn’t signed up to the Creative Republic charter:

What’s your big idea for Birmingham?

Whack it in the comments and it’ll be thrown into the mix.  I’ll start things off…

The focus of the evening is the Big City Plan – the new masterplan that’s being developed for the city centre. Want to know how it’ll affect you/your business?  Well this event is for you.

The format for the evening will be:

5.45 for 6pm – Arrival
6.00-6.10pm – Welcome and introduction by Mark Ball (one of the original board members of Creative Republic)
6.10-6-30pm – Cllr Mike Whitby, Leader, Birmingham City Council
6.30-6.45pm – Jerry Blackett, Chief Executive Birmingham Chamber of Commerce
6.45-7.15pm – Questions and answers session
7.15-8pm – Refreshments and networking

If that sort of thing tickles your fancy and floats your boat then head over to the event page on the Creative Republic website for more info and to sign up to their charter.