Last call out for the ‘Arts & Culture Summit 2012‘ over at the University of Birmingham. This gathering, with lectures and discussions, seeks to “re-position the cultural offer of Birmingham – locally, nationally and internationally, in order that it makes the maximum impact on economic growth in the city.”

While at first that statement seems to surprisingly look as the arts as a money generator, the emphasis would appear to be more on investment in the development of the arts and creative industries, as outlined in their objectives for the Summit:

The objective of the event is to identify actions which will best support the development of Birmingham as a world class cultural centre.

Our aim is for a vibrant, diverse and robust sector which: 

• Plays a more effective role in attracting inward investment

• Grows jobs in culture and the creative industries

• Supports growth of jobs in the wider economy

• Develops innovation and creative skills, especially amongst young people

• Makes Birmingham a first class place to live for all our residents

• Improves wellbeing

• Supports community cohesion and a sense of Birmingham identity                                                     

Over two days, we will create a clear plan for:

• Working together with cultural organisations, public, private and third sectors on supporting the delivery of a shared cultural vision

• Introducing news ways of funding cultural development

• Reviewing our approach to promoting Birmingham’s reputation through our cultural offer

• Strengthening leadership of the sector in the city

• Tackling barriers to the growth of creative businesses

• Ensuring we have the creative skills we need for the future

• Improving the responsiveness of the sector to local need and building on delivery out of the city centre to address areas of low engagement

• Embedding cultural planning throughout the delivery of our Vision for Birmingham (eg Birmingham Baccalaureate, Smart City, Inclusive Economy).  

Speakers so far include:

• Sir Albert Bore, Leader, Birmingham City Council

• Councillor Ian Ward, Deputy Leader, Birmingham City Council

• Ruth Mackenzie, Director of the Cultural Olympiad, London 2012

• Darren Henley, Managing Director, Classic FM

• John Holden, Visiting Professor, City University London

• Graham Vick CBE, Artistic Director, Birmingham Opera Company

International speakers:

• Julie Burros, Director of Cultural Planning, City of Chicago

• Xavier Fourneyron, Deputy Director, Cultural Affairs, City of Lyon

• Reinier Weers, Senior Project Manager, Rotterdam Festivals

All sounds pretty good and I hope that many from Birmingham’s leading creative and artistic centres find time to make the trip over and participate, as while their seems to be some very well established figures on the list in what be great to have some input of some of the more up and coming creative teams around the city. It cannot be denied though that it is great to see such an event geared towards the development of the city.

You will be able to book to go along to this event here and then book workshops with the speakers on the day.

The all powerful Cabinet Committee has been completely reconstructed, with previously centralised powers devolved down to District Committees

You’ll have twigged from the title of this post that there’ll no longer be a Cabinet Member for Leisure, Sport and Culture. Who will have responsibility for those areas and what will happen if there’s nobody pushing the arts and culture agenda at the council? Will we really notice much difference?

There’s been some Twitter-based wailing and gnashing of teeth about the lack of an elected figurehead for the arts but, to be perfectly honest, I’m struggling to muster any real interest in this. Thought I should mention it though.

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Dear Friends, Colleagues and Supporters,

As you may be aware, Birmingham City Council has recently launched a public consultation process on its budget plans from April 2012 onwards, and we thought it would be of interest to you as a customer and supporter of mac birmingham to hear how the city’s plans are affecting our work.

mac reopened in May 2010 after a £15.2m redevelopment and refurbishment. Birmingham City Council played a major role in the development providing £6.7m of investment and delivering the project under their Partnering Framework with Thomas Vale Construction, one of the region’s award winning construction companies. The rest of the funding came from Arts Council England (£6.2m) and from a highly successful fund-raising appeal with donations from companies, individuals and grant-making trusts (£2.3m). Over 850,000 visits were made to “new” mac in its first year after reopening.

mac’s finances are finely balanced in a mixed economy; in our second year since reopening 26% of our turnover is investment from the City Council. Since our much lauded reopening year our business confidence is established and a growing percentage of our income is earned from box-office, sponsorship and other commercial activities.

As part of its response to the government’s public spending cuts, the City Council has already substantially reduced the amount of funding it gives to all the arts organisations in the city and in April this year mac birmingham’s grant was cut by 14%, a cash reduction of £107,000 per annum.

To cope with this significant reduction in income we have driven further the plans which were developed prior to reopening, maximising efficiency, amending our programming plans and increasing our efforts to maximise all other income streams. Throughout the planning and delivery of the mac/sampad Building Project we sought to maximise future efficiency through, for example, creating a flexible staffing structure, delivering a cost-efficient building with an effective building management system, reducing our carbon footprint and our running costs, increasing recycling, using digital technology to manage our building and our communications. Our shared office space has also allowed us provide improved facilities for our partners sampad and for other artists, arts companies and community agencies who share the mac creative hub.

Whilst we fully recognise that we cannot be exempt from the public spending cuts being imposed at the moment, there are few options available for further reducing costs without severely damaging our services. Whilst we continue to look for greater efficiencies and sharing of services we do fear that any further cuts in BCC funding will lead to a serious “downward spiral” in which the inevitable reductions in artistic activity will lead to lower earned income and funding. Further investment secured from additional sources may well then be withdrawn due to our diminished capacity to deliver our agreed programme.

How you can help

Birmingham’s arts infrastructure and activities have, for so long, been a vital tool in the city’s aim to improve the quality of life for its citizens, its inward investment performance and its status as a true global city. Evidence of the hugely beneficial impact of the creative industries can be found at www.birminghamartspartnership.co.uk

City based cultural organisations contribute £271m to the region’s economy per year. This is generated from almost 2 million attendances, with arts attenders generating £40m in Additional Visitor Spend (AVS). This represents a return on investment of £29 for every £1 that Birmingham City Council spends on funding the arts.

All of the city’s arts organisations believe that we are now at the tipping point where incremental reductions in costs are no longer achievable.

If you share our concerns and would not want to see the City Council reduce its funding to the independent arts organisations any further, I would urge you to make your views known to the City Council before the end of November.

• By filling out an online survey at  www.birmingham.gov.uk/budgetviews
• By emailing to budget_views@birmingham.gov.uk
• By text message to: 07786 200 403
• By writing to Budget Views, Room B119, The Council House, Victoria Square, Birmingham, B1 1BB

You may have received a similar plea from other arts organisations and we would urge you to respond to any one of us. Representation needs to be made before the end of November in order to be effective.

Thank you for taking the time to read this and for your continuing support of mac birmingham.

Anita Bhalla
Chair of mac Board of Trustees

Made in Sutton is an arts forum created in Sutton Coldfield. Others have been created across Birmingham (see info on the Birmingham City Council arts pages for the others).

Their first meeting is on Saturday (26 November) and they say:

All local arts organisations are welcome to participate, so whether you run an amateur dramatics society or provide dance classes we’d love to hear from you.

Birmingham City Council has launched a Public Consultation on its Budget Plans from April 2012. Please support the cultural life of the city by taking part in this. The official deadline for responses is 8 January, however we urge responses by the end of November, as they can then feed in to the Council Cabinet’s decisions on arts spending in early December

A public consultation might not be very exciting, but if you want this city to support culture and creativity then it wouldn’t hurt to mention that to the people who make the decisions – they’re not psychic, y’know.

Here’s a video of a meeting of traders at the market. They’re not at all happy. The Birmingham Mail have been following the story and are on the side of the traders, setting up a petition here and covering a call for shoppers to write to council leader, Mike Whitby.

And in order to provide some balance (look at me, ma! I’m doing journalism!) here’s Birmingham City Council partially rebutting some of the claims that are being made.

Kindle Camp – A Kindle Publishing Workshop

Digital Birmingham, The New Optimists and Birmingham City Council Web Services Team have joined together to put on a workshop to go through the process of publishing your text to the Kindle.

This looks useful and pretty thorough. It’s free and it’s on 1 June. Only four tickets left.

Comics Launch Pad

Comics Launch Pad is a new and exciting event brought to you by International Comic Shows, the organisation behind the long-running British International Comics Show.

A one-day conference aimed at professionals, aspiring professionals and those with a serious interest in the business of making comics, Launch Pad promises to be an enlightening and fascinating experience.

D’log spotted this one. It’s on 18 June and here’s their website.

Today’s the last day for picking up discounted early bird tickets for Biting Back, taking place on 21 March:

a one day event from Birmingham City Council, mac and Sampad that will address how arts sector professionals and individual artists can learn from examples of successful partnerships in austere cultural landscapes.

Tickets will still be available, they’ll just be more expensive and saving money is the name of the game here. With less cash around to make things happen over the coming years, the idea is to hear from people (some from Birmingham, some from much further away) with practical experience of interesting partnerships and different ways of working.

The schedule for the day is here. I’ll be there talking about what we did with the Created in Birmingham Shop last year. Friction Arts, Stan’s Cafe, the Flyover Show, La Tabacalera, MIR Festival and more will feature too.

Biting Back is also on Twitter, Facebook and Lanyrd.