Pete kicked off discussions about how to follow on from the CiB Shop, The Little Chill looked like fun and involved pretty much every promoter in town and Supersonic’s line-up started coming together.

There was a lot of kerfuffle around the filming of Turbulence, with lots of people getting involved in that too, and people seemed to be printing big flyers for things. I didn’t make it to Taste of Birmingham but people tell me it was pretty good. We also flagged up the work of Sweaty Eskimo.

BARG announced some fun and games at the Mac, Haji Noor Deen visited The Hubb, the Cut Out Shop folks made The DIY Times and I did a bit of a write-up from the BE Festival. New Art Gallery Walsall hosted the Taylor Wessing Photography Prize for a while and the entirely excellent-looking Six Summer Saturdays started.

There was news of cuts from the new government and I tried to wrap my head around the mess that was being made of sorting out a LEP for Birmingham/West Midlands. The flyering/postering issue got another run out too.

Birmingham didn’t get the nod for City of Culture 2013. Ah well.

The days were getting longer, which was probably just as well for Rhubarb Rhubarb, who seemed to doing loads. Birmingham presented its final bid for the City of Culture and we crossed our fingers. Temper filled the streets with fashion icons. We looked at the trailer for Soulboy and discovered the blog for Reuben Colley Fine Arts.

The Arts Council announced a 0.5% cut in funding to RFO’s. Boo. We found some familiar faces in Synth Eastwood’s video tomfoolery from the Flatpack Festival. Treasured at the MAC looked good.

Bright Space started looking for people to get involved in Platform and I asked ‘Does Birmingham Future interest you?‘ and got a fairly resounding ‘Um, who?’. Theatre folk came together and spoke easy, the newly opened Zellig hosted the Bass Festival’s Fight The Power exhibition and there was talk of verbalising and visualisation.

Creative Republic launched Invisible City and Marketing Birmingham released a new promotional video for the city that featured a host of creative talent.

The Created in Birmingham closed its shutters for the last time at the end of the month. Someone kissed the feedback book:

International Dance Festival Birmingham came to an end too, while Ian looked forward to what was in store at the 2010 BASS Festival and I had a peek at the Lichfield Festival’s line-up.

RoguePlay left the Custard Factory, I noticed Writing West Midlands for the first time, Ikon announced their series of ‘Favourite Things’ talks, the Daze-Ray exhibition occupied a corner of the Jewellery Quarter and IPEX took over the NEC.

hobbypopMUSEUM spent some time at Eastside Projects, the annual Cure Leukemia Art Auction took place, Ben Javens made a tea towel, end-of-year-show season started up and there was a photography exhibition at the Custard Factory.

I went to visit the flashy gizmos at University of Birmingham’s Heritage and Culture Learning Hub too.

So that’s it then – the final pitch was in Liverpool yesterday and we’ll have to wait until July (can’t find an exact date) to find out who, out of Birmingham, Derry/Londonderry, Norwich and Sheffield, will have the title of City of Culture 2013 bestowed upon them.

A neat addition yesterday was the chance to send messages of support via CoveritLive that were then relayed to the judges via a screen. You can see those messages here. Apparently the judging panel were impressed by the level of support (I was less impressed by people spamming their stuff on there, but then I’m an idealist like that).

So, just a few more weeks until we find out whether Birmingham’s won a prestigious title or narrowly lost out in an arbitrary box-ticking exercise. Fingers crossed.

Meanwhile, Pete Ashton is selling prints of his image above that was used in the campaign. A bargain at £25.

Fingers crossed though, overall I think this would be a good thing.

I’ve still no idea what went into the bid, other than some blandness in the DCMS statement that says:

the panel was influenced by the expected step change each city was asked to envisage, if they gained the title and subsequent media spotlight.

“It was a hard choice but also heartening that all bidders had recognised the power of culture to bring people together; to work collectively within existing resources for a common goal and bring into being networks that may not have existed before.

So, a step change. Cool.

I’m not sure what sort of profile the campaign’s been having in the city – I know canvasbirmingham.com has been seeing some good action and saw some flyers the others day (at the council house – I wonder if they found it hard finding places to put them around town). A vid from the launch night came out the other week too:

City of Culture Bid Launch from Big City Blank Canvas on Vimeo.

*No, of course I didn’t.

Having toured the world and recorded with some of the biggest names going (Wikipedia link here), I think I remember hearing that he spends his time on community projects around Birmingham. His latest project is a venue of his own – Apache’s Bar on Corporation Street. This is his description of the place:

I have had many cultural events at my place from Polish Nights, Reggae, Gospel and Bhangra etc. I have seen how music brings people together all over the world and want to achieve that here in Bham. There were small venues that supported live music in Birmingham, like the Hard Rock Cafe. All gone!! My place provides a platform for music and culture and will continue to promote how great our city is to the people of the city and the many visitors that come here that want to feel Birmingham culture which is unlike anywhere in the world! I dont think that there is anywhere else that can represent Birmingham like Apaches Bar. We also work with the community and hold school events etc. (we have a schools talent competition there this week, thursday). We also work with young offenders on the ISSP. Lots of work going on and lots more to do!! Remember we have set up this place regardless of a cultural bid. I have spent 20 years promoting the culture of Birmingham all over the world.  Apaches Bar will continue that work and many people will come and feel that positive spirit and energy!! My mission will not be complete until people see that Birmingham is the cultural capital of the world!

Still, all this is secondary to the fact that Boom Shack-A-Lak is my absolute, all time happy tune.

Big Blank Canvas

Big Blank Canvas is a project managed and devised by Fierce (on behalf of the council who are responsible for the bid itself) which, in its first version, is asking people:

• What do you do in your cultural life in Birmingham, and where?
• What would you like to see happen as part of Birmingham City of Culture in 2013, and where?
• Where would you like to have a cultural experience in Birmingham?

The second question has generated the most interesting ideas so far. Here are a few that jumped out at me:

a touring show for kids and families playing a different suburban park every weekend in the summer hols; with locals creating and participating (from Rob)

Literal street art – a day with no traffic when the streets can be used as a gigantic canvas by communities all over the city, free balloon flights to view the full effect… (from Mark Scourse)

Shut down all the major cultural institutions for a month and promote/support cultural events and activities across the outer city in non traditional venues (from The Blade)

The aim is for the site to be up in this form for the next couple of months, after which it’ll change somehow – responding to the ideas people put forward.

There’s also a Facebook Page and Twitter account you can follow to keep up with what people are suggesting.

I should also say (for the purposes of disclosure) that I’ve done some work with Fierce on the concept/design behind this one.

Cultural Birmingham – Have Your Say!

This is the bit that has been aimed specifically at under-25’s. Antonio Roberts was asked to get involved with the steering group for this and has written up some info about it. Again, it’s an online consultation exercise:

There is a three-page questionnaire that young ‘uns can fill out, but more interestingly I think it’d be better to get involved in the discussion on the Facebook Group (liek wot all da cool kids iz doin)

G’wan, have a go

Irrespective of the City of Culture bid, it’d be nice to show that folks around these parts really care about the cultural life of the city they live in and have some good ideas for how to build on/show off what we’ve got. Go nuts and use this to air your wildest dreams, fervent passions or give a mention to those things that you’ve seen elsewhere and wish would happen in Birmingham.