The iconic building in Bournville was originally a gift to George and Elizabeth Cadbury by employees from Cadbury factories around the world to celebrate their silver wedding anniversary.

BVT would like creative interpretations of the Rest House. It can be anything from a painting, a cake or a photograph. Watch their Craft Competition video for ideas on which craft to use!

The deadline for entries is 7th April 2014 and the winners will be announced at a centenary celebration on 12th April.

To submit your ideas visit the BVT Website to find out more.

In other Bournville related creative news:

Rowheath Drama Workshop have a free production of ‘Pressure Points’ at Rowheath Pavilion on Weds 16th & Thurs 17th April at 7.45pm, here’s the flyer:

ARTifex Young Jewellery Designer Awards is run by the directors of ARTifex Gallery in Sutton Coldfield; Ross Fenn and Nigel Bates. The competition is open to young jewellery designers from, or studying, in the Midlands aged 18 – 25 and to enter you must design and produce a unique piece/pieces of jewellery!

Click here to download an application form.

To find out more please visit the site or follow ARTifex on twitter. As with all competitions, please make sure you read the terms and conditions.

They are looking for a photograph that captures the very essence of the Jewellery Quarter and its heritage. Perhaps a photo of a typical jewellers or silversmiths workshop? Past or present photographs are welcome!

I spoke to the guys down at the Jewellery Quarter Heritage who gave me some background and also an idea of what they are looking for…

The Hockley Flyer magazine has been published by us for nearly a quarter of a century and we also published the first (and second) History & Guide to The Jewellery Quarter over 20 years ago, which is almost sold out. 

During that time we have accumulated over one thousand items on the history of the Quarter – far too much to publish as a ‘book’ so we decided to publish a quarterly magazine ‘Jewellery Quarter Heritage’ which will hopefully run for several years. 

What we are always short of is photographs, some that we do have cannot be reproduced good enough for a magazine cover. That is what the competition is about – to obtain pics of ‘existing workshops’ in their ‘real working state’.

To enter simply email the photograph(s) with your name and address or use the form available here. Please be sure to read the terms & conditions and note that entries not chosen may be used in future issues of the magazine. The competition winner will win a subscription to the first four issues of the magazine, and will hopefully be announced at the launch on 6th September at Vertu Bar.

Visit the website to find out any more information.

Read down – there’s a competition for free tickets later on in this post.

I’m conscious that I’ve not mentioned International Dance Festival Birmingham so much on here over the past month. Partly that’s because I’ve been busy working on it and going to just about every event that I could.

There’s only a couple of days left but still a chance to catch some good stuff. Tonight, there’s:

• Cruel by Companhia de Dança Deborah Colker (Birmingham Hippodrome)
• Self Unfinished by Xavier Le Roy (Ikon Eastside)
• Kathak Duet by Abhimanyu & Vidha Lal (The Patrick Centre)

And tomorrow (the last day) there’s:

• A second chance to catch Cruel (Birmingham Hippodrome)
• Put Your Foot Down (St Martin’s Square, Bullring)

Put Your Foot Down is a big, free event that’ll run from midday to 6pm. Worth checking out, because the festival has been doing big, free public events very well (for instance, Utopia was great).

I saw Self Unfinished at Ikon Eastside last night and it’s probably the most ‘out there’ event in the entire programme – as David Massingham (festival co-director) said afterwards, it’s probably the furthest you can get from Strictly Come Dancing.

I’m off to Cruel tonight though – athletic Brazilian dancers, knives, spinning mirrors and a ruddy great big globe-shaped chandelier. That’s entertainment. Speaking of which…

Competition

We’ve been given a pair of tickets for the spectacular-looking Cruel tonight. If you want your name to go into a draw for them then email ‘CRUEL’ to createdinbirmingham@gmail.com. We’ll do the draw at about 2pm and let the winner know the good news.

I have two reasons for posting this:

1. It amused me that the site talks up ‘free entry to the splendid Birmingham Artsfest’ when entry is free anyway
2. It’s good to see Birmingham being talked about as a destination for an arty getaway

There’s a few other items bundled into the package that might make it worth throwing your name into the hat. Link to the competition.

Elsewhere on the site there’s a good profile of Studio 4 and mentions given to the Outcrowd Collective, Them Lot, Capsule, Beat13 and Fluid’s Lee Basford. ‘Log’ Roper from Studio4 ‘paints a rosy picture of a thriving, supportive scene, where musicians and artists intermingle’

I went to the full dress rehearsal of Birmingham Opera Company’s King Idomeneo on Sunday night and loved it. What’s not to like about an abandoned factory stuffed with shipping containers, opera singers, dirt and orange trees?

Anyway, I have two tickets for tonight’s proper opening show to give away to the first person who shouts up for them in the comments.

Here are some guidelines:

• No-one associated with CiB (that includes Creative Republic types) can claim the tickets
• First to claim the tickets in the comments wins
• But feel free to stake a claim after the first post, just in case (see below)
• I need to give your real name to the ticket-giving people.  If you post under a pseudonym then remember to use a real email address.  If I you don’t reply to a confirmatory email quick enough and/or I think you’re messing about I’ll work my way down the list of commenters
• Tickets are to be collected on the door no later than 6.30pm today, 12 August 2008 – don’t claim them if you can’t make it (it sounds obvious but…)
• My decision on anything and everything is final

If whoever goes would be good enough to blog about the show or send me a review to post on CiB that’d be great.  Not essential or anything but it’d be nice.

If you don’t win the tickets then maybe consider buying one and going along anyway.  You’re not likely to get the chance to see anything like this for a while.

Finally, the Birmingham Post’s photographer was there on Sunday so you can see some pics to get an idea of what it was all about.  There’s more info in my last post about it and on the Birmingham Opera Company website.