Digital Playground was created in an attempt to network the digital creative industries within Birmingham

The next meet-up is on Friday 25 June at the Spotted Dog in Digbeth. Joining the Meetup group and RSVP-ing would be handy.

There should be a fair few people down there. As well as this, the Spotted Dog will be hosting Digbeth is Good’s 2nd birthday and the folks at Aquila TV are relocating their regular All Bar One drinks for the evening.

Of course, it might be popular for another reason. A meet-up for Digital Playground? Um, did anyone try googling that?

On the last Wednesday of every month, meet ups will take place from 6.30pm at The Cross in Moseley, Birmingham, B13 8HW

Media Talent Bank

we are holding an exhibition and networking evening at Orange Studio’s on the 10th May

Creative Playground

Please join the group if you have anything to do with Creativity in Birmingham (Advertising, Architecture, Arts, Crafts, Design, Fashion, Film, Games, Music, Television & Radio).

Birmingham Actors Group

The plan of the group is to have regular workshops, practice acting technigues, run through scripts and much more. The group will also have events were you can socialize with people who share similar interests

Birmingham Screenwriters Network

Our aim is to provide guidance and support in various areas of the field – to offer critical feedback for works in progress and provide a sense of community for members.

In the meantime, Birmingham’s creative communities continue to toil away and many things have been going on.  Here’s a snapshot of where we’re at right now!

‘Hey for Lubberland!’ can be spotted gracing the canals around Brindley Place.  This work, by Simon and Tom Bloor (and part of Ikon’s off-site projects) will be in situ on the towpath behind Bank Restaurant in Brindleyplace until 13th September 2009.  Visitors can be transported by this working barge, and whilst onboard peruse the floating library of utopian design.  The title ‘Hey for Lubberland!’ was derived from a 17th century English ballad about the New World, mistaken for utopia, but in fact a kind of fool’s paradise.  You can be transported between 13:00 and 17:00 on Tuesdays – Sundays, and best of all admission is free!

If you’re interested in creative networking opportunities, then there’s a new group which will have it’s first meeting on August 13th.  Creative Playground is being organised by Steve Gray and Kate Manion, and offers:

..a chance for people who work in a professional capacity in the creative and digital sectors to get together for drinks and a chat, make new friends and hopefully make some new collaborations as well. Ultimately it is about strengthening the city’s creative community and we’ll be looking to the RDAs and various bodies for support to help us do this.

It looks like a slightly different group of people to those you might meet at BSMC etc. and will hopefully prove rather interesting!  You need to signup with meetup.com and then apply to become a member as there is a selection process as explained here:

The ground rules of joining are: 1) You must be in a professional role within the creative industries, 2) You or your business must be located in Birmingham, 3) You must fill out all the introductory fields in your profile with sufficient detail, 4) You must upload a photo of yourself to your profile. No company brands etc.

Also on Thursday 13th August is the private view of a brand new collection of work, entitled SAMPLE:

New work has been created by a range of Midlands artists including Daniel Westwood, Martin Donnelly, Matt Clugston, Steve Ellis, and Joe Mitchelmore.  The work will be available to view online after the launch at the SAMPLE website, so even if you can’t make it you don’t have to miss out!

And lastly, so that this post isn’t completely ridiculously long, on a transatlantic note, Birmingham-based photographer Chris Keenan (who recently featured in the Visual / Art of Ideas 2 exhibition) has had a piece of work selected for a world-class international exhibition, Art of Photography.

This year they received 16,000 entries from 57 countries.  111 images were chosen for the final exhibition and Chris Keenan’s Franz Joseph Glacier (above) was one of them. The selection was made by Charlotte Cotton, curator and head of the Wallis Annenberg Department of Photography at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA).

If you’re likely to be in and around the San Diego area any time between 29th August 2009 and 1st November 2009 then stop by the Lyceum Theatre Gallery and marvel at some Birmingham talent!