Meanwhile, just to show how 2010 looked on Created in Birmingham, we published 649 blog posts and attracted 578 comments, garnering 222,264 pageviews from 81,937 unique (like snowflakes) visitors. There was also 1 shop that took £45,000, with most of that money going to the artists themselves.

Over the past 12 months we’ve also had 40 CiB supporters and a handful of advertisers – a big thank you goes out to them for helping us to keep the site going.

These were the 10 most popular posts published this year:

1. Apache Indian has his own bar
2. Recommended BCC arts cuts (possibly)
3. CiB Shop – The End Game
4. Coming (very) soon – the CiB Shop
5. CiB Shop – here’s how you can get involved
6. CiB Shop – an invitation
7. Birmingham arts and arts grant budgets for 2011/12
8. Factory Club closing down
9. The HMV Institute
10. The Radar Magazine

I’m not really one for doing ‘best of’s but (off the top of my head) it was good to see the MAC reopening, I liked the Steve McCurry retrospective at BMAG and Len Lye at Ikon (which is still on), Birmingham European Theatre Festival was fun and I enjoyed a load of things at International Dance Festival Birmingham.

Odd but great moments included ‘sleeping’ on stage during Stan’s Cafe‘s Tuning Out with Radio Z (which I’ve written about here) and, of course, That Shop.

There was plenty more besides and far too many things I wish I’d seen but didn’t. I suppose I’ll just have to try to see more next year.

Launching on 23 November is Ikon’s latest exhibition, a retrospective collection of work by Len Lye, featuring film, sculpture, painting and drawing.

Lye’s philosophy of ‘Individual Happiness Now’ – a belief in the possibility of ‘the best in human experience’ for all – is embodied by this exhibition; a testament to the simple joys that inspired him.

The launch evening on 23 November starts at 6pm, and includes a performance from Birmingham Conservatoire’s Percussion Ensemble at 8.15pm.

The following night on 24 November, Ikon will be holding a talk from 6-7pm with Len Lye Foundation curator, Tyler Cann, who’ll be discussing Lye’s work from animation to kinetic sculpture. Tickets for this are £3 and can be bought from the Ikon shop or by calling 0121 248 0711.

‘The Body Electric’ will be on display until 13 Febuary 2011 at Ikon Gallery, Brindley Place, which is open Tuesday – Sunday 11am – 6pm.

Here, via some copy and paste magic, is what’s going on:

Wed 08 Oct

Essentials: Play honours the irreverent, impudent, subversive and fun in artists’ film. Featuring work by Hans Richter, John Smith and George Kuchar. Curated by James Harding.

Wed 15 Oct

Essentials: POP presents iconic Pop films from the 1950s and 60s alongside work that preceded the Pop Art movement and work from its many legacies. Including work by Peter Roehr, William Klein and Peter Whitehead. Curated by Tanya Leighton

Wed 22 Oct

Essentials: Modernity presents work by artists who adapted the evolving languages of cinema and the technologies of the moving image to convey the experience of modernity; the social, environmental and psychological impact of the new rationalizing forces in industry, architecture and design. Including work by Len Lye, László Moholy-Nagy, Mary Ellen Bute, Ferdinand Kriwet and Mark Leckey. Curated by Michelle Cotton

£5/4 per screening or £10/8 for all three!

Tickets are available from info@vivid.org.uk or by calling 0121 766 7876