Hello Culture is a one day conference with a series of keynotes, panels and workshops exploring how those in the cultural sector can work with digital technology to improve their audience development, organisational operating process, raise their profile and collaborate across the digital sector and with new partners to develop and innovate new cultural product and practice..

17 November at Zellig (Custard Factory).

Links:

• A ‘save the date’ email with more info
• The Eventbrite ticket-booking page
• Hello Culture on Lanyrd
• helloculture.net might be the website (but there’s nothing there at the time of posting)

Last Friday evening saw the launch party of Zellig‘s newest residents, LeKeux Events. The vintage, rockabilly inspired team put on an evening of treats, live music, dancing and discounted beauty services, transforming guests into glamorous vintage style pin ups.

With their new premises officially christened, they’ve announced a list of events, workshops and salon services taking place over the next few weeks, which include beginners hair tutorials, afternoon tea drop ins for mums and toddlers, 40’s dance classes and pin up photo shoots. Their in-store salon offers make-up, manicures and hair styling from a variety of inspiring eras.

Teaming up with the Boutique Baking Co. (very good cakes, I recommend) they’ll also be hosting tea parties and cake decorating classes, plus private hires for hen parties and such.

For a full list of what they’ve got to offer, take a look at their website and facebook page.

Photos from the launch are taken from their Facebook Page – I forgot to bring my camera to take my own.

Pop-up arts gallery, BlowCreates, is due to open in the Custard Factory’s Zellig building on 25 January.

This newly established PR and marketing venture had been set up by two Birmingham City University students. Follow their progress on Facebook and Tumblr, where they’ve been offering sneak peeks into the kind of artists we can expect to see in the gallery.

Blow will bring a new, exciting and innovative arts venue to Birmingham, selling work by painters, photographers, illustrators, sculptors, designers and more, many of whom are current students or graduates from Arts Universities.

The launch event looks set to be an interesting evening, with music, drinks and live art from local illustrator Joel Millerchip.

Their current exhibition showcases the work of Peru born artist Janet Mclelland, whose art portrays her upbringing and views of daily life, in search for a representation of motherhood.

On 16 December, Gecko are inviting visitors to the gallery to celebrate Janet’s work over some festive refreshments, from 6pm – 8pm.

The exhibition runs until 30 December and is open Monday – Saturday from 10am – 6pm. For regular updates take a look at their Facebook page.

Aiming to promote the value of singing in education, teaching through rhymes, music and performance poetry, the class will tackle times table through tunes.

If you want to get involved in the record attempt, register for class online.

Sample 2 is the second exhibition from Sample, due to launch on 19 November at Zellig, and will be on display until 26 November.

The exhibition will feature artists from multiple disciplines, with each piece unified by a circular format.

The circular form shapes our very existence. From the atoms and cells which craft our being, to the huge globe we live on which orbits an enormous ball of fire. This cycle of life is the perfect example of design. Seamless. Unrelenting. Absolute. Complete.

For more information, take a look at the Facebook event page or email Sample for an invite to the launch evening.

Travel advice aside, arts and culture will be getting a foot in the door a few times over the duration, including this lot:

• Jonathan Watkins (Director of Ikon Gallery) has been invited by Jeremy Hunt MP to speak on Sunday. His speech will apparently “highlight the cultural wealth of Birmingham and promote Ikon’s ambition for the creation of a new museum of modern art in the city”
• Screen WM are putting on a fringe event called City as a Platform (reminiscent of the much-referenced, lesser read Dan Hill post) on Monday
• Ed Vaizey MP will be off and about on Monday. He’ll be officially opening Zellig and later on checking out BCU’s Skillset Media Academy
• Rosie Kay Dance Company will be performing Double Points: K at the Symphony Hall on Tuesday

There’s probably more happening too, but those are the ones I’ve come across.

I’ve also been invited, with a bunch of other local bloggers, to go and meet Sayeeda Warsi (Co-Chairman of the Conservative Party and Cabinet Minister without portfolio) and Andrew Mitchell (MP for Sutton Coldfield and Secretary of State for International Development) later today.

The Creative Alliance apprentices are holding an exhibition, Some Utopia, at the Custard Factory from 30 September – 8 October.

The apprentices were given the opportunity to transform a unit in Zellig into a space that expresses their own ideas and interpretations of utopia. With artists all from different creative backgrounds, the exhibition will feature fine art, photography and visual arts.

This is a unique opportunity to see the talents of emerging artists from the work done by Creative Alliance. Opening times for the exhibition are as follows;

30 September: 11am – 3pm
1 October: 8.30am – 2pm
4 – 8 October: 11am – 3pm

Speakers include Andy Hartwell (Substrakt), Helga Henry (Fierce Earth), Eryka Isaak, Julia Higginbottom (Aquila TV) and Alexa Torlo (BCU).

There’s a little more besides so head for the website and the Facebook event for details.

There’s not much info floating around about Emerging apart from a couple of flyers, but it looks mighty interesting all the same. It’s a photography exhibition  featuring Niall Patterson, Paul Watt, and Hannah-Beth Todd amongst others, and you can see it at the Custard Factory between 1-8 June, 10am-7pm.

Meanwhile, in related news, Custard Factory have a shiny new website here, and Zellig, the brand new development at Devonshire House, also has a new website here.