Swan Corner Workshops begin

Freya and Turtles admire their
artwork  at Swan Corner

Yesterday (11th March) we began workshops at Swanshurst School with 30 young volunteers eager to improve our environment - making it safer and bringing people together to discuss parking, traffic and other issues, thanks to funding from Near Neighbours, as part of Hall Green Arts & Kings Heath Centre for Space Exploration project.

Not too surprisingly, young people raised similar concerns to other local residents about what the problems are - here's a summary of the problems they identified:



The group also had a good grasp of some of the problems local residents have already identified.  Here is a summary of what they thought problems residents would have:


Given the problems have been around for a long time what difference can we make?  Well, I suppose that's where a group like Swan Corner Community Group, newly started, could be influential in bringing about the conversations, raising issues with appropriate bodies, and getting out and doing things.

The Swanshurst Group will be making a big impact straight away in bringing about may of the Community Group objectives over the coming months by:

• Improving the local environment, creating a garden space for people to use
• Talking to local residents and finding out what's important to them through surveys
• Creating a dance performance outdoors at Swan corner, for residents and locals
• Adding wood sculpture to complement the gardening, improve the environment adding value to Swan Corner

There's a lot of other parts to what Swan Corner Community Group will be doing to make a safer, nicer Swan corner for everyone who uses it - our next meeting on 25th March will include Councillors, representatives from the Police and Sustrans, as well as local people and Swanshurst school to discuss parking, traffic and road improvements.

Cancelled! - Art Works Conference Sat 1st March @ Balsall Heath Church Centre, Edward Road

Dear Colleagues, due to unforeseen circumstanced the proposed Art Works Conference scheduled for 1st March 2014 has been postponed until the end of March 2014.We will be posting further information shortly about the rescheduled event. 

In the meantime can I draw your attention to the forthcoming Birmingham City Council event:

The Cultivating Culture Symposium - Library of Birmingham, March 18th from 12pm – 7pm

The Symposium will be an opportunity for local arts organisations, and all those involved, to meet and share case studies and discuss issues and challenges that have emerged over the past 3 years. It will also be an opportunity for Local Arts Fora & Arts Champions to reflect on how arts development can overcome barriers to participation and engagement. 

The Cultivating Culture Symposium is an afternoon of debates and discussions for local people, arts organisations, policy makers and anyone who is interested in developing amazing arts activities at a grass roots level.

The days starts at 12noon with a networking lunch and is kicked off with a Keynote Speech from the Cultural Programmer for Derry Londonderry 2013. There will also be small group discussions and the chance to see performances and presentations of the work done by Birmingham's local Arts Fora and Arts Champions.

Culture on Your Doorstep is a key pillar of the City’s Cultural Strategy and has focused particularly on adult engagement (19+); creation of new work presented to the public; promotion and presentation of arts activities to the public and projects which develop adults as creators, participants, audiences and leaders. 

The Arts Champions Scheme has been very successful in fulfilling this area of strategy and case studies from the Scheme will reveal data, models of good practice and clear examples of activities which have been built up over 3 years to leave a legacy with residents in each District – some of whom will be present on the day to present examples of this activity.

Tickets are free but places are limited. Tickets can be booked athttps://cultivatingcultures.eventbrite.co.uk

For further information go to the following link:

http://birminghamculture.org/news/thecultivating-culture-symposium-library-of-birmingham-march-18thfrom12pm-7pm

Art Works Events

Dear Colleagues, I am writing to invite you all to provide information about any forthcoming arts/community events you are planning to host between Feb 15 & Mar 16, 2014. Birmingham City Council are hosting an end of programme symposium on Tues 19 March to celebrate the Arts Champion and Local Arts Forum schemes.

The Drum Arts Centre, as Arts Champion for the Hall Green District in partnership with the Arts Forum Lead, St Paul's Development Trust, we would like to celebrate arts activities delivered across the district.

We aim to include all activities under the banner of "Art Works", which we encourage all participating organisations to use as a #Artworks (tag) on twitter etc. promoting the events across the district. There is likely to be additional publicity (brochure/flyers) linking these activities.

We are also planning to host an Art Works conference including discussion and performances profiling local arts across the district, on Saturday 1st March at Balsall Heath Church Centre from 10am to 3pm.

In the meantime if you could provide me with details of your events, including copy, images, venue, logos and admission fee (free or otherwise), we can put together copy for a brochure.

Copy Deadline is Monday 16 December 2013 in order to complete publicity/print and distribute during mid-January 2014.

Please send your details or for information contact:
Email: i.sergeant@the-drum.org.uk
Tel: 0121 333 2418

Art Works

Dear Colleagues as part of Hall Green District’s contribution to the city-wide showcase of Arts between February 15th & March 16 2014, we are holding a conference called Art Works on Saturday 1st March, 10am-3pm at the Balsall Heath Church Centre.

It will be a practical day aimed at giving participants the chance to learn from each other’s endeavours – What has worked? What hasn’t? What would your advice be to someone doing something similar for the first time?

If you would like to join the planning group to help shape the day, share ideas and make it a really worthwhile occasion, please do come join us! The first planning meeting will be at St. Paul’s Trust, Balsall Heath Initiative Centre, Balsall Heath, B12 8NJ at 11am on 18th December.

RSVP to Ian Edwards (so we know how much cake to provide…)
Email: ian.edwards@stpaulstrust.org.uk
Tel: 0121 464 4376.

Planting trees near Sarehole Mill

Cleanascene at Ort

I popped in to see cleanascene exhibition at Ort Gallery  last week, and had a chat with our very own HGA  Ian Edwards, also a photographer, and part of the team of people who helped coordinate the event with cleanascene.

I recorded a quick podcast with ian explaining more about the event on 7th july 2013, where over 1000 people converged on Nelson Mandela/ Spark Green Park (collecting litter the whole way) for a celebratory arts day, the exhibition now on at Ort, and the ambition for Balsall Heath in the future.

listen to ‘Cleanascene exhib’ on Audioboo

Organise for playing out