Author Archive

Last week, in an effort to contribute something constructive to the Big City Plan consultation that’s about to begin, I put forward the idea that Digbeth should have 20 buildings painted from top to bottom by artists to put it on the map, nationally and internationally, as a place where art and creativity happens. I cited the old DEP studios and neighbour on Fazeley St and the Custard Factory as great examples of this already in existence. I’d be interested in your opinions (and, if you have any ideas of your own for how Birmingham might develop them, start putting them on your blogs - they will, I’m told, be read and taken on board.)

In the comments on that post local historian and all round good bloke Richard Trengrouse sounded an alarm bell:

The draft conservation strategy for Digbeth is very much against murals or the painting of buildings. In fact it seems to imply that all murals including the one on the FOE gable end and the painted elevations of the Custard Factory should be scrubbed back to the brickwork. This not yet City Council policy but if it is not amended at this stage it could put paid to a lot of interesting developments in the area.

So I went a digging through the council’s websites and after a while came across the page for the Digbeth/Deritend Conservation Area which contains a PDF draft document for which the public consultation lasted from October 6th to November 14th. Oops. Must have missed the memo on that one. But it still makes for interesting reading. You can download it here (2.8mb) or read it in this handy embedded box:

Now I’m not expert at reading government documents but a quick search didn’t lead me to anything specific about the Custard Factory needing to be scrubbed down to the original brickwork other than this section under Loss, Attrition and Intrusion on page 34:

9. The bright painted brickwork of the Custard Factory on Heath Mill Lane and Gibb Street dominates views of the Old Crown public house as seen from beyond the conservation area boundary on Deritend High Street.

It’s worth remembering that this document has at its heart the conservation of historic Digbeth which “contains the most significant remnants of mediaeval settlement in Birmingham including the fifteenth century Guildhall of St John (now the Old Crown public house). These early townscape elements are of considerable significance in the history of Birmingham’s development and were of particular importance in the designation of the area.” So this is not so much about the future development of the area as making sure that development doesn’t destroy what is currently there. A similar conflict occurs in the City of London where the Museum of London Archaeology Service works to prevent the destruction of historically significant sites by commercial development. This is valuable and essential work but a balance does need to be struck between the preservation of the past and the move into the future. Devonshire House, a listed building, should rightly not be painted bright purple but does that mean the other buildings shouldn’t be resplendent in yellow, pink, blue and green?

This document is, don’t forget, a draft and not council policy. While the initial consultation has passed you can still contact the Planning Department with any ideas or opinions you may have. And if you decide to blog them leave a link in the comments after this post.

It’s worth pointing out that while I’ve tried to keep this post neutral any opinions you might pick up are my own and don’t represent the Custard Factory management who, for all I know, have been involved with the document from the outset. I provide this information as a service to residents and workers in the area.

Ammo at Punch Records sent through this 11 minute video report on the BASS Festival which I’ve uploaded for your viewing pleasure:

Also, congratulations to Ammo for being selected for the Couvoisier Future 500 network.

You may remember the utterly fantastic video flyer for Louis Den’s Beat Cypher in October. Well, they’re doing another one on Thursday 11th November at Rootys (MySpace, Facebook) and have done another video promoting it. Here tis:

And here’s the more traditional one:

Last week artist Ian Cook was building a Christmas tree at the Custard Factory commissioned by Poundland made of their own products. It’s finished and the tree is currently on show at The Studio on Cannon Street before Poundland launch it to the press next week. Here’s a photo!

Haven’t blogged any of Tom Horton’s club photographs for a while now, so here’s a nice wee set from Eardum on November 28th:

The Studio4 gallery at the Custard Factory gets a nice profile in The Guardian’s Urban Undiscovered microsite.

Future Systems’ dramatic, aluminium-clad Selfridges building in the new Bullring Centre may be the icon of Birmingham’s inner city regeneration, but the real seed of the city’s cultural rebirth has been sown 10 minutes down the road in Digbeth. The old Bird’s Custard Factory is now home to 20,000 sq metres of club, theatre, media and workshop space – among it, a small but vibrant gallery called Studio4, the nerve centre of Birmingham’s new art underground.

Studio4 is a joint venture between the Outcrowd Collective and Beat13, two local street/folk art cabals who have graduated over the last six years from hosting coffee-shop shows, via temporary displays at the Custard Factory, to owning their own permanent space within the complex.

read on…

Midge posted on Twitter that “Custard Factory/Rootys local boy Steve is doing a quick jaunt across Mexico” and is looking for sponsorship to raise £3200 for Macmillan Cancer Support in the process.

On his fund raising page he says “In March 2009 I will be cycling cross country from the Gulf of Mexico to the Pacific Ocean, covering 700 miles through dense jungle, into the cloud forests of the Sierra Madre and up to the highest point of the ride at 3000m.”

Steve used to work at Urban Village and, as Midge said, is a Rootys regular so if you fancy chipping in something…

BCU have revamped their Media Talent Bank. Probably simpler if I just repost the press release.

With finding work becoming more important than ever, Birmingham City University’s Media Content Lab have recently re-launched Media Talent Bank, a supportive new website to help businesses in the creative industries source talent and freelancers to find work.

The freshly revamped website allows businesses and creatives to upload a profile, CV and portfolio onto an online directory which can easily be browsed by potential employers or collaborators. This intuitive search is accompanied by a dedicated ‘Jobs’ page with sector-specific job feeds and an ‘Out There’ page, featuring work opportunities posted to info@mediatalentbank.com.

“Media Talent Bank has been designed to help break-down some of the barriers to the creative and media industries,” says administrator David Allen. “Although run from Birmingham, the site acts as a platform for creative workers from across the UK to actively promote themselves, as well as allowing businesses both within and outside the sector to efficiently find skilled freelancers to work with.”

In addition, the site is currently on the look-out for creative industry professionals interested in contributing to the Media Talent Bank blog. Those interested in becoming a voluntary blogger should contact info@mediatalentbank.com.

“Whether looking for work in the creative industries, searching for people to collaborate with, or on the hunt for the best professionals to employ in your local area, Media Talent Bank will form an essential online tool for the creative industries,” says David.

Items of interest found about the place

• Patrick “The Mighty” Quinn vs Dangerous Dale - You be familiar with concerts, gigs and club night taking place is Space2 but did you know it occasionally hosts boxing? Here’s a video of the sport in action.
• Social Media Surgery for Voluntary Organisations - Last month a bunch of bloggers ran a surgery for charities and the like at the BVSC centre in Digbeth. It was a tremendous success so we’re doing it again. Any charities or similar are more than welcome to come along and see how blogging, etc can help you achieve your aims. No charge and there’ll be refreshments.
• A Creative Masterclass with Michael Wolff - Rescheduled from last month, this Creative Republic event sees branding expert Wolff (who was the keynote speaker at the Plus design expo last year) lead a masterclass developing a brief for the, currently fantasy, role of a Creative Director for Birmingham.
• Substrakt have moved to Fazeley Studios - and welcome all visitors. They have a pool table aparently.
• Gigbeth Links Round-up - Jon Bounds started gathering the online collective memory from Gigbeth. I’m sure there’s more out there so feel free to add links in his comments.
• Fireloop Creative won an award - Bronze at the Cream 2008 awards for the steakandbyday.co.uk site. They also have a blog, which I’ve added to the blogroll here.
• The Antiques Diva loves the Custard Factory Flea Market - “Stalls range from the bizarre to the truly wonderful. Japanese baby clothes, vintage and handmade garments, rare records, original photography and art, crepe suzettes, pottery, kitsch collectables and homemade fudge are a small taste of what’s available.”
• Rumble Rumble - Penumbra reviews Saturday’s Dan le Sac vs Scroobius Pip gig at the Factory Club.

Now the Custard Factory website is pretty much operational and is getting more attention I’m bringing in some more writers for the blog. The responsibilities are divvied up as a follows.

Frankie Kane and Katie O’Neill on reception are looking after Tenant News. If you’re a Custard Factory tenant (in that you rent a space here) you should send your news to info@custardfactory.co.uk

Jonathan Goodwin is looking after Events News. He books out the Gallery and Theatre amongst other things and works with Dave Peebles on lettings. If you’re putting on an event at the Custard Factory email him at jonathan.goodwin@custardfactory.co.uk.

The most important thing, however, is that you put your news online somewhere and send us the link. If you don’t have your own website (or have been lumbered with a site you can’t update easily) I recommend you use the free service from Posterous which couldn’t be simpler. Write you news in an email, attach any images, documents and mp3s that are relevant and email it to post@posterous.com. They’ll then email you a link to a page containing all your information nicely laid out along with an option to edit it. Once you’re happy with this, send the link to the the relevant person.

Seriously, Posterous is as simple as it gets. Give it a go.

Meanwhile I, Pete Ashton, will continue tracking the Internets for snippets of news using my magical Internet powers, along with keeping an eye on what Katie, Jonathan and Frankie are doing, managing the comments and filling in any gaps.