Dear #SubscriberFirstName# #SubscriberLastName#,

BIG BOOST FOR BIRMINGHAM?S CUSTARD FACTORY

More than a hundred creative businesses will be able to benefit from high quality workspace in Digbeth, thanks to a £20 million pound project to make the Custard Factory into Europe?s largest, most vibrant creative centre.

The plans took a huge step forward this week, as ebns confirmed their contribution of £6.4 million towards the refurbishment of the iconic Devonshire House, the offices of Sir Alfred Bird, and Fazeley Studios in nearby Floodgate street.

The finished buildings will provide flexible office space, as well as a dance studio, screen hub and dedicated exhibition space where businesses can showcase their work in a professional manner. Work will begin in April, and is due to be completed by the end of the year.

In 1990 the Custard Factory was a disused site of derelict riverside factories. Thanks to the vision of entrepreneur developer Bennie Gray, it is now the gem of East Birmingham, home to a thriving creative community of more than three hundred companies.

Graham Edwards, Chief Executive of ebns said, ?This is a hugely exciting scheme for the Zone, and our partners at the Custard factory certainly have the vision and expertise to make it work.

Digbeth still has a number of historic and architecturally significant buildings that are underused and working with the Custard Factory provides a real opportunity for turning Devonshire House, one of the most significant buildings in Digbeth, back into a thriving place for business once again.?

The need for the project is driven by the phenomenal growth of the creative industries over recent years. A recent survey by Thomas Lister, commissioned by ebns, revealed that the current creative clusters at the Custard Factory, the Bond and the Arch do not have the capacity to fill the increasing market demand.

If the Zone cannot provide creative businesses with the high quality, inspirational workspace that they want, then there is a very real danger that they will move from the area, and that their talent will be lost to the local economy.

ebns is investing in the project as part of its Strategic Investment Plan ?Digbeth and Eastside Growth through Enterprise?, which aims to leverage £40 million Zone funds and £102 million other funds into the area over the next ten years. 

BIRMINGHAM, COVENTRY AND BLACK COUNTRY CITY REGION STRATEGY JOINT INVESTMENT PLAN FOR EMPLOYMENT AND SKILLS

ebns are joining with three other Zones, in order to develop a Joint Investment Plan that will coordinate skills activity across the Birmingham, Coventry and Black Country City Region.

The JIP will allow zones and their partners to focus on high impact projects in order to realise the City Region 2020 vision that:

?? the Birmingham, Coventry and Black Country City Region will have high levels of personal prosperity, business success and population growth equal to those in the South East of England with every individual realizing his or her full potential??

It has become increasingly clear that this vision can only be achieved by increased and better co-ordinated efforts to improve the employability and skills of the workforce. A more diverse, knowledge intensive economy will only be created across the City Region within a reasonable time scale if participation rates are increased, if the adult workforce are able to acquire the additional skills demanded by the knowledge economy and if the quality, and effectiveness of skills provision is improved.

This was a major conclusion of the Leitch Review of Skills published on 5^th December 2006, which sets out a clear vision for the UK highlighting the need to urgently raise achievements at all levels of skills and commit to becoming a world leader in skills by 2020. In practise, this will mean doubling attainment at all levels of skills and securing a joint commitment from Government agencies, employers and individuals.

The review also highlighted that employment opportunities for the lowest skilled will continue to decline with economic security in the future economy dependent on ensuring people have a platform of skills that they can update in response to economic change.

A joined up approach is crucial to skills development, but also to fulfilling one of the key objectives behind Regeneration Zones, which is to add value to other regeneration activity within their areas in order to bring about transformational change in the local economy.

Therefore, the Regeneration Zones are working together with partners to add further value to this activity by aligning employment and skills activity within a joint investment plan that will contribute to the City Region Joint Investment Plan for Employment and Skills.

ONE YEAR ON: VIVID

In March 2006 ebns contributed £78, 000 to VIVID, a local company dedicated to the development of contemporary media art.

VIVID fosters artistic talent by providing artists with space and mentoring support to research and develop new work, as well as advice on technical/ equiptment issues, post production software, funding and publicity. ebns money allowed VIVID to extend its offer by creating a mobile production pod and upgrading 3, 000 sq ft of floor space for exhibitions and showcasing.

At this point, VIVID had just recently relocated from the Jewellery Quarter to Digbeth, with the vision of transforming an old garage on Heath Mill Lane into a place where resident and invited artists could produce their work and exhibit to the public in the same flexible space. One year on we return to this site to check on their progress, and find out the joys and stresses of being a successful creative business in Digbeth.

INTERVIEW WITH YASMEEN BEIG CLIFFORD

How has VIVID changed over the past year?

Well the mobile pod has been fantastic- we developed the concept with a very talented multi-disciplinary architect, Ranbir lal, who helped make it possible to look at new ways of creating and presenting work. It was first used last June for a series of electronic media presentations for the national Architecture Week project.

From 23^rd May to 3^rd June this year, the pod will be used for an exhibition by award winning artist Kate Pemberton (who won the Creative Class award from the Ideasfactory in 2005/6). Kate?s interested in mass production and the artwork as a multiple. She produces art electronically and then transforms it into textile collectibles. In her exhibition she will use the pod as a retail outlet filled with her work, including wallpaper, bunting and rossettes. She will maximise the mobility of the pod by moving it around like a flexible shop.

And the latest use of the pods was by the internationally renowned artist Richard Billingham, for his exhibition Zoo, which looks at the psychology of enclosure, through the way that caged animals occupy their space. Originally from the Black Country, Richard has been in residence with VIVID since early 2005 to develop a major new series of videos and photographs which are currently touring the UK .The exhibition is in Swansea now, and the catalogue, published by VIVID, is being launched 22 March at the prestigious Photographer?s Gallery in London. Later this year the exhibition launches in Madrid, and it all began here in Digbeth.

What have been the highlights?

As well as the Pods we?ve had a great new remote controlled lighting system installed which have made all sorts of things possible. We used them recently for an event called Consuming Passion, which looked at love of food.

The work was shown on a screen, but the evening was in the format of a new kind of ?seminar?. The tables were set out with wine and foods, and the speakers were on a long front table with broken bread, reminiscent of a wedding feast. The lighting created a wonderful atmosphere, and the viewing turned into a real society of people who were engaged in the subject.

The screens and lightings are being used again in two exhibitions from 21 ? 31 March by Katy Connor, a filmmaker and visual artist, and Helena Gough, a Birmingham based sound artist. In Aureole they?ve worked with a choreographer and underwater camera man to film a heavily pregnant dancer underwater, using Ultrasound scan material. The lights will be dimmed and sound will be pulsed out through the space, mimicking the experience of the foetus in the womb.

They?re exhibition Afterglow is equally fascinating. It takes Birmingham?s Spaghetti Junction as a starting point and represents the industrial and technological as organic. Sounds and images become motifs to be manipulated rhythmically and textually.

How well do you think VIVID engages with the local community?

Now we?ve extended our space, our capacity has increased from 55 to 220 and we can really publicise events and encourage local people to just turn up and enjoy the evening without the formal feel of a gallery, which some people find intimidating.

For all our exhibitions we have an evening or afternoon where the artist is ?in conversation?, and can bring the whole thing to life for visitors by talking informally about the work. Our new street reception means that people see us as they wander past and come in to have a look at what exhibitions are on. Our entrance used to be round the back, and you had to know where we were in order to find us.

What?s your vision for VIVID over the next few years?

Well one of the really great things has been EMARE (our European Media Artists in Residence Exchange). It?s basically a programme with three partners, VIVID for the UK, Werkleitz in Germany and IMPAKT in the Netherlands. People can apply from these countries to take a paid residential placement in a country not their own, and develop/show their artwork before very different kinds of audiences. All of the partners are based in local regeneration areas, rather than big capital cities.

I?m very interested in developing this and getting involved with a similar media organisation in Bulgaria, which has far more limited resources than England. I really want to get more artists from the West Midlands applying. Last year we were inundated with European applications, but received only two for the West Midlands. If we can overcome the inertia we can create wonderful opportunities for local artists.

How have you found the move from the jewellery quarter to Digbeth?

We were motivated to move by the prospect of getting a great space for good rates, and that?s what we have. We were also aware that Digbeth is being redeveloped and there will be exciting things going on over the next few years, so its great to have moved in early and know we will be a part of all that.

But Digbeth does need the attention. We are aware at the moment that we aren?t drawing as many people as we could on say Broad Street, because they don?t feel safe and sure of the streets and the signage isn?t there to help people find there way from the city centre or from Fazeley Street. It would also be great to have more local amenities and not have to face a long uphill walk to get a sandwich. We hope that the changes come soon to make it into the great place that it could be.

For a full listing of upcoming exhibitions, please visit www.vivid.org.uk

TOBIAS STERNBERG: EUROPEAN ARTIST IN RESIDENCE

On Wednesday 21^st March I walked into the artist?s workshop at VIVID and saw, with my untrained eye, only a large open space, with a single camera and a basketball suspended by a network of poles from the ceiling. But this seemingly odd set up is actually the site of creation for the work of Swedish artist Tobias Sternberg, who is just nearing the end of his placement as VIVID?s first European Media Artist in residence.

Sternberg?s work will not only create a series of short art films exploring the role of the camera, but also look at new techniques which reduce the cost of filmmaking by using technical equipment in new and innovative ways. The artist explained:

?My films will track the movements of the ball, which will mimic the movement of the planets in space. They have no actors, and so they become about examining the movements of the camera; the camera becomes the main protagonist.

?But perhaps the most exciting thing is the research. I am looking at new animation techniques, which would usually be produced digitally, but I am creating them manually, just with the camera. It is very intense because each fractional move has to be recorded, but it means that films can be made without large numbers of cameras and huge budgets. Many artists and filmmakers cannot do their work because they do not have these huge camera crews and budgets at their disposal.?

One thing Tobias is sure of is that he could not have achieved success in this complex project without VIVID:

?The support they have provided me with has been fantastic. They have such a large amount of knowledge about the technical needs of artists. With one man, one camera and a low budget it is hard to get things right first take, but Matt who works on Post Production has helped me to get my film right, without him I couldn?t have seen what was working or where I might have needed to try new things. There have been many technical issues and problems associated with using a camera in new ways, it has been challenging for everyone involved to make the equipment do new things that it is not designed for.?

So projects like VIVID enable to fulfil their aspirations of being an artist, but does Tobias still love the job he always dreamed of doing?

?Yes! You have to give up the company car and the security, but you wake up doing new things that you love. Not many people are that lucky?

Sternberg?s work will be exhibited at VIVID from 11-21 April 2007, with a special preview from 6-8 pm on Wednesday 11^th April. For information or enquiries, please contact info@vivid.org.uk, or call 0121 766 7876.

Thank you for your time.

ebns
www.ebns.co.uk