SHOUT ABOUT BRUM BIRMINGHAM
A R T & C U LT U R E COLLECTIVE
Are you an individual or group working in art and culture in Birmingham + the West Midlands?
I T ’ S T I M E T O # S H O U TA B O U T B R U M
WHAT IS SHOUT ABOUT BRUM? Shout About Brum is an emerging Art & Culture collective for Birmingham + The West Midlands. The collective is the brainchild of The Icing Agency + began as a one off ‘Welcome Party’ at Mac Birmingham in March to bring our creative community together to discuss how we could shout louder about culture. With a huge attendance and demand for more events of it’s kind, young creatives & Icing Agency members Olivia Brown + Joe Hale decided to expand the event into a collective of every individual, organization, group, project, business and/or charity working or shouting about art and culture in the West Midlands. Our purpose; to celebrate and improve Birmingham’s art scene & rebrand the city a cultural hotspot.
H OW W I L L W E S H O U T ?
Promote all things Brum Culture Source inspiration from other cities to improve our culture scene Develop ideas collectively to rebrand Birmingham a cultural hotspot
WHE RE WILL WE SHOUT?
Cultural Networking Events Giant Brainstorming Sessions Action Planning Meetings Group Implementation Challenges
5 PRESSING QUESTIONS FOR B I R MI NG HA MS A RT S C E NE
We challenged 25 Brum creatives to answer 5 pressing questions on the successes & flaws of Birmingham’s current art & culture scene. ① Do you feel there are any major flaws in the way we market art and culture in Birmingham? ② What do you admire about how other cities promote their art and culture? ③ How can organizations in the city work together to better promote art and culture? ④ What are we already doing well as a city and how can we improve on this? ⑤ What is the future of Birmingham’s creative identity? Their answers pointed to organization, marketing and public engagement as problem areas. Are you ready to discover the solutions?
ARE WE ORGANISED ENOUGH? #BrumCreativesThink Birmingham’s culture scene lacks cohesion and collaboration Other cities… Develop a collective vision
“Manchester views culture as part of its growth strategy”
Make Group Investments
“Berlin’s large creative community invest in acquiring spaces”
Other cities…
No central place for promoting the arts Lots of separate cultural directories competing for the same audience • Some cultural organizations don’t know each other • Lack of collaboration and joined thinking • Poor visibility of niche arts and culture compared to big commercial events • Unequal focus on cultural growth in the city centre & not other areas. • Don’t share resources • Wasted investment with disuse of services Filter.me • Too much focus on making something new as opposed to supporting what already works. • •
Establish connectivity through zones
Cultural map of Shoreditch, London
Have an official go-to place for culture
Collaboratively curate giant culture experiences unique to Birmingham Monthly Cultural Networking Events For arts and culture organisations across the West Midlands to meet in a physical space • Build relationships • Learn about each other’s projects • Identify areas for collaboration
Cross promotion Have commercial and niche arts groups promote each other’s events
Open-source platform for West Midland’s creative community. • Share resources • Contact lists • Research • Tried and tested marketing methods
# H OW TO C R E AT E A N O RG A N I S E D BRUM
Organize group cultural investments to expand things that already work • Digbeth First Friday • City of Colours Festival
Collaborative Meetings Use giant cultural work spaces such as Hub Birmingham to hold the following meetings that every cultural org in the city attends together • Brainstorming sessions • Action Planning • Implementation meetings
What’s On app • Official source of things to do in the city. • Draw’s listings of every art and cultural event happening in Birmingham from across the web • All cultural organisations contribute to creating and updating Establish a cultural agreement to make working together integral to everyday tasks for art and cultural organisations across the west midlands.
DO WE MARKET OUR CITY WELL? #BrumCreativesThink There are a lot of cultural things on offer in Brum but they are not marketed enough Other cities…
Other cities…
Shout proudly about themselves
Develop a unique city identity
• • •
Beatles Museum, Liverpool
• • • • • •
Utilize their landscape
• •
Eastside Gallery, Berlin
Too reserved Birmingham fear’s pretension Self-deprecating attitude towards our city harms us Fail to argue against insults Birmingham brand is poor Our city identity is unclear Dated marketing methods Only big names are seen outside of the city We don’t know who important figures in Birmingham are Damaged national perception Feeling of being 2 nd best to London
Light switch on campaign, Manchester
Develop major city events
Fringe Festival, Edinburgh
Birmingham Walk of Knowledge Install heritage facts on pavements across the city centre for a natural discovery of our cities history.
Physical Shout Spaces Use billboards + bus shelter ad spaces to shout about brum • Promote mainstream & niche art & cultural events • Showcase Birmingham artists work • People doing great things in the city across all sectors
Collaborate on marketing + sharing best practice with other cities
Colour Coding Assign colors to art and cultural destinations
Champion Scheme Develop a champion scheme to acknowledge famous brummies and individuals who are doing great things in our city
Platforms for local talent Play up-coming Birmingham musicians songs in shops to build an awareness of local talent.
# H OW TO MAKE CITY MARKETING EXCITING
Birmingham Broadcast Screen a weekly ‘Brummie News’ broadcast on New Street’s Ocean Billboard • News presenters with Brummy accents • Self-deprecating brummy humor • Positve + celebratory news for our city • Summary of things to do that week • Creatives from all sectors contributing content
Re-brand ourselves a young, city full of ethnic diversity & acceptance Use PR stunts to change national perceptions of Birmingham
Carry out city-wide billboard campaigns to boast about our latest achievements & champion individuals and ventures putting our city on the map.
Cross promotion of events between commercial and niche arts
ARE WE ENGAGING THE PUBLIC? #BrumCreativesThink Art isn’t open and accessible enough to the general public Other cities…
Other cities… Project art in a public space
• • • • • • •
Festival of Lights, Lyon, France
Transform unusual spaces
The Underbelly – Secret Gallery in Undergound Tunnels - Paris
• •
Absence of welcoming signage for arts venues Not enough art in physical spaces Expectation for people to come to art, instead of bringing art to the people. Snotty galleries Little habit for looking for things to do Lack of pride for art and culture Lack of education on how to use cultural venues Failing to engage enough young people Art in galleries fails to represent the appearance or experiences of the multitude of ethnic races in Birmingham
Offer street Market cultures
Camden Street Market, London
Use vacant shops for art projects
Supply young people with the contacts + opportunities to occupy space around the city to express themselves creatively
Place eye-catching, friendly welcome signs and calls to action outside every cultural venue to increase discovery and exploration.
# H OW TO
Campaign for all vacant shops to be given immediately to arts & culture organisations to use as a part time space for any project of their choosing.
M A K E A RT F O R A L L
Establish an Art strip along New Street where buskers, musicians, dancers, spoken word artists, live painting, grafiti, free workshops and arts markets operate throughout the day
Fill empty wall spaces around the city with work of Birmingham artists • Murals of famous brummies • Illustrations of our city history • Art capturing Brum’s changing landscape
GET INVOLVED! This presentation is the first step in establishing an open source idea-sharing culture for Birmingham + The West Midland’s Art & Culture Scene and it’s time for you to get involved. In the coming months we will be launching our second event; a mass brainstorming session. We aim to house 1 representative from every art & culture organisation in the region to further debate & generate ideas for the future of Brum culture.
Here is how you can help us spread our vision: •
Share this presentation with your networks
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Follow us on twitter @shoutaboutbrum
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Share your thoughts on our presentation under the Twitter hashtag #ShoutAboutBrum
Should you have any queries please contact us at shoutaboutbrum@gmail.com
We look forward to you connecting with us for collaboration, cohesion + change.
Thank you
SHOUT ABOUT BRUM Olivia Brown + Joe Hale