finding the creative needles in birmingham’s haystack

Birmingham. ‘The Creative City’. Except, creativity doesn’t come easily when the city turns out to be a bunch of loose ends. As someone who’s not originally from the city, this is something that has perplexed me for the past decade.

Nothing seems effortless. It’s all a bit too corporate, and this makes it feel uneasy. I’m often frustrated by the stamp of the council’s logo on everything creative that is sanctioned. Whenever I see that logo, there’s a switch that flips in my mind, and (probably unfairly) signals to me: “Hmmm, probably a bit dull. Move along.”.

The problem with this disjointed corporate approach is that the ‘unsanctioned’ is overlooked; the sublimely rich undertone of creativity in the everyday meandering of a wide variety of local talent, the ’secret’ Birmingham that sits in pockets and nooks of the urban sprawl. The very lifeblood to sluice through the veins and drive the ambience. Seemingly ignored, leaving entities such as Created in Birmingham to do the graft. Strangled by a lacklustre approach to wayfinding and other stifling tactics – think noise abatement orders or compulsory purchase orders slapped on longstanding and non-carbon-copy music venues for a couple of examples.

The outcome of the City Council’s creative policy legacy is that becoming a truly creative city, one that’s recognisable as such on a national and global scale, is dictatorial rather than evolutional. It’s plastic. It screams nothing in particular. It mutters “Oh, there’s some stuff going on somewhere. But, hey – don’t worry about that, come to the Bullring!”.

I started this post a couple of days ago when I was revelling in a ranty mood. I was about to abandon it when I saw something that made my ears prick up and think “Holy shit! At last – someone’s actually getting this!”. At last – someone stripping the problem down to basic levels and starting to try and tackle it from there. Read Stef Lewandowski’s rather inspiring Creativity Audit for the Eureka moment.

You can put in all the infrastructure you like to encourage creative entities to migrate inwards. But what cannot be done is to mimic or manufacture an atmosphere – an attitude – that really cements the notion. This has to be tackled from different fronts, not least the ability to be clear about what’s going on and where to go. Another important aspect is for the council to work with creatives and not feel the need to put their fricking logo on everything they do choose to collaborate on. The creative underworld needs to breathe in the air with their own lungs. The council’s role is to make sure that the air they need’s good.