Old Streets, New Adventures

On the 5^th of January 2015 I began my involvement with the Balsall Heath Cultural Intermediation project and I couldn’t be joining at a more exciting time. The first two weeks on the project have been a whirlwind.

But first a little about myself. I grew up in Birmingham just a couple of miles west of Balsall Heath, where Ladywood borders on Edgbaston alongside the reservoir. After moving to the Black Country I returned to Birmingham to do my undergraduate and Masters degrees in Human Geography. Between 2007 and 2008 I worked in regional cultural policy-making in the West Midlands. In 2008 I returned to the University of Birmingham once more to complete a PhD which looked at belonging of Muslim communities within Birmingham. Part of my PhD research involved doing walking interviews with residents of Balsall Heath, so it’s quite satisfying to return here.

The Balsall Heath residents who are driving the cultural programme and developing ideas are an energetic, diverse and engaging group. From students to community workers and from seasoned residents to new migrants, what connects them is their passion and drive to deliver some cultural events which will give them and their neighbours experiences to build upon and remember.

Our group has split into three sub-groups, and each sub-group is now working on whittling down its ideas to a Top-3. Food festivals, debating societies, football tournaments, sewing classes, pottery lessons, coach trips, dancing lessons, poetry events and history exhibitions…faced with an array of ideas, there’s quite some negotiating to be done! Once decisions have been made as to what projects are to be taken forward, each group will be helped to deliver their ideas with the assistance of our cultural intermediaries.

The adventure continues…

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Ideas4Ordsall Update January 2015

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intermediaries, Ordsall

New year, new ideas, new developments.

Check out our Facebook group and Twitter @ideas4Ordsall

We are pleased to announce that the four cultural intermediaries working with us on this project have found a fabulous collection of people with ideas they want to develop. This stage of the project has taken six months to come into fruition so a moment’s reflection is worthwhile.

When I started on the project in May 2014, my brief was to put together a panel of people in Ordsall and provide funding for them to commission some artworks. As an anthropologist, I did my research by going into the Ordsall communities, chatting to people, visiting the cafes and cultural spots, asking questions and looking around me. I spent some time with ‘community researchers’ from Ordsall Community Arts who were looking into cultural activities in the area as part of the same project.

After a while it became obvious that people within the community had plenty of ideas, thank you very much, about what they wanted to happen in their community and what they really needed was some support and funding to help make them happen. So in October we asked the cultural intermediaries to gather these ideas people together into The Cohort (said with deep voice – the Apprentice was on TV at the time…).

Three months later, we are about to get together the members of The Cohort for the first time and find out about the ideas they are developing. I’m hearing whispers of a bee observation hive, bike co-op, dog walking, the longest washing line in Ordsall, a foraging game/app, WW1 uniforms display, even a whole festival.

And I’m the lucky researcher who gets to follow the development of these ideas and see how they take shape. I’m interested in what and how organisational structures support or obstruct the creative process in making these ideas happen. Watch this space…