This is an unofficial 'plain English' version of the Big City Plan Work in Progress consultation document about how Birmingham (UK) should be developed over the next 20 years. For more information, see the About page.
To find your way around, use the links under 'Contents' below.
The official consultation closes at 23:59 on Friday 6th February. We closed comments on the same day at 12 noon here in order to get them to the council on time, in the format they want.
We sent a printed copy of all comments that were made before midnight on 4th Feb to the council by post (recorded delivery). We are currently processing comments made by 12 noon today (6th Feb) to email to them.
You can email us at hello@bigcitytalk.org.uk
The city would like to use more of its streets and spaces for the exhibition of works of art. What steps can the city, and the Big City Plan, take to bring this about?
We think that the city should use more of its streets and spaces to exhibit works of art. What can we do to make this happen?
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Provide infrastructure and support so that collaborations and cooperation can happen from the ground up: make it easier for people to put their ideas into practice. You don't have to come up with the ideas yourself.
You can look at examples from other countries such as Japan (http://www.npugh.co.uk/blog/art_and_regeneratio...) and Germany (http://www.kunsthof-dresden.de/) but please don't clone them and try and parachute them into place here. Look at how they became possible and then find out what the barriers are that prevent/restrict similar things from happening in Birmingham.
Key idea: it's not the city (ie the City Council, or whatever) using the streets, it's the people in the city – you can give them some tools and a helping hand!
- Invest in the buildings that the Council already owns, eg Curzon Street Station, brilliant spaces that have been abandoned for lack of political will.
- Get in contact with the companies that lease shops in the city centre, they'd be more than happy to get artists in on limited leases in shopspaces that are vacant. In a time of recession there are embarassing holes on the main high streets of Brum. If there was a council approved scheme for art plugging these gaps the city centre would become a much more interesting place to work and live in, look at the success of the small galleries in the Mailbox for adding a little soul to the place.
- Get people involved in art in the city, Artsfest is a brilliant event, The Big Picture was very successful. City residents are much more likely to enjoy a piece of art if they have some stake in it rather than it being forced down from above. If each Artsfest resulted in a large piece of lasting artwork that would stay in the city centre it would be a unifying force, too much of the public art in the city centre is unloved having no connection to the people at all