Bright Space Creative Careers Festival ran from 28-9 January 2011 at Midlands Arts Centre.

“A free festival for young people, teachers and parents that explores careers in the Creative Industries”

The Bright Space Creative Careers Festival was a two-day festival for young people aged 13-18 that showcased careers within the creative and cultural industries in an innovative and original way.  Young people played a central role in the design, development and delivery of the event, so as to ensure that their voice remained at the heart of the information, advice and guidance offered.

The Festival was in response to the curiosity shown by a significant number of young people through Bright Space’s Creative Partnerships School’s Programme, who expressed an interest in having a greater understanding of the pathways into the creative industries. 

 The creative and cultural sectors offer a multitude of opportunities for interesting careers but the pathways to them are often unclear with restricted access and a lack of advice given by careers advisors and parents/carers.  More information and support from the sectors could help ensure that young people, particularly those from less affluent backgrounds are able to make the most of these opportunities. The festival also offered the creative industries an opportunity to harness the talent of all those who are able and aspire to make a contribution regardless of their socio-economic or cultural backgrounds.

Up to 1000 young people attended Bright Space Creative Careers Festival with their teachers and parents, taking part in a wide range of practical workshops and discussion panels. They also had the opportunity to meet and talk to experts from across the creative industries.

The majority of the feedback implied an excited and inspired participant experience, which has helped develop aspirations and potential opportunities for young people and teachers from across the West Midlands. Attendees agreed that this event was essential, as they would not have had access to this information, advice and guidance elsewhere. The majority also agreed that they would attend future events, of a similar nature, if they were run again. This was particularly voiced by the young people.

Chloe, 18, volunteer said: ‘this event just demonstrates how massive and important the creative industries are to modern culture and society’ (Chloe, 18, Volunteer)

The Bright Space ‘Kindles’ bursary scheme funded through Creative Partnerships and Arts Council England, will offer up to 10 young people aged 16-19 the opportunity to shape their creative career.

Kindles is only open to you people living in Birmingham, Herefordshire and Worcestershire.

The Kindles bursary scheme will enable young people to complete a creative/cultural short course or a paid internship. With a bursary worth up to £1,000, successful applicants will also attend networking and additional career based opportunities.  In return, they will need to complete a weekly diary, highlighting their experiences and the learning gained.

To apply all applicants will need to do is complete the application form. 

Further information can also be found in the Frequently Asked Questions document. and on the flyer.

The deadline for applications is Wednesday 6 July 2011 – 5pm with interviews planned to take place on 18/19 July 2011 in Birmingham.

Deborah Kermode, Director at Bright Space said: ‘The  Kindles bursary scheme will be a fantastic opportunity for young people to get their first step into a creative career. At Bright Space we celebrate the aspirations of young people; we believe Kindles will go some way to making this a reality.’

For enquiries please contact Marcia Springer on 0121 772 6932 or email marcia@brightspace.org.uk.

I know you’ve been holding your breath in anticipation… There moment you;ve all been waiting for is here: The photos have arrived!!! Here’s a little selection… more to follow.

Thanks to Kate Green for her brilliant photography.

Audience at Marc Silk workshop

‘Fix Your Street’ Architecture with MADE

T-Shirt printing with Inkwell

DJ workshop with Carla Willis Brown

Photography Portfolio Reviews with Rhubarb Rhubarb

Rehearsing for Open Mic

Performance Poetry Workshops

Street Dance

So the Festival is OVER… and we’ve had a week to recover, catch up on sleep and reflect on how it all went!

First up, we hit our target of getting 1000 of you young creative people through the doors. So thumbs up to you all for tuning up and i hope you all had a great time and learned lots of interesting things about working in the Creative Industries! Chatting to people on the day it certainly seemed like everyone was really positive about the whole thing.

Thanks to all the creative organisations and workshop facilitators who made it all happen! I had a bit of a walk around and it seemed like there were some really interesting things going on and all sorts of creativity and interesting discussion!

One of my personal highlights was the MADE ‘Fix your street’ and Craftspace workshops in the theatre. Over the two days of the festival this space turned from a bunch of wooden blocks and brown cardboard houses to a brightly coloured town and thread ‘graffit’ wall. Looked amazing!

I also popped in on a couple of Panel sessions (Young Creatives and Music) where there were some interesting discussions going on… expertly hosted by our Project Platformers too!

After a hectic Friday, Saturday had a nice chilled out vibe of people just dropping in to see what was going on and picking up some tips along the way… I was manning the open mic stage all day and we saw some awesome performances… from dance to performance poetry to singer-songwriters to monologues you certainly couldnt have faulted the stage for variety or enthusiasm… was great too to see so many of you just getting up and having a go at something new!

Finally, a heads up to the exhibition space in the corridor by the cinema… We put some nice work up from 6 young local artists! If you missed it, it’s still there and will be for the rest of the month, so get yourselves down there and check it out.

I have to say, the festival was immense! There’s no way we would have pulled it off if it hadn’t been for our AMAZING team of volunteers! They did an absolutely brilliant job and we can’t thank them enough for all their hardwork!

Thanks also go to the Project Platformers…. you probably would have seen them at the festival taking lots of photos, interviewing people, blogging and twittering, etc… you can see what they have to say about the festival aswell as some nice photos from the event here.

Oops! It’s seems we put the wrong biography for Kate Hattley on the info sheet for the Visual Arts Panel last friday… Here’s the right one…

‘Kate Hattley graduated with a BA in Fine Arts from the University of Westminster, London, in 2009, and moved to Birmingham. She has been working for Eastside Projects since October 2009, firstly as a volunteer, then she became an employee early 2010. She started out as a gallery assistant, and then moved into an audience development role. She is also a practising artist and uses different forms of communication, interaction, and intervention as a way of engaging new audiences. She has worked in a variety of ways with a range of art spaces, and is keen to expand these experiences.’

Even though the festival was a TOTAL success I must say that it was an amazing opportunity to those who attended and epically towards me. Being active through the process from start to finish was the most fun I have had while working on a project so BIG as this one. I would like to thank Brightspace for allowing this idea, which my school and I came up with, to be actually finalised to the very extent that I was able to take part in planning the event. I was very anxious with only days until the actual event, because seeing the event come to life is a huge stage, due to weeks of planning and not seeing how things would turn out to be.

Once the Friday came I couldn’t have been so much prouder of the achievements of fellow members of Brightspace for their hard work and dedication. I must say ‘We rocked IT!!’ It was amazing to see people engaging and being participating in workshops. It was a great sight to see, because this event was for that reason, as it allows people to get an insight into a particular job.

Overall I’m glad that for the Friday and Saturday we definitely showed the creative industries in the best way possible.  With the inspiration of Genelle Aldred (BBC Midlands Weather Presenter) it really did open the festival and opened up people views on success.

Thanks to all for being part of this event and making this the best of the best. We definitely ‘Knocked the ball out of the Park’!

YES we DID

Amina

What a wicked two days! Here at Bright Space we are off to take a well earned nap but will be back next week with photos, films and feedback from the Bright Space Creative Careers Festival!

Wowza! Day one of the Bright Space Creative Careers Festival is done! Over 600 young people came to the festival today and worked with our brilliant creative industry experts from;

4Talent, The Rep, Creative Alliance, Project Pigeon, Made, Royal Shakespeare Company, Stan’s Cafe, Ikon, Writing West Midlands, Eastside Projects, Punch Records, Mohammed ‘Aerosol’ Ali, Creative Futures, Craftspace, Substrakt, Rare, Reel Access, Fashion Careers Clinic, Youth Dance England, DanceXchange, Fused Magazine, New Art Gallery Walsall and Birmingham Royal Ballet plus loads more!

Thank you to them and thanks to our hardworking volunteers and festival team!!!!

If you came to the Festival today – we hope that you got loads out of it!! Check Project Platform for some highlights and come again TOMORROW! Where we have a full programme that is all completely drop in! Take a looky here.

Friday’s programme is fully booked – but please come on Saturday, no need to book in advance all the details are here!

Writing West Midlands will be at Bright Space Creative Careers Festival on Friday 28^th and Saturday 29^th February talking about all things Creative Writing!

On Friday 28^th January 2011 join Writing west midlands for a practical Creative Writing Workshop or for a question and answer session with industry experts.

10.15 – 11.15am  / GET WRITING

Writer Philip Monks leads this rapid-fire creative writing workshop for anyone who has ever wanted to make their words count. Using creative writing games and challenges, Philip will help you get the best words down on paper in the best order.

Careers in Creative Writing include being a professional writer or spoken word performer through to working in publishing or promotion. Writers work in the world of books, e-books, television, radio, politics and even computer gaming. Our panellists are here to answer your questions about a life in writing. They include:

Jane Commane: poet, writer, publisher (Nine Arches Press)

Alan Mahar: novelist, publisher (Tindal Street Press)

Philip Monks: poet, dramatist, television producer

Matt Nunn, poet, writer, publisher (Nine Arches Press)

On Saturday 29^th January 2011 Writing West Midlands will be doing one-to-one sessions, performance poetry and starting their ‘Rock, Paper, Scissors’ creative writing project. Drop-in on the day and book at the Festival Reception Desk.  

11:00-12:00 / 1:2:1 CREATIVE WRITING SURGERIES 

Writing West Midlands are bringing a whole team of writers to offer you one to one advice. Bring along a short piece of writing or just ask some questions about how to make writing your creative career. The team will include:

Philip Monks: poet, dramatist, television producer

Nick Walker: performer, novelist, dramatist, television writer

Alan ‘Kurly’ McGeachie, performance poet

13:00-14:00 / PERFORMANCE POETRY

The performance poet ‘Kurly’ leads this workshop. No poetry experience is necessary; just and interest in getting on your feet and getting your voice heard.

2.30PM-4PM / ROCK PAPER SCISSORS

Rock, Paper, Scissors is a project for 16 – 19 year olds in the West Midlands who are interested in reading, writing and/or publishing. Working with writer Nick Walker and designer Ian Richards, Rock, Paper, Scissors wil be commissioning some new writing and finding adventurous ways of getting it noticed. Nick will do some of the writing – but not all – and with Ian we’ll be working out whether the words produced should be a book, a T shirt, an app or a postcard. Come along to this first Rock, Paper, Scissors session to find out more. Future sessions will be online. Join our Facebook page for more details.