CBC 2019 round up

It’s been another busy and exciting year here at CBC - we’ve had a comedy festival, been part of Sandwell’s first photography festival, filmed a Milliner who makes hats for the queen, danced our way around the MELA, supported stories of the Black Country, expanded in to Dudley and had a baby!

The Funny Things Joke Box is launched in January at the Black Country Chamber of Commerce

We started the year by launching Funny Things 2019 - during the dark month of January we went BRIGHT and launched our Joke Box with the help of the Black Country Chamber of Commerce.

CBC’s Rosalind & Liam head to Dortmund for the N.I.C.E. awards

During 2018 our 100 Masters project was shortlisted for a N.I.C.E. award. 8 projects were selected for the shortlist and presented at the award ceremony during January in Dortmund. Liam and Rosalind headed over to the city to present the project to the judging panel. Unfortunately we didn’t quite make the cut but it was great to be shortlisted out of 55 projects across 19 countries.

Images by Laura Dicken

Straight in to February for more Funny Things this time we held interviews for our commissioned artists. We had some brilliant people apply to bring their acts to Wolverhampton and we were lucky to choose three great acts; The Pigeon Pals, Sculptor Luke Perry and Laurel & Hardy.

Curator Iona Fergusson with Girl Gaze photographers

As May approached we were delighted to work with our friends over at Multistory for their inaugral BLAST! Photo Festival. We showcased the work of our four Girl Gaze photographers; Andrea Fernandes and Uzma Mohsin flew in from India while Jocelyn Allen traveled down from Liverpool and Jennifer Pattison up from London.

Bringing together newly-commissioned work by the four artists, the exhibition explores diverse themes regarding gender, identity, patriarchy, tradition, culture, memory, place, belonging and difference that shape the lives of women in both countries.

Girl Gaze: Journeys Through the Punjab and Black Country was first exhibited in India before premiering in the UK at Blast!

Funny Things Creative Producer with Ben ‘Pen’ Jones

During May we also visited the Black Country Business Festival with our (very) colourful Funny Things Stall. As part of the festival in Wolverhampton we invited people to join us for a talk about applying for project grants with the arts council.

With Funny Things in just a couple of months time we asked super photographer Laura Dicken to help us with some portraits of our commissioned artists (see above).

CBC’s Rosalind filming at Rachel’s studio in London

In June team 100 Masters popped on the early train to London for a visit to the atelier of milliner Rachel Trevor-Morgan. Originally from Stourbridge, award-winning milliner Rachel is a customer favourite at top fashion retailers, as well as milliner to the Queen.

The Rajasthan Heritage Brass Band - image by Express & Star

July means MELA at CBC - a 2 day extravaganza of dance, food, music and creativity. This year was our biggest Arts Village to date taking over a section of Victoria Park in Smethwick.

People came along to help make a beautiful peacock mosaic with Claire, watched the amazing artwork unfold by Joe Miles (pictured above), produced lovely prints, made modroc sculptures, tried their hand at Indian chumki making, and even got 3D cloned and printed.

We had contemporary and traditional dance styles as well as beautiful music from The Rajasthan Heritage Brass Band (supported by Birmingham Hippodrome).

We also started to ramp up our work on new project Finding Our Funny Roots - a project supported by National Heritage Lottery. Dave Pitt of Poets, Prattlers, and Pandemonialists produced a set of vlogs to share the Funny Roots journey and how Dave, Emma Purshouse and Steve Pottinger were working with local communities to unearth stories about Black Country Humour.

Commission by Eye Candy for Paint Dudley - a project supported by CBC

August was a BIG month for CBC - it’s when we announced our much-awaited expansion in to DUDLEY. It is something the team have been hoping would happen for a long time now and we were delighted with the news that from 2020 we will be introducing a new 3-year programme to the town.

We headed to Walsall for a Creative Communities get together hosted by one of our groups One Love at their recently opened Reflections Coffee Shop.

Amahra Spence being interviewed by BBC’s Satnam Rana at Tropycal Spice

Hot on the heels of Black Country Touring’s performances of ‘Back In 10’ at the Black Country Living Museum, a team of theatre makers, musicians and spoken-word artists were busy creating contemporary performances during September that took place in cafes, hairdressers and other local shops in West Bromwich and Wolverhampton that were inspired by the staff and their local customers.

At the end of the month we had news that our Creative Director, Parminder, had given birth to a healthy baby girl. As a result we welcomed Jenny Smith as interim Creative Director (yes Jenny was busy - also producing Funny Things).

The Pigeon Pals head out on the Midland Metro to meet some new friends

Meanwhile our Pigeon Pals (Hannah and Olivia) and Laurel & Hardy (Adam & Jacob) had been out and about visiting people around Wolverhampton to help develop their new shows for Funny Things.

Luke Perry had been gathering funny Black Country tales to get inspiration for his sculpture which was beginning to take shape - although we had no idea quite what he was planning.

Sculptor Luke Perry at the official launch of Funny Things

17th October saw the official launch of Funny Things at the Mander Centre and Wolverhampton Art Gallery. Luke Perry unveiled The Anthinaerium - a beautifully crafted automata telling funny stories of the Black Country through moving parts and silly characters.

We also had the preview show of Finding Our Funny Roots at the Art Gallery.

Funny Things performers on the first silly Saturday of the festival

Funny Things took place at the end of October and the weather was terrible - so bad infact that wehad to take ALL of our lovely, colourful and funny acts indoors. However it certainly didn’t spoil the fun and we had thousands of people turn up to watch.

Here's a beautiful snippet of what we got up to by the talented Paul Stringer who captured the fun perfectly.

Urban Hax showcase the robot bartender at our Open Access get together

At the end of November we held our Winter Warmer - an event at Light House to meet up with our Open Access and Creative Community Groups. We invited Urban Hax to come along and show us their recent invention - the Robot Bartender. We made mocktails with artificial intelligence deciding our tipple for us.

The caring cooks prepare food for their videos

Supported by Creative Black Country through our Creative Communities strand and funded by the People’s Postcode Lottery, The Caring Cooks project, started by Sandwell Advocacy, aims to help young people and families on low incomes to develop food preparation skills and create healthy affordable meals. At the start of December they launched their videos via YouTube to share with people.

And what for 2020?
Well the team have been really busy this year reveiwing our programme and you’ll see a few changes happening next year. We’ll be starting our work in Dudley with 2 new members of staff - which we are very excited about, and we’ll be continuing our work with Finding Our Funny Roots (along with a celebration event taking place in May).
We’ll be getting out and about to meet up with creatives who are keen to work in Dudley, Sandwell, Walsall and Wolverhampton and will have dates for those very soon.
Expect to see us at the Black Country Business Festival and Sandwell & Birmingham MELA again in 2020.

For now keep an eye out on Facebook and Twitter - where we share all our events and news.