2022 a year round up of CBC

It has been an exciting year at Creative Black Country. As we respond to both opportunities and challenges the freelance team, and programme, has grown, we’ve supported a bumper year of co-created community projects and made lots of new partnerships.

It feels that post-COVID lockdowns people slowly began to feel more confident in bringing groups together again so thankfully we’ve seen lots of events and projects - still mainly outdoors and making great use of green spaces - which has been lovely to see.

Work by Tegen Kimbley of traders at Wolverhampton Market

We started 2022 with a real blast supporting over 30 artists and creatives to produce new works and projects across Wolverhampton for our large-scale (Arts Council England funded and Paycare supported) Offsite9 project. We helped to programme a dynamic array of art projects, events, performances, screenings, interventions, pop-ups, talks, activities and workshops at locations around the city.

From Dance to poetry, outdoor growing to city walking, photography to filmmaking and immersive storytelling to plant swapping - our amazing network of creatives responded to the themes of the touring British Art Show 9, which took place at Wolverhampton Art Gallery, with innovation and plenty of surprises.

Thousands of people joined in, took part, shared, had a go, viewed and enjoyed the programme that lasted four months. A publication and podcasts were also produced to help to share the work.

Offsite9 took us right up to May and as the jam-packed programme began to come to a close we launched more opportunities with our creative associates in Dudley. Working alongside CoLab Dudley and Dudley Metropolitan Borough Council (DMBC) we launched our Summer of Creativity Commissions. We also put a call out for our High Street Residency opportunity.

On the High Street portraits

As the weather warmed up in early June our community panel had come together to choose the commissions for the Summer of Creativity. Meanwhile our High Street Residency was getting underway in Halesowen. And the first of our inspirational 9 Words podcasts, by producer Bobby Tiwana with original soundtracks by Duncan Grimley, was released.

9 Words podcasts took words and themes from Offsite9

Of course there was a HUGE event happening over the Summer as the West Midlands geared up for the Commonwealth Games. We supported lots of great projects that were part of the Culture programme including the Our Commonwealth photography and film project in Sandwell, and Abundance where collective Spectra invited audiences to experience ‘a play space for all’, created as part of the Birmingham 2022 Festival at Dudley Road Hospital.

Image by Komlaish Achall presented as part of the Cultural Bridge project

The CBC team were lucky to receive funding to work with partners in Lörrach, Germany to take part in a new research and development programme called The Cultural Bridge. The photography project between Kulturvilla Nellie (based in Lörrach, Baden-Württemberg in Germany) and Creative Black Country looked at themes of identity, belonging and place.

We worked with Wolverhampton-based visual artist and street photographer Komlaish Achall, photographer Deborah Stone and our an photographer and Creative Advisor Nelson Douglas, as well as photographers in Germany, to produce a new series of work that was shown both in Lörrach and Wolverhampton. We are excited to announce that the team have been successful in a second round of funding to continue this work in 2023.

Ishtiaq Hussain presented a series of short Visual Vernacular performances based on the themes of the Commonwealth

As August arrived and the Commonwealth Games were in full swing d/Deaf artist Ishtiaq Hussain of Deafscope working with organisation Zebra UNO Productions came together to work on a set of short films that showcased Visual Vernacular performances and the themes of the Commonwealth.

The Walsall Water Argonaut was floated on Walsall’s Arboretum Lake

We also worked with artist Jason Wilsher-Mills who was commissioned to produce the ‘Walsall Water Argonaut,’ an inflatable 6.5m tall sculpture, that was co-designed with local disabled people, and floated on Walsall’s Arboretum Lake and The Wharf Canal Basin.

The Summer of Creativity programme was also well underway and included storytelling workshops, flag making, canal clean-ups, puppet making, singing in tunnels, creative map making, and subway crafting. Communities were invited to take part in a variety of creative projects and workshops in lots of the areas green spaces with the learning from the projects helping us to develop themes for a cultural strategy.

Rehearsing the Futures We Want - an invitation to join Dudley’s Cultural Collaborators

We have been supporting Dudley CVS to develop a Cultural Compact for Dudley. Lead by the team that are part of the innovative social lab CoLab Dudley, and supported by CBC’s Creative Associates, a network of Cultural Collaborators are helping to bring together a 100 year strategy that places people and communities at its heart. We are learning what a thriving cultural ecosystem could look like across the borough and the learning from the Summer of Creativity and Dudley Creates strands of work are feeding into the research.

Over 40 people attended the Creative Funding and Fish and Chips at the Black Country Living Museum

Creative Funding and Fish and Chips was on the agenda in October. Our Fundraising Manager, Yvonne, held our first funding network event in person which was kindly hosted by Black Country Living Museum in their fabulous new Visitors Centre. It was lovely to welcome around 40 people, representing creative groups and organisations from across the region.

We spent time discussing potential solutions to the current scene and our challenges ahead and how we might begin to build a healthy, thriving creative ecology in the region. Arts Fundraising Consultant Sarah Gee was at the helm to guide us and we were joined by funders from National Lottery Heritage Fund, National Lottery Community Fund, SCVO’s Small Groups Development Officer and The Creative Chain. And for anyone who has had the pleasure of visiting the museum you will know it is hard to leave without trying their delicious fish and chips - it was also a good way of making sure people came along!

It has been a difficult year in terms of dramatic climate issues and the increased cost of living. With Summer seeing us postponing events due to extreme heat and the Winter (and as we write this post) seeing temperatures dip sub-zero for over a week as fuel prices have risen significantly we have been thinking of ways to respond. Warm Hub spaces have popped up to support people to keep warm, with a mix of friendly company and food. To support these spaces, as well as creatives, we launched our Cosy Communities strand - helping to bring creativity to the warm spaces.

LOOKING FORWARD TO 2023

Looking forward to next year and the team will be working on projects that help us support communities to be resilient as challenges continue. From further fundraising support, another round of Creative Connection Commissions (opening in January 2023), the launch of our new Volunteering Futures initiative, and continuing our Creative Communities seed support, we’ll be working with people, communities and organisations to help support the region’s creative and cultural talent.

The continued support from our partners, voluntary service councils, Arts Council England, Paycare and the Black Country Living Museum helps to make our work happen, and importantly support artists, creatives, organisations and communities to take part in cultural activities across the entire Black Country.

Despite the challenges to come in 2023 we know how much participating in good quality art and creativity can have a positive benefit to people and their wellbeing. We look forward to working with you again (or for the first time) and supporting great creativity!

Wishing you a happy new year from the CBC team.