Image Credit: GreenHosting.co.uk

Do you have a green business idea you want to get off the ground? It’s a burgeoning sector – in fact, even our hosting here at Creative Nottingham is supplied by an environmentally sensitive business! So, if green is your thing, and business ideas are your bag, there are a series of events designed to help you with your clean-tech enterprise. Hosted over at Biocity, the sessions cover:

CleanTech Industry Sector

Business Models

IP & Company Law

Market Analysis

Raising Finance & Investment

Business Planning

Networking

Sales & Marketing

Meet the CleanTech Entrepreneur

Pitching Your Business

Photo: Phil Campbell for Media Camp http://mcnotts.weebly.com/index.html

So, it’s Monday morning and you’re trying to clear that groggy feeling following the Mansfield Road beer festival. There’s something you should be doing – work? Probably. But something else. Ah yes, it’s getting yourself a ticket for Media Camp  or, better still, booking yourself a slot to present at Media Camp 4.

For the unitiated, Media Camp is a one-day event for anyone wanting to share experiences of using digital and social media and to explore new technology, challenge understanding and look to the future. The Creative Nottingham iphone is champing at the bit to find out more about LoveFre.sh and I did hear a rumour that there’ll be a repeat performance of the last Notts Girl Geek Dinner talk about Facebook and privacy – well worth a watch if you can get there.

So, the details. Well, it takes place at Lace Market House, 10-5.30 and it’s free! But if you can’t make it all day then there are a range of tickets for just the morning or afternoon sessions. For full details pop over to the website or, if you can’t make it, then follow it on Twitter. What are you waiting for? An Alka Seltzer and a ticket for Media Camp. Job done.

In the run up to the Easter break there is the usual abundance of creative activity in Notts - to participate in or just relax and enjoy.  With a distinctly ethical theme – here’s a round-up of just a few of the exciting events taking place over the next week.

Art at Nottingham Castle

Exhibitions: Lost and Found, Remainders and Critical Cloth
Venue: Nottingham Castle Museum & Art Gallery
Date: from 16 April until 19 June 2011.

Three exciting new textile exhibitions feature works of both contemporary and historic context, developed to bring textiles back-to-life through creative perspectives on recycling, reinvention and repair. These critical reflections explore the scope of sustainability and rediscover the versatility of textiles both past and present.

Exhibition: Blockwerk Orchestra
Venue: Long Gallery, Nottingham Castle Museum & Art Gallery
Date: Until October 2011

Blockwerk Orchestra invites you to explore art through sound and music and to become part of a multi-sensory orchestra.

Creative individuals from Nottinghamshire Royal Society for the Blind have developed a contemporary display using the concept of making art accessible for all. Inspired by the British Art Show exhibition last year, a creative programme of events explore how gallery spaces work – and how its possible to permanently change the space to achieve this objective. 

Visit Nottingham City Council website for details.

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Exhibition: Huang Yong Ping
and Wael Shawky
Venue: Nottingham Contemporary
Date: from 15 April to 26 July 2011

Nottingham Contemporary’s next exhibition opens this Friday and one of the many works included is the fuselage of a US spy plane – a spectacular installation by artist Huang Yong Ping.

Huang, one of China’s leading artists, is showcasing his Bat Project (2004-05).  The extraordinary piece is in reference to the international incident in 2001 in which a Chinese fighter jet collided with a US surveillance plane.

See Nottingham Contemporary website for further details.

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Exhibition: Flash Bang
The venue: Trade Gallery
Date: 15th April – 29th April

Flash Bang comprises two works – Elisa Pone’s ‘I’m looking for something to believe in’, 2007 and Katie Davies’ ‘38th Parallel’, 2008.’

The exhibition explores the dynamics between the two pieces of work – their similarities and differences. It encourages the visitor to look for patterns which appear both incidentally and intentionally.

Private View – 14th April 8pm – 10pm (Following on from Nottingham Contemporary’s opening).
Trade Gallery is situated on Thoresby Street, (off Pennyfoot Street), NottinghamNG1 1AJ.
For more information visit the website.

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TRASHION it

Inspiring and inventive Fashion Design students from Nottingham Trent University have teamed up with Nottingham’s Goose Gate Oxfam shop in an exciting eco-conscious ‘Up-Cycling’ project.

The students have been given a selection of clothes that Oxfam can’t sell (due to their imperfections). Their mission, to transform these unwanted items into desirable, original garments, which will eventually be sold back into the store under the new brand name ‘Trashion’.

To showcase their designs, a fashion show and ‘up-cycling’ workshop event will be held at Escucha at 8pm on the 19th April.

This collaboration between Nottingham Trent University and Oxfam will give students the chance to have their unique designs sold in a commercial environment.

Support this very worthy cause, and bag yourself some individually crafted items to look good this spring and summer season.

The Oxfam D.I.Y shop is located in Nottingham’s Lace Market.

Protect your IP

Do you need to understand how to protect your Intellectual Property? Two free events are being held in the East Midlands to offer insight into the world of IP, and help you to understand the benefits of taking IP and IP management seriously. Hear the experiences of IP and innovation experts.

The events, which are part-funded by the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) also include IP surgeries, tailored to give personalised, practical advice for your business.

9.00am – 1.15pm on 12th May 2011 at the Hilton Hotel, Castle Donington
9.00am – 1.15pm on 17th May 2011 at the University of Northampton

To register log on to the ProspectIP website.

The annual Screenlit festival at Broadway kicks off in just over a week on Sunday, 27 March.  Films, talks and a writing masterclass, you may need to get your tickets early.  Some events are free!  Details and bookings via the Screenlit page on Broadway’s website.

Fancy leading workshops for teenagers?  City Arts Nottingham in partnership with Arts Partnership Nottinghamshire (APN) and Gedling Borough Council is

seeking to employ an artist/sculptor to plan and deliver a series of participatory art workshops in the Gedling Borough area.  The project is designed to enhance the overall emotional health and well-being of young people and their families

The workshops are planned for April to July for young people aged between 13 and 17.  There is a modest amount of money involved.   Many more details, and further links, are on the Design Factory website.  The application deadline is next Monday, 21 March. 

Long time readers of this blog will be aware that we often bring news of auditions in case your creativity moves you to theatre or film.  Notably the chance to be a zombie has often featured.   On Sunday, 20 March there is another opportunity to frighten the locals – the Arts Theatre is auditioning for The Full Monty.  You have to be able to sing as well, so make sure you understand all the requirements.  Full disclosure: I won’t be making a full disclosure.

That is as funny as you get from me today. Enjoy, Nottingham!

Image Credit: Phil Campbell, http://100milestories.com/

We tend to have a particular modus operandi here at Creative Nottingham. We look through blogs, tweets and emails to uncover the golden nuggets of Nottingham-based creative interest. It works, I hope – at the very least, we’ve been steadily growing since our inception in late 2009. Sometimes, though, that’s not enough; sometimes there are gems that you won’t find no matter how hard you search. That’s why, on occasion, it pays to turn things around.

We put a call out on Twitter yesterday afternoon. What are you doing that’s cool? We want to know what’s happening in and around Nottingham (and by Nottingham peeps), because if you tell us, we can tell you and everyone else, and as an added bonus, you don’t have to toot your own horn about it! It’s a win-win-win-win situation – you get news out (win), we get to get news out (win!), everyone knows your news (win!!) and of course, there’s no suggestion of shameless self-promotion (win!!! Well, except slightly here, with this very post, but we’re doing it for the good of the people, honest…)

So without further adieu, here’s a couple of items that we wouldn’t have known about if it wasn’t for this different approach:

Be Better

Have you heard of Life Clubs? Founded in 2004 by columnist and author Nina Grunfeld, they can be described as expert self-improvement sessions without the price tag to match. They’re 90-minute workshops on a variety of topics, and Nottingham’s first Life Club meeting is scheduled for this evening, Thursday 10th March! Tickets are £20 on the door, cheaper if you book online.

Spectacle

Backlit, the studio/gallery/project space, are launching their next exhibition Saturday 26th March. Hypnosis of the Spectacle is an attempt to capture those fleeting moments of reflection that bring you up sharply; the proverbial sleeper placed carefully across the rail tracks of your train of thought.  Runs through until Sunday 10th April.

Feat!

Nottingham’s digitician Phil Campbell has launched a blog, 100milestories, documenting his journey from Florida and Texas, en route to the South By Southwest festival. Ever willing to jump onto the cutting-edge bandwagon, Phil seems to be using a combination of macbook, personal wifi hotspot and bambuser to broadcast exactly what is happening on the long dusty road. Well worth keeping up with…

Eat!

Whilst we’re on blogs, Tom Clements has been in touch to publicise his own blog, a (some might say incongruous) mix of gastronomy and hip-hop. Mind you, that might not be so strange – they didn’t call hip-hop legend Biggie Smalls for nothing…

So, it all just goes to show – if you’re proud of something that’s happening out and about, let us know and we can publicise it for all to see…

Blue and purple Robin by local Lee J Haywood, www.flickr.com/photos/leehaywood/4363956098

It is getting lighter in the evenings now, and it will really be lighter on 18 Feb when Light Night returns.  The City Council has a summary of the events on their website, including electronic copies of the full brochure of activities. Will it be as good as last year?  Relieve 2010 on our blog post. If you take any pictures this year, why not send them into our Community site for all to see?

If you prefer your visual experience indoors, the Malt Cross Gallery has a new exhibition opening on 12 February: Double Lives: Duple Trials.  Curated by the visual artist, Diana Ali, they say

Double Lives;Duple Trials’ caters for a parallel existence whether it portrays deceiving acts or insatiable actions and can as subtle as a pen name or as exaggerated as the secret identity of a super hero; ultimately why are they adopted?

In either one of your lives you might be interested in the bursaries scheme being launched by Nottingham Writers’ Studio for 2011.  As well as some financial benefits, the scheme includes mentoring.  Details, and a link to the application form for your creative input, is on their website.  The deadline for applications is 23 February.

Once that application is in, you have another five days, until 28 February, to get your submissions in for the third Violated Short Film Festival, being run by OTT Productions:

the focus is Short Films, but we are interested in the art of free speech and interpretation; be that through watercolour, fashion or the medium of dance!

The full details are on their website, similar to the article in the excellent Left Lion which brought this to my attention.

Half our readers can stop here.  For the rest, you might be interested in the East Midlands Women in Business Conference 2011, on Tuesday, 8 March, at the East Midlands Conference Centre.  There are a number of speakers and workshops, although none on the Offside Rule (nor indeed, the Own Goal situation). It costs £95+VAT and there is an online booking form.

I’ve had Christmas songs orbiting my brain for these past two weeks. It’s great, but it’s also sending me slightly loopy – lucky, then, that Christmas comes but once a year!*

In the meantime, I’m going to distract myself with some stuff you can really get your teeth into – and may I suggest that you might like to too, dear reader?

Firstly we have a couple of items to mark off on your calendar for 2011.

The Broadway are launching their Digital Innovation project, seeking proposals in the areas of digital culture and emerging artistic practices that engage with technology. From their press release:

WHAT

We’re looking for innovative proposals for new work that reflects the current concerns for practitioners working in this area. We are keen to develop new work focused around emerging hybrid practice in digital culture and media arts. The project has been funded by Arts Council England, as part of wider investment in digital development to explore how digital media technologies are affecting the creation, distribution and consumption of the arts.

Broadway has invited associate thinkers, who are highly regarded in this field to each develop a speculative text about the possibilities for four distinct areas of current practice.

Applicants are encouraged to write their proposals in response to, but not limited to the below areas of focus:

• Co creation / Online Space
• Pervasive Gaming / Urban Screens
• Re-imaging Redundant Systems
• Live Cinema / 3D

Please read the guidelines for more information.

WHEN

The programme will take place across the East Midlands from February- June 2011. Running alongside the commissioned projects will be a support programme, which will include Digital Forums, Mentoring and Workshops.

WHO

The call for proposals is open to emerging or established practitioners working in any of the creative industries, including (but not exclusively) new media, technology, film/video, the arts (music, literature, dance, drama, visual arts etc) and design (graphic, 3D, architecture, fashion, interaction).

Your proposal should demonstrate a clear interest in and commitment to delivering a research project which demonstrates new thinking about digital innovation.

We welcome applications from individuals, collaborators, groups and organisations from all sectors of the community. The lead practitioner must be based in the East Midlands region.

Occasionally a link drops into our inbox which uncovers a deep vein of valuable material, ready to be mined and smelted into inspirational gold. This week, that linky-nugget takes us over to the Because It’s Good website, focus of a community of digital communicators in the charity sector. They post a couple of articles a week, and the most recent article, ‘Designing Backwards – Putting Your Users First’, links neatly into the most recent Nott Tuesday event, which covered the lean startup methodology. In each case, we are challenged to shift our focus, away from content or product, and towards the end user. What’s the point, the thinking goes, in designing a revolutionary new product or having a hugely important campaign, if no-one engages with it? Food for thought indeed…

Finally, if you’re getting a little anxious over neglecting your present-buying duties, the ever-dependable Nottingham Craft Mafia have your back, with not one, but two events over the next few days. Tonight at the design circus in West Bridgford, you can enjoy mince pies and mulled wine whilst shopping ’til late, and Saturday sees the Hopkinson Gallery hosting the third and final Christmas Craft and Vintage Fair. Phew.

*The exception, of course, being any of those poor souls working for the numerous ‘Christmas!!’ marquees that have sprung up around the country. These enormous big-tops host corporate Chirstmas party evenings that you may yourself be familiar with, usually starting around mid-November. It’s a novelty attending them as a punter, but next time you set foot inside one of these carefully orchestrated Winter Wonderlands, spare a thought for the staff; damned as they are to ring out Christmas every evening for 40+ evenings…

Photo by Hatch as featured in Nottingham Visual Arts

A great deal is said about creativity. As our latest guest blogger, Scott Sherrard, has been sharing with us, a lot of it is down to where you are - and where you choose to look. So keep an eye out for tomorrow’s official launch of The Tribe which will hold regular competitions to inspire different aspects of creativity. The first one starts next week with a first prize of £10,000!

“The Tribe’s mission is to allow creative people; Artists, Musicians and designers to share their ideas and creations and turn them into a commercial reality. The concept is to bringing together innovators, early adopters and investors to allow a unique opportunity for anybody to submit their ideas and gain guidance and security.  Think of it as an online Dragons Den without the judgement and yelling!”

If you enjoy a hands on approach to being creative, you may be interested in what’s going on at the Derbyshire Eco Centre. If you book on to one of their sustainable skills courses before Friday 24 September or you commit to travelling by public or shared transport, you get a 10% discount on the fees! You can learn all kinds of new green skills in construction, new technologies, woodland management, coppice crafts, textiles and jewellery.

Talking of eco-creativity, congratulations to ex-Nottingham Trent student Luke Thomas. He’s just won a rather prestigious Innovation in Development award for his revolutionary recyclable container, Chameleon!  The city’s innovation breakthroughs are plural this week with the news that the Cornerhouse is to have the UK’s first smartphone app for a leisure complex. Creativity can make you achieve great things (by your own standards or the world’s).   Now one man’s focus has just made Nottingham home to what is officially the world’s largest collection of smurfs. Papa Smurf must be so proud.

This photo makes me smile - http://beestonblog.blogspot.com/

So summer’s over.   This Thursday (16 September) you can hear about How to be happy – strategies for making a good living.  More details and how to book are available on the Creative Greenhouse website. Another cheering gathering (for those who meet the obvious entry criteria) is the recently returned Geek Girls Dinner. Book your place now for next Monday’s get together.  Yet another reason to smile is the return of Nottingham Comedy Festival next week. Grab your tickets now to ensure merriment! That’s in addition to Glee, Nottingham’s brand new £1m comedy club. There’s good news on a more serious note, too. Not only is a £6.5m research centre to develop low carbon technologies due to be built in Nottingham, but the place has just been named as England’s least car dependent city! Time to go for a nice walk…in the rain.