Biting Back Symposium – creating in a time of austerity

Birmingham is addressing head on the challenges facing artists, creative producers and promoters in a time of austerity by bringing together some of the world’s foremost creative professionals to lead an international symposium in the city on March 21st 2011.
Produced by Birmingham City Council, in partnership with mac, the Midlands’ leading producing and presenting arts centre, and Sampad, the nationally renowned Birmingham-based development agency for South Asian arts, the one-day event offers a rare opportunity to hear from speakers with first-hand experience of working through economic scarcity, political or cultural opposition.

Some 200 delegates, ranging from artists, artistic directors, venue managers, producers, curators and funders are expected at the event to hear inspirational speakers share real examples of how they have had to deal with the challenges of creating work in times of severe austerity, and crucially, how they thrived in spite of it. Leading practitioners with experience from across the globe including Spain, Greece, South Africa and the UK have been brought together for the first time to share their case studies that prove that it is possible to build robust, successful strategies for creating work in such a challenging climate.

Speakers already confirmed for the event include:
Airen Berg, Artistic Director of Linz, European Capital of Culture in 2009 who has also recently worked in Istanbul.
Peter Jenkinson, who has over 20 years’ experience in the international field as a cultural broker. Peter was founding director of the Creative Partnerships programme, and led the initiation and delivery of the £21million world-class New Art Gallery, Walsall.
Christiana Galanopoulou, Artistic Director of the VideoDance Festival in Athens, Greece, which she founded in 2000. Christiana is also one of Europe’s leading curators of dance, film and visual arts.
Jordi Claramonte is co-author, with John Dewey, of Art as Experience. Jordi has worked with Medialab-Prado, Madrid and as part of La Tabacalera, an artists’ collective in Madrid.

Joining these international speakers will be a host of West-Midlands based artists, producers and curators who themselves have direct experience of making work in Birmingham with international partners. Biting Back aims to strip right back to basics, placing the issues firmly within the context of practitioners working here in the UK. The symposium will draw together this wealth of experience to explore how work with a solid local relevance can be created within a national and international context, highlighting how successful partnerships can create astounding excellence – whatever the economic climate – and significantly, discover what it takes to achieve real sustainability in the marketplace in the long term.

Biting Back is at mac, Cannon Hill Park, Birmingham, on Monday 21st March 2011, from 10am to 6pm. For further information, contact mac Sales & Information, visit biteback.org.uk or call 0121 446 3232 Delegate rates start at £15 for the day.