Out of Town
Birmingham is a big city, so it was great to see culture from all corners represented in the Big Culture Blog. While the City Centre might play host to the big events at the NIA or outdoors in spaces like Victoria Square, there are people doing it for themselves right across the city.
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Up to the north of the city in Streetly Jon Hickman spoke to Vanessa & Richard about how the New Streetly Youth Orchestra helps kids find a musical opportunity, and feed into other groups around Birmingham.
Birmingham has great music venues out of the centre too, like the Hare and Hounds in Kings Heath or Tower of Song in King's Norton, but it wasn't all loud noise and dancing. The were nice juxtapostions of the past and present such as Manjeet Dhillon visiting Mathew Boulton's Soho House and the Vaisakhi Festival in Handsworth Park – Adrian Johnson, Poet Laureate for Birmingham, created his own by visiting sites like Blakesley Hall:
But if the contributions to the blog proved anything, it's that culture happens everywhere — allotments can be the heart of a community. This is Court Lane in Erdington.
Locally produced food was a theme too, Cllr Martin Mullaney was one of many to visit Moseley Farmer's Market on Saturday morning:
"For me, it is a monthly ritual – the food is great and it is a community event. I meet so many people that I may not see from month to month."
Schools and libraries are centres of culture too, a series of posts about events at Colmore Junior, Infant & Nursery were accompanied by some great pictures:
as would have been Ena Harding's post from Kents Moat Library, where she is learning to operate a computer. And it will be when she's had more practise:" I am an eighty-year old, with four children and seven grandchildren. They all live in the UK, but a long way off, so e-mails are useful and fun…I'd like to send a picture of us all, studying and practicing, but I'm still learning!"
You can see even more of Birmingham's favourite culture spots on the City of Culture website as part of the 'Big Conversation'.





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