Get the Party Started

Never one to turn down the offer of a 4 year celebration, we at Creative Republic WM were keen to know more about the Cultural Olympiad and how it could benefit us all. So on Thursday 15th May 2008 6-8pm, Creative Republic WM, with support from Birmingham Hippodrome, hosted an informal evening with Paul Kaynes, the Regional Creative Programmer for the Cultural Olympiad. The purpose of the evening was to enable the Region’s Creatives to find out how to get involved in the upcoming 4 year carnival of Culture and Creativity, which will be launched over the weekend of the 26th September, as part of the plans for the London 2012.

Paul Kaynes said “This 4 year programme of cultural activity is an opportunity for us in the West Midlands to demonstrate the creative depth of Birmingham and the region. All of us working in the sector know just how dynamic and innovative the sector is. By making use of that creativity and the fact that Birmingham in particular is such a young city, we have a golden opportunity to make a difference to the way people think about the West Midlands and provide a programme which engages people who live here.“

As well as discussing the vibrant cultural and creative programmes that the region has to offer and feeding back on the excellent work that has already begun to happen, Paul was keen to tackle the big issues, pertinent to the 47 Creatives who attended. These ranged from; how future creative projects could align themselves with the Olympiad, to what, if any were the barriers to the projects that were being delivered and how partnerships could be supported by the Olympiad.

After the presentation and a light hearted Q&A session the chat moved on to the Hippodrome bar, where the audience were able to bend Paul’s ear about the realities of getting involved and discuss further how the Olympiad could support them.

Helga Henry, chairman of Creative Republic, said "I was delighted that Paul agreed to kick off our more formal strand of events with an introduction to the Cultural Olympiad. I got feedback from participants who didn't realize that the Olympiad started this year (directly after hand-over) and did not know about the many tendering opportunities available to creatives throughout the UK. This is absolutely the type of results we wanted from this initiative."

Overall it was a great event, very open and informative and it definitely gave Paul and some of our Regions’ Creatives, something to think about as the initiative is driven forward. After all if there’s a party to be had, we all want in, right?