Here’s a tweet I saw the other day, a sentiment we’ve all heard (and maybe said) before: “Wish Birmingham’s creatives would shout louder about the great stuff that goes on in the city”. There are lots of good things, but by definition there’s chaff with the wheat too — so are we really after “the creatives” to do the shouting? Wouldn’t we be better served with a batch of critical eyes, exposing the greatness? Or is the shouting the first stage of that, do people need to be aware of ‘something’ before they can pick the best bits? But do “the creatives” (a pointless generalisation, but I may as well stick with it as everyone else seems to) really want to let us know they’ve got a trumpet? Or, do they just want to impress the art scene, get a few quizzical looks from passers-by and be able to moan that “people from round here don’t care”? There’s always been that suspicion floating round my head; notice how all the excitement is round the ‘private view’ or the party (something I’ve never really understood) rather than the exhibition itself, think about how odd (and ad-hoc) opening times prohibit dropping...
