Welcome to 2015!
Hello lovely people,
We’re now finally out of our festive slumber! Hurrah! Fully caffeinated up (that 2 coffee a day rule has already jumped out of the window) and raring to go. We’re already feeling like 2015 is going to pretty epic. Why? Because we’re going to make it epic. There’s just no other option.
So what’s cooking in the Beatfreeks lab?!
1) A restructure — after careful consideration, we’ve had a little rejiggle around to match our way of working and our expanding team and we’re proud to announce now we are now Beatfreeks Arts and Beatfreeks Consulting! *spins on head*
BF Arts is our creative development and training for young people (we like to think of it as arts, education and activism). www.beatfreeks.com
BF Consulting is our bespoke marketing and training services for organisations. We co-create cool stuff with businesses and young people on a commissioned basis. www.beatfreeksconsulting.com
2) We’re going to start blogging — eek! We’ll be offering pragmatic, to-the-point resources for young creatives and artists (how to boost creativity, how to effectively collaborate, how to market yourself as an artist).
Our experts will also be creating resources for organisations (5 slang terms you might not know, where do young people hang out, top design tips for creating a youth-friendly campaign).
3) Big Festivals — Equinox, Social Exchange, Summer Fiesta
Equinox: a community mixed media festival (film, photo, design) across ending in West Midlands Mixed Media Awards on Friday 20th March 7pm.
16th — 20th March 2015 | various locations
Social Exchange: a creative social action and enterprise festival creating by young innovators, for young innovators. Stalls, food, performers, workshops, talks.
9th April | mac birmingham | 3–8pm
Summer Fiestaval: a summer festival meets carnival meets fiesta! Vibes, food, music, poetry, dance, DJs, live visuals. Epic.
Date and location TBC.
4) New Homes!
We’re ridiculously lucky — we started off 18 months ago in coffee shops and living off the generosity of our partners and friends. We then got offered a free space in Paradise Circus (RIP) through the Cabinet Office’s Space for Growth scheme. I’m now writing this from my house, with 6 other spritely creatives camped around my kitchen and living room fighting for plugs and bandwith.
2015 sees us embark on a new chapter in the adventure. We’re helping build the epic community at Impact Hub Birmingham. A global network of homes for changemakers — sounds spot on! See their Epic Brum campaign here. We’ve also been offered a place on the E-Spark programme meaning we’ll have a spot at Natwest, St Philips Place (or Pigeon Park as you might know it).
5) The family is growing! New roles and new people — two very exciting prospects. From our new Regional Development Manager role which is open now for submissions, to our restructured board, to our newly formed Producers Group (8 young creative producers who will be producing events with us over the next year) to our search for Student Champions (university ambassadors). We love people — it’s why we do what we do!
Beatfreeks is a social enterprise including sub-brands Beatfreeks Arts and Beatfreeks Consulting. Our mission is to develop people and spaces through creativity and our values are co-creation, risk & innovation, change, integrity and love.
@beatfreeks
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