University of Birmingham’s Culture Forward network develops regional cultural and creative talent

The recent Culture Forward network event, hosted by B:Music at Symphony Hall, brought together different partners from the network to talk to University of Birmingham postgraduate students about their work and their sectors as a whole. Also featured were some fascinating presentations about new initiatives from the University, particularly the launch of their pioneering creative and culture-based courses, as well as more information on the new initiative CreaTech Frontiers , which will fund projects that utilise technology to advance and inspire in the arts and culture fields. Birmingham postgraduate students also had the chance to learn about paid internships and benefit from the wealth of knowledge of our own Careers Network.

So many wonderful cultural partners came to support our postgraduate students on this day. These included representatives from Culture Central, Birmingham Royal Ballet, Zawiya Trust, Birmingham Botanical Gardens, and European's Welfare Association. Partners from four different sectors – combined arts; community, education, and young people; heritage and collections, and culturally-adjacent industries; and the performing arts – came ready to impart their knowledge to our students.

The advice was varied, helpful, and specific to each attendee but some key threads emerged. Students were encouraged to get stuck in and not be afraid to get their hands dirty in any work available in the same industry. Being present was something that many of our cultural partners stressed as being important, yet many also wished to emphasise the value of saying no. Integrity is one of the most important values one can have and one’s career will not go in the desired direction if this integrity is lost. There was also a key conversation about the importance of transferable skills: many partners were keen to reassure students that they had not pigeonholed themselves into one discipline for the rest of their careers. Finally, and the most repeated of all the advice on the day, was the call to reach out. The arts and culture sectors are full of people who care about their work, if you care too, there is nothing to be lost, and very much to be gained, from dropping somebody a quick email – who knows, it could be life-changing.

Culture Forward is a forum that draws together the University’s experts, students and researchers with organisations across the arts, cultural, creative, heritage and community and local government sectors that are based - or working - in Birmingham and the West Midlands. Find out more.