{"id":194,"date":"2025-01-02T12:53:45","date_gmt":"2025-01-02T12:53:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bma.bom.org.uk\/?page_id=194"},"modified":"2025-12-19T23:26:45","modified_gmt":"2025-12-19T23:26:45","slug":"about-bma","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/birminghammusicarchive.com\/index.php\/about-bma\/","title":{"rendered":"About Us"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"n2_clear\"><ss3-force-full-width data-overflow-x=\"body\" data-horizontal-selector=\"body\"><div class=\"n2-section-smartslider fitvidsignore  n2_clear\" data-ssid=\"4\"><div id=\"n2-ss-4-align\" class=\"n2-ss-align\"><div class=\"n2-padding\"><div id=\"n2-ss-4\" data-creator=\"Smart Slider 3\" data-responsive=\"fullwidth\" class=\"n2-ss-slider n2-ow n2-has-hover n2notransition  \">\n        <div class=\"n2-ss-slider-1 n2_ss__touch_element n2-ow\">\n            <div class=\"n2-ss-slider-2 n2-ow\">\n                                                <div class=\"n2-ss-slider-3 n2-ow\">\n\n                    <div class=\"n2-ss-slide-backgrounds n2-ow-all\"><div class=\"n2-ss-slide-background\" data-public-id=\"1\" data-mode=\"fill\"><div class=\"n2-ss-slide-background-image\" data-blur=\"0\" data-opacity=\"100\" data-x=\"51\" data-y=\"16\" data-alt=\"\" data-title=\"\" style=\"--ss-o-pos-x:51%;--ss-o-pos-y:16%\"><picture class=\"skip-lazy\" data-skip-lazy=\"1\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"\/\/birminghammusicarchive.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/Sanity-Video-Still-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"\" title=\"\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"skip-lazy\" data-skip-lazy=\"1\"><\/picture><\/div><div data-color=\"RGBA(255,255,255,0)\" style=\"background-color: RGBA(255,255,255,0);\" class=\"n2-ss-slide-background-color\"><\/div><\/div><\/div>                    <div class=\"n2-ss-slider-4 n2-ow\">\n                        <svg xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" viewBox=\"0 0 1200 500\" data-related-device=\"desktopPortrait\" class=\"n2-ow n2-ss-preserve-size n2-ss-preserve-size--slider n2-ss-slide-limiter\"><\/svg><div data-first=\"1\" data-slide-duration=\"0\" data-id=\"15\" data-slide-public-id=\"1\" data-title=\"Sanity Video Still\" class=\"n2-ss-slide n2-ow  n2-ss-slide-15\"><div role=\"note\" class=\"n2-ss-slide--focus\" tabindex=\"-1\">Sanity Video Still<\/div><div class=\"n2-ss-layers-container n2-ss-slide-limiter n2-ow\"><div class=\"n2-ss-layer n2-ow n-uc-gmjG997UoXZM\" data-sstype=\"slide\" data-pm=\"default\"><\/div><\/div><\/div>                    <\/div>\n\n                                    <\/div>\n            <\/div>\n        <\/div>\n        <\/div><ss3-loader><\/ss3-loader><\/div><\/div><div class=\"n2_clear\"><\/div><\/div><\/ss3-force-full-width><\/div>\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" style=\"padding-top:var(--wp--preset--spacing--50);padding-bottom:var(--wp--preset--spacing--50)\">Celebrating, Preserving and Sharing Birmingham&#8217;s Music Heritage <\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Founded in 2008, Birmingham Music Archive (BMA) exists to document, preserve, and celebrate the city\u2019s rich music history, heritage, and culture. Our mission is to ensure that Birmingham\u2019s musical heritage remains visible, valued, and accessible, inspiring audiences today and safeguarding it for future generations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Birmingham is a city of music and a music city. Yet its contribution is too often overlooked in national and international narratives that focus on places like Liverpool, Manchester, and London. Birmingham does not have one defining sound. Instead, it is home to reggae, metal, indie, ragas, qawwali, bhangra, jazz, rap, folk, and countless other genres. This diversity reflects the city itself, shaped by its neighbourhoods, communities, and the rich mix of cultures that influence and inspire each other. As a cultural and arts organisation, the BMA produces exhibitions, walking tours, talks, youth and community projects, films, radio, and podcasts, all designed to bring Birmingham\u2019s musical past into meaningful conversation with the present.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Our collections bring together information and material on bands, musicians, venues, gigs, promoters, record shops, studios, and the audiences who shaped Birmingham\u2019s music landscape. The archive spans thousands of items, from tickets and posters to photographs, documents, publications, audio, and video. Drawn from both personal collections and institutional sources, and generously gifted to the BMA, we aim to make the extensive and wide-ranging archive publicly accessible through this website and through creative, participatory projects. At the heart of the BMA, there&#8217;s also an active community of more than 15,000 citizen archivists who share materials, stories, and memories across our platforms, helping us build an archive that truly belongs to the city.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-left\"><strong>Birmingham Music Archive: building the archive to inspire the future.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<p>Have something lurking in a drawer or stored in the attic that you&#8217;d like to share on our digital archive? We can arrange to scan or photograph your tickets, pictures, scrapbooks and posters and upload them to the site. Just drop us a line via the <a href=\"https:\/\/birminghammusicarchive.com\/index.php\/contact-us\/\" data-type=\"page\" data-id=\"2360\">contact form<\/a> and we&#8217;ll be in touch. <\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image aligncenter size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1000\" height=\"667\" src=\"https:\/\/bma.bom.org.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/BMG_NWS_TNL_CWG_Case_Study_Jez_Photo_001.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-2380\" srcset=\"https:\/\/birminghammusicarchive.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/BMG_NWS_TNL_CWG_Case_Study_Jez_Photo_001.jpg 1000w, https:\/\/birminghammusicarchive.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/BMG_NWS_TNL_CWG_Case_Study_Jez_Photo_001-300x200.jpg 300w, https:\/\/birminghammusicarchive.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/BMG_NWS_TNL_CWG_Case_Study_Jez_Photo_001-768x512.jpg 768w, https:\/\/birminghammusicarchive.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/BMG_NWS_TNL_CWG_Case_Study_Jez_Photo_001-205x137.jpg 205w, https:\/\/birminghammusicarchive.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/BMG_NWS_TNL_CWG_Case_Study_Jez_Photo_001-480x320.jpg 480w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1000px) 100vw, 1000px\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Jez Collins, founder of the Birmingham Music Archive<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-columns is-layout-flex wp-container-core-columns-is-layout-28f84493 wp-block-columns-is-layout-flex\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\"><\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Explore Birmingham\u2019s diverse music history with the Birmingham Music Archive, featuring bands, venues, stories, and heritage from across the city.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-194","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"blocksy_meta":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/birminghammusicarchive.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/194","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/birminghammusicarchive.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/birminghammusicarchive.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/birminghammusicarchive.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/birminghammusicarchive.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=194"}],"version-history":[{"count":42,"href":"https:\/\/birminghammusicarchive.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/194\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":51658,"href":"https:\/\/birminghammusicarchive.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/194\/revisions\/51658"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/birminghammusicarchive.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=194"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}