A Birmingham project is celebrating local heroes by digitally immortalising them online. 

A project designed to celebrate local heroes through the medium of sound, film or the written word has launched a new website (www.3minuteheroes.org/). 3 Minute Heroes has been delivered by Fricton Arts and has allowed artists and participants from several Birmingham community groups to create an online archive celebrating local heroes. 

3 Minute Heroes is one of six projects commissioned and funded by Birmingham City Council and Arts Council England as part of Say Hello. The projects are all designed to break new ground for participatory work around digital media and to develop new skills. The project has also been supported by Andy Sheppard and the Successful Neighbourhoods Fund. 

Sandra Hall, project coordinator at Friction Arts, said:

"The project was born out of the idea to capture histories from across different community groups. We decided to focus on local heroes because we all know a special person in our community and thought it would be really interesting to create an archive which documents what makes them so special to ensure they are never forgotten.

"The project has already touched local people and only 24 hours after launching the page 'nominate your own hero' we had already received over 18 uploads. Rather than offer our participants a fixed frame digital format, we've worked closely with each individual and it's been amazing to see the diversity of the final projects. The participants have all worked incredibly hard and I'd encourage everyone who is interested to have a look at the bespoke and personalised digital art on our website." 

Peta Murphy-Burke, Relationship Manager, Digital & Creative Economy at Arts Council England said:

"It's been absolutely fantastic to see the response that this project has already generated amongst local communities. Some of the videos are incredibly personal and it's wonderful to hear how the project has helped them overcome individual difficulties." 

Participants include Laura Ibbetson who dedicated a video to the memory of her hero, her son Ryan, who recently died of leukaemia and Angela Downey who nominated her friend Mary Taylor for being a pillar of the community.

The bespoken and personalised digital art has also recently been displayed as part of the 3MH exhibition. The exhibition offered people the chance to see the stories and accompanying film and images, all housed in installations made in response to the material by digital visual artists.