The QT

Monday 21 October 2024
21/10/2024

Author name: David Whetstone

Not the middle of nowhereโ€ฆ

Joanne Coates is a photographer whose star is on the rise following residencies, commissions and reams of positive coverage. She calls herself โ€œa working class visual artist using the medium of photographyโ€. Her favoured themes of class, inequality, rural life and community cohesion arise from her own experience of growing up in rural North Yorkshire …

Cultural bodies celebrate a funding boost

Six North East cultural organisations are to receive just over ยฃ2.1m in capital investment from Arts Council England (ACE) to improve accessibility, reduce environmental impact and support new business models. Itโ€™s the regionโ€™s share of the second round of ACEโ€™s Capital Investment Programme which will see a total of ยฃ24.2m distributed to 67 organisations across …

Late Shows artists prepare for a big night

In a rented studio in the Ouseburn, three musicians are pulling on monksโ€™ โ€” or, more correctly, friarsโ€™ โ€” black costumes for a photo ahead of a morningโ€™s intense rehearsal. Elsewhere in Newcastle, another trio of creatives are putting the finishing touches to an audio-visual installation intended to bring a favourite city haunt to life …

Kicking off play on home ground

Three young actors are feeling their way into the characters theyโ€™ll embody in The Bounds, a play set in Northumberland in 1553. This, according to Live Theatre, was โ€˜the true golden age of English footballโ€™, although its further assertion that โ€˜men will die todayโ€™ raises doubts about that. Ryan Nolan and Lauren Waine play Percy …

A poetic place for creativity

The eighth Newcastle Poetry Festival is upon us (May 9 to 11) with the action taking place at Northern Stage and the focus this year falling on the connection between poetry and history. As suggested by the title, In/Out of Place, attention will also be paid to feelings of displacement and belonging โ€” and to …

No Northern Chords but watch this space

Fans of Northern Chords might be wondering what has happened to the chamber music festival which has been part of the regionโ€™s musical calendar since 2009. Well, there is to be no festival this year but Jonathan Bloxham, its founder and driving force, promises: โ€œWe will be back with a vengeance in 2025!โ€ That Northern …

All aboard for The Last Cage Down

Robert McManners found himself getting annoyed, having made the trip to witness the death throes of the Dean and Chapter Colliery in Ferryhill, where heโ€™d grown up amid the landmarks of coal mining. It was 1968 and heโ€™d taken a day off university where he was studying medicine. A hobby painter, heโ€™d gone with oil …

Kateโ€™s GIFT keeps on giving

If flashy West End musicals are at one end of a theatrical spectrum, then GIFT (Gateshead International Festival of Theatre) must reside at the other. Somewhat typical of its offer is MANUAL, a 40-minute โ€œclandestineโ€ (according to the programme) performance for one library visitor at a time. It was devised by Canadian theatre artists Adam …

How Helix Arts makes lives better

Goodness only knows how many lives have been improved, however minutely, by Helix Arts during its 40-year history of working with artists and communities. The value of its work was acknowledged in December when the National Lottery Heritage Fund granted nearly ยฃ100,000 for an archive project called Re:Visits. Thereโ€™s a wealth of material to be …

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