Rain stops play for Little Lindi
Family festival Little Lindi, which was due to take place from July 26-28, has been cancelled due to the persistently awful weather the North East has been subjected to in recent weeks.
Organisers of the younger sibling of the Lindisfarne Festial made the announcement on Wednesday afternoon (July 17), saying they were ‘absolutely devastated’ to have had to take the decision following an emergency site meeting.
An inspection found the rain had left significant parts of the site on the Lambton Estate in County Durham unusable — including the Walled Garden which was ‘under water’ — and the site build was therefore unable to go ahead safely.
Ticket holders have been offered a refund but have also been asked to consider rolling over their tickets to next year’s event, which has been booked for July 25-27, 2025. For more information, visit the Little Lindi website.
New exhibition explores a sense of belonging
Do you feel you belong… or not?
All of us, unless we’re extremely unfortunate, will know what it is to feel truly at home in a place.
On the other hand, a sense of alienation is not to be wished on anybody.
The idea of belonging is explored in a new exhibition opening this weekend (Saturday, July 20) at the Laing Art Gallery and comprising artworks chosen from its collection.
Called Belonging, it has been curated by the Laing and Ella Nixon, who has been working at the gallery as a collaborative doctoral award student from Northumbria University.
This is a scheme run by the Northern Bridge Consortium, funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council, which embeds PhD students in outside organisations.
Ella set out to explore different forms of belonging — a word that comes from the Old English word ‘langian’ which also gave rise to ‘longing’, a sense of powerful emotional attachment.
The exhibition also touches on the role regional art galleries play in their local communities.
Featured work includes landscapes and maps featuring views of Newcastle and Gateshead by artists such Layla Curtis, Charlie Rogers, Claude Muncaster and Robert Jobling.
Helen Baker Rineke Dijkstra, Louisa Hodgson, Nerys Johnson, Laura Knight, John Martin, Paula Rego and Christine Seddon are other artists represented in the exhibition which runs in the Laing’s Barbour Watercolour Gallery until November 30.
A Place to Play!
Darlington’s Theatre Hullabaloo have unveiled a new programme bringing £790,000 of creative play opportunities to 30,000 families in the South Tees.
Place to Play is a new three-year creative programme for children and their grownups in Middlesbrough and Redcar & Cleveland. It is supported by National Lottery funding through Arts Council England’s Place Partnership programme, investment from Tees Valley Combined Authority and a grant from Borderlands Creative People and Places (CPP).
The project will work with Family Hubs in communities experiencing high levels of deprivation and health inequality.
The project, which was piloted in spring this year, responds to rising rates of post-natal depression and family poverty, and the recent claim by the First 1001 Days Movement that toddler development across the UK is in decline.
Research by York St John University and the British Academy has evidenced that Theatre Hullabaloo’s Creative Play programmes improve family wellbeing, accelerate childhood development, and strengthen community connections.
Place to Play will also providing 6,000 days of paid employment for local people and creatives artists, and give 50 people the chance to gain qualifications as Creative Play specialists.
Theatre Hullabaloo’s chief executive, Ben Dickenson, said: “Theatre Hullabaloo is incredibly proud to be leading the Place to Play project in South Tees. Play is the brain’s favourite way to learn, creative experiences can inspire positive change — together these things can transform the outcomes of children and grownups, making healthier, happier, stronger families.
For she’s a jolly good Fellow
Congratulations are in order to New Writing North’s chief executive, Claire Malcolm, who has been named as an honorary fellow of the Royal Society of Literature.
It’s an award given to those who have ‘made a significant contribution to the advancement of literature in the UK’.
No arguments from us… Claire has been at the helm of the North’s development agency for writing and reading for nearly three decades and is always looking for new ways to help writers of all ages and experience thrive. Lovely stuff.
The Alnwick Garden’s School of Poison is Officially in Session
The summer holidays will see The Alnwick Garden transformed in The School of Poison, where children can ‘explore the world of powerful plants and deadly concoctions’.
Free for up to four Under 16s who visit The Garden with a paying adult, The School of Poison will offer a large dose of games and activities every day, from this weekend (July 20) to September 2.
Mark Brassell, chief executive of The Alnwick Garden, explained: “From crafting clay pets and poisonous plants to cracking codes in the Ornamental Garden, our wacky professors have plenty of activities to ignite your children’s curiosity and enhance their love of the outdoors.
“The School of Poison is a great way for your children to experience The Garden in a whole new way, making friends and learning about our many weird and wonderful plants along the way.”
Adults can enter The Alnwick Garden for £16.50 this summer, with up to four children joining them free of charge. With a new combination ticket also available, adults can visit both The Garden and Lilidorei for £22 and children for £16.50. Visit the website for full details of the summer programme and to book tickets.
North East stops for National Gallery Road Trip
Venues across Sunderland South Tyneside have been confirmed as places on the National Gallery’s road trip itinerary this autumn.
The Cultural Spring, which works to increase engagement in the arts and culture, was selected as one of 18 organisations which will host the year-long programme of learning activities and events that celebrate creativity and the arts, delivered by a travelling art studio.
Part of its 200th anniversary celebrations (see also Turner’s The Fighting Temeraire exhibition at The Laing Art Gallery in Newcastle), the National Gallery on-the-go initiative aims to programme 200 creative public engagements and work with 40,000 people to bring art and ideas inspired by its collection to the heart of their communities.
The Art Road Trip will arrive in the North East in November, visiting five venues in both Sunderland (Grace House, Grindon Community Church Project, Washington Millennium Centre, Box Youth Project and 17Nineteen) and South Tyneside (Hebburn Cemetery Tea Rooms, East Boldon Junior School, Jarrow School, Ocean Choices and Holder House CIC, The Word, Centre for the Written Word).
For more information, visit The Cultural Spring website.
Saying adieu to Vera
The last scenes of long-running crime series Vera have been captured in the TV drama’s native North East.
Series 14 of the ITV staple will be the last we see of Ann Cleeves’ iconic detective, played wonderfully by double Oscar nominee, Brenda Blethyn.
The final episodes are scheduled for transmission in Spring 2025.
Money for new strings
Sunderland community music champs, We Make Culture are one of just two UK grantees — out of a whopping international list of 83 — who have been awarded funds from the D’Addario Foundation.
The Foundation is ‘Committed to partnering with not-for-profit organisations that bring music instruction and education to under-served communities’… so it’s not hard to see why We Make Culture, headed up by powerhouse Laura Brewis, got a big tick.
The MWC gang say the grant will support several ongoing projects as well as offering an equipment budget for ‘strings, sticks, guitar straps and capos’.
Go go go Joe(seph)
North East entertainment treasure, Joe McElderry will return to Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat for North East dates during next year’s UK tour of the smash hit production.
The former X Factor winner, who has carved a successful singing and musical theatre career since winning the ITV talent show in 2009, will play the role of Pharaoh in Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice’s iconic musical.
If that’s something you’d like to see, the dates and places for your diary and SatNav are Sunderland Empire (January 14-19) and Newcastle Theatre Royal (June 10-15).
Meanwhile don’t forget Joe is also starring in the Theatre Royal panto for the fourth time alongside Danny Adams and Clive Webb. This year, the ever-popular troupe are diving into the story of The Little Mermaid.
In good Nick
Sunderland Culture has appointed a new chief executive, with Nick Malyan (below) set to take up his new position in late September this year.
Rebecca Ball, who has been in the post since 2021, has been appointed Arts Council England’s new area director, north, and will begin her new role next month.
Following the announcement, Nick said: “I’m beyond excited to be taking on a role that celebrates and amplifies the city’s vibrant, creative, distinctive culture.”
Sunderland Culture was set up in 2016 to bring together the cultural programmes of Sunderland City Council, University of Sunderland and Sunderland Music, Arts and Culture Trust into a single, independent, delivery model.
Solid Platinum primary
Newcastle school, Hotspur Primary has been awarded Artsmark Platinum status — Arts Council England’s top honour for schools.
Artsmark recognises ‘exceptional commitment to creativity’ in arts education, with Silver, Gold and Platinum levels of provision being awarded.
The Hotspur team, led by Arts Leader, Jack Gardner (who presided over a barnstorming and show-stealing performance of A Midsummer Night’s Dream during the recent Heaton Shakespeare Festival) says they are ‘proud to be the only primary school in Newcastle upon Tyne to currently hold this award’.
“This is our second time achieving Platinum status, making us one of only a few primary schools in the North of England to do so twice!”
Beamish is beaming with pride
Beamish, the Living Museum of the North is officially the region’s most visited attraction.
And it’s not doing too bad in the UK league table either.
A new VisitEngland report confirmed that the County Durham museum’s visitor numbers rose to over 800,000 in 2023, making it top of the North East table and 17th nationally (out of 1,513 surveyed).
If you’re interested, the Tower of London was top of the shop. Well, it’s got the Crown Jewels, hasn’t it?
Just wait until next year when the news spreads about Beamish’s new 1950s cinema…
Last call to get your doves in a row
Visitors to Durham Cathedral only have a couple of days left to create one of the thousands of paper doves, which will make up part of a new installation to be suspended in the landmark’s Nave this summer.
Peace Doves, a mass-participation artwork by Peter Walker will be unveiled on July 26, with the artist aiming to have 15,000 doves to work with.
Since April, visitors, schools, community groups and church goers have been contributing their doves, as well as personal messages of peace, love, hope and friendship.
The final artwork will be illuminated and a programme of events will accompany the installation, including a special Evensong on Sunday, July 28 at 3.30pm.
Visitors have until Saturday (July 20) to make a Peace Dove to be included.
