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The Crack Magazine

Art

Michael Rakowitz: The Waiting Gardens of the North

Baltic has invited Michael Rakowitz to develop a major new commission in response to the idea of conflict to be presented in the Level 4 gallery. The artist has proposed to create a sprawling, immersive interior forest of trees, hedges, herbs, and medicinal plants that will be conceived and tended to in collaboration with local organisations. The project is imagined as a “Hanging Garden”, referencing the one in Babylon that is considered among the Seven Wonders of the World. The garden will be inhabited by Rakowitz’s cardboard sculptures that attempt to reappear the archaeological cultural heritage that has been looted or destroyed in Iraq and Syria since the US-led invasion of Iraq in 2003.

Venue:
BALTIC Centre for Contemporary Art, South Shore Road, Gateshead Quays, Gateshead, NE8 3BA
Date:
Jul 15th 2023 - May 26th 2024
Opening Times:
Sun and Wed-Sat 10:00 - 18:00
Price:
Free, donations welcome

Innovation Platform

Innovation Platform will inspire visitors with the inventiveness and ingenuity in rail. This exhibition highlights emerging ideas and extraordinary achievements from across the rail industry. Showcasing the latest and greatest in rail innovation, Innovation Platform celebrates the creative by focusing not only on the technology itself, but by giving just as much attention to the context in which objects were developed. Through imaginative problem-solving and original thinking, the railways are progressing, armed with technologies designed to improve all aspects of the industry. The Innovation Platform will show the very best of these to those who will feel their benefit most greatly—you!

Venue:
Locomotion, (previously Shildon Locomotion Museum), Dale Road Industrial Estate, Dale Road, Shildon, County Durham, DL4 2RE
Date:
Jan 11th 2023 - Dec 24th 2024
Opening Times:
Sun and Wed-Sat 10:00 - 17:00
Price:
Free

Cosmovisions on Land and Entangled Futures

A group exhibition that is being developed through a collaborative research project that seeks to investigate land rights and the social and political agency of nature from non-extractivist perspectives. The project has an interdisciplinary approach that focuses on practices that reveal worldviews at the intersections between land rights and climate justice, questioning and opposing Euro-capital-centric and dominant narratives. Based on experimentation and collaboration, the project explores formats that challenge the hierarchical structures of production and presentation of knowledge, incorporating the voices of artists, and collaboration and exchange in the development process.

Venue:
BALTIC Centre for Contemporary Art, South Shore Road, Gateshead Quays, Gateshead, NE8 3BA
Date:
Nov 18th 2023 - May 26th 2024
Opening Times:
Sun and Wed-Sat 10:00 - 18:00
Price:
Free

Len Tabner: Elements of Darkness

This new exhibition brings together a selection of Len Tabner’s drawings and paintings of Boulby Potash Mine on the North Yorkshire coast – the deepest mine in Britain. Len explored the unfamiliar underground world of the miner in the early 1980s, drawing and painting in situ in the mine.

Venue:
Mining Art Gallery, Bishop Auckland, County Durham
Date:
Nov 1st 2023 - Oct 27th 2024
Opening Times:
Sun and Wed-Sat 11:00 - 16:00
Price:
£6/£3 child

BUILDING: An exhibition under construction

The Farrell Centre presents BUILDING: An exhibition under construction which will transform the exhibition galleries into live making spaces in an exploration of the process of building. Rather than open fully-formed, the public will witness the exhibition taking shape over four months via two live build projects, installations created by students and apprentices, audience participation, and a programme of workshops and events for all audiences.

Venue:
Farrell Centre, The Sir Terry Farrell Building, Eldon Place, Newcastle, NE1 7RD
Date:
Apr 3rd 2024 - Aug 18th 2024
Opening Times:
Sun and Wed-Sat 10:00 - 17:00
Price:
Free

Nature and the Ideal: Pioneers of the British Landscape

This exhibition explores the origins and development of the landscape tradition, offering a selection of works by some of the most influential artists of the eighteenth century. Featuring masterpieces by Richard Wilson, Sir Joshua Reynolds, Thomas Gainsborough and George Barret.

Venue:
Auckland Castle, Bishop Auckland, County Durham, DL14 7NR
Date:
Mar 13th 2024 - Jun 23rd 2024
Opening Times:
Sun and Wed-Sat 11:00 - 15:00
Price:
£18/child £9

Murmuration

Immerse yourself in the world of birds, exploring avian symbolism in art and trace its significance across time and cultures. Murmuration presents a wide selection of work from artists and makers from various generations, backgrounds and contexts whose work ranges across drawing, sculpture, film and installation. Delve into the pivotal role birds play as indicators to the health of the environment, reflecting the urgent climate crisis and, through the work of artists and makers, ponder the metaphor of birds as messengers of home and belonging. Examine the complexity and nuance around the collecting of taxidermy, from its role as a teaching resource to its connections to scientific racism and colonial exploitation, and consider the ethical and cultural implications of preserving animals for study and display. Through this show, discover the profound relationships we share with birds; transcending species barriers and fostering kinship. Murmuration is a reminder of the common spaces we inhabit and the interconnectedness that binds us.

Venue:
The Bowes Museum, Barnard Castle, County Durham, DL12 8NP
Date:
Jan 27th 2024 - Jun 23rd 2024
Opening Times:
Daily 10:00 - 17:00
Price:
£17.50/under 18s Free

Glass World

In recent years National Glass Centre has developed a permanent collection of international Studio Glass that includes work by artists from or based in thirty different countries, from Sweden to New Zealand and the United States to Japan. This exhibition presents a wide selection of the works held in our collection and creates an opportunity to celebrate the international reach of artists working in glass.

Venue:
National Glass Centre, Liberty Way, Sunderland, SR6 0GL
Date:
Oct 14th 2023 - May 30th 2024
Opening Times:
Daily 10:00 - 17:00
Price:
Free

The Last Cage Down

Coinciding with the 40th anniversary of the Miners’ Strike of 1984-85, this exhibition brings together works of art that portray the declining years of the coal mining industry, as mining artists sought to record an industry and way of life before it was lost forever. It offers an insight into the impact of closures on communities and landscapes, and reveals the Miners’ Strike from the perspective of coalfield artists who witnessed it.

Venue:
Mining Art Gallery, Bishop Auckland, County Durham
Date:
May 3rd 2024 - Oct 6th 2024
Opening Times:
Sun and Wed-Sat 11:00 - 16:00
Price:
£6/£3 child

Voices: contemporary art and craft from the Middle East and North Africa

An exhibition celebrating the work of emerging contemporary artists and designers from the Middle East and North Africa recently acquired by the Oriental Museum. The artists featured in the exhibition come from Syria, Iran, Lebanon, Egypt, Morocco, Yemen, Jordan and Palestine. Some still live in their home countries, while others have been forced to flee due to conflict or oppression. Working in a variety of media including digital collage, photography, mixed media, textile and ceramic their work highlights topics of identity, history and politics, while also drawing on traditional art and craft. Their work reflects the variety of artistic expression seen across the MENA region, there is no single, unifying style but many voices.

Venue:
Oriental Museum, Elvet Hill, (off South Road), Durham, DH1 3TH
Date:
Sep 29th 2023 - May 12th 2024
Opening Times:
Sat-Sun 12:00 - 17:00 , Tue-Wed and Fri 10:00 - 17:00 , Thu 10:00 - 19:00
Price:
Free

Seb Trend: XTRALIFE

Central to XTRALIFE is a series of ‘melted photographs’ in artist made frames produced specifically for the exhibition. This marks the first time the photographs have been exhibited together as a solo show and builds on Trend’s ongoing investigations into states of ‘in-between’: molten and solid, representation and abstraction, permanence and momentary.

Venue:
Northern Gallery for Contemporary Art, c/o National Glass Centre, Liberty Way, Sunderland, SR6 0GL
Date:
Mar 9th 2024 - Jun 9th 2024
Opening Times:
Daily 10:00 - 17:00
Price:
Free

Laura Lancaster: My Echo, My Shadow

My Echo, My Shadow is the largest solo show to date of British painter Laura Lancaster. Presenting new paintings and drawings made over the last few years My Echo, My Shadow delves into the current practice of one of the North East’s most celebrated and accomplished painters. The source of Lancaster’s paintings and drawings are found photographs, slides and cine films of strangers, purchased from online auction sites, flea markets and junk shops. She translates the lost and discarded memories into paintings which sit ambiguously between abstraction and figuration. The highly gestural, visceral and expressive application of paint allows the everyday and mundane to become surreal, grotesque and poignantly melancholic.

Venue:
Northern Gallery for Contemporary Art, c/o National Glass Centre, Liberty Way, Sunderland, SR6 0GL
Date:
Mar 16th 2024 - Jun 30th 2024
Opening Times:
Daily 10:00 - 17:00
Price:
Free

Baltic Open Submission 2024

An exhibition of 100 artworks showcasing painting, sculpture, photography, video and more by artists, makers, self-taught creatives and hobbyists based in North East England, alongside several works by established artists. Works will be selected by a panel including North East musician and lead singer with Maxïmo Park, Paul Smith; artist Jasmina Cibic; Leo Fenwick, Strategic Partnerships Director, Fenwick; Niomi Fairweather, Baltic Curator; and Rose McMurray, Baltic Curatorial Assistant.

Venue:
BALTIC Centre for Contemporary Art, South Shore Road, Gateshead Quays, Gateshead, NE8 3BA
Date:
Mar 16th 2024 - Sep 1st 2024
Opening Times:
Sun and Wed-Sat 10:00 - 18:00
Price:
Free

Joanne Coates: The Vasseur Baltic Artists' Award

Joanne Coates is a working-class visual artist working in the medium of photography who lives and works across the North East of England. Her work explores rurality, hidden histories and inequalities relating to low income through photography, installations, and audio. Coates uses photography to question the concepts of power, identity, wealth, and poverty, by exploring the social histories of land, gender, and class to narrate stories that have long been forgotten – or simply never told.

Venue:
BALTIC Centre for Contemporary Art, South Shore Road, Gateshead Quays, Gateshead, NE8 3BA
Date:
May 11th 2024 - Nov 17th 2024
Opening Times:
Sun and Wed-Sat 10:00 - 18:00
Price:
Free

Franki Raffles: Photography, Activism, Campaign Works

The first major retrospective exhibition of feminist, activist, social documentary photographer Franki Raffles (1955–1994). Raffles documented the lives of women in the UK, predominantly in Scotland, and during travels with her family in the 1980s across the Soviet Union (Russia, Georgia and Ukraine), China, Zimbabwe, the Caribbean, Israel and Palestine. In Edinburgh she worked as a freelance photographer with schools and women’s groups. Her photography focused attention on women’s lives and their work, addressing issues such as inequality, gendered violence, disability, activism and sisterhood.

Venue:
BALTIC Centre for Contemporary Art, South Shore Road, Gateshead Quays, Gateshead, NE8 3BA
Date:
May 11th 2024 - Nov 17th 2024
Opening Times:
Sun and Wed-Sat 10:00 - 18:00
Price:
Free

Jacqueline Poncelet: In the Making

MIMA presents a solo exhibition surveying 50 years of work by acclaimed artist Jacqueline Poncelet. Poncelet’s work is characterised by a restless exploration of materials and making that is evident throughout her practice. As an artist she is fascinated by how tastes and fashions play out in the ways that humans dress, decorate living spaces, shape architecture and build infrastructures. Working across diverse media, Poncelet gathers and transforms patterns found in our cityscapes and rural landscapes.

Venue:
Mima, Centre Square, Middlesbrough, TS1 2AZ
Date:
Feb 1st 2024 - Jun 23rd 2024
Opening Times:
Sun 12:00 - 16:00 , Tue-Sat 10:00 - 16:30
Price:
Free

People’s Art

This exhibition will celebrate art created by unnamed artists. Objects referred to as Popular Art or Folk Art were often beautiful, functional and part of daily life. They reflect our economic and social history and were often remarkably well made, evidenced by their survival for decades or more through constant use. Despite the historic and aesthetic importance of these objects we rarely ask ‘who was the artist?’, or consider their importance within the history of art and design. People’s Art will aim to elevate the profile of popular art by commissioning five contemporary artists to respond to selected objects loaned from Compton Verney’s Folk Art collection and from a private collection. The newly commissioned works will be shown alongside the loans, encouraging the visitor to think about the principles we apply when considering the value of art.

Venue:
National Glass Centre, Liberty Way, Sunderland, SR6 0GL
Date:
Mar 23rd 2024 - Sep 8th 2024
Opening Times:
Daily 10:00 - 17:00
Price:
Free

Flora: Plants in Roman Life

The Romans not only used plants for food, medicine, and dyeing, but also in religious ceremonies and as decoration. They wore wreaths of flowers and leaves during dinner parties, and decorated buildings and military standards during annual Rose Festivals. This exhibition explores the importance and everyday use of plants in Roman life.

Venue:
Arbeia Roman Fort and Museum, Baring Street, South Shields, NE33 2BB
Date:
Mar 25th 2024 - Sep 29th 2024
Opening Times:
Sat 11:00 - 16:00 , Sun 13:00 - 16:00 , Mon-Fri 10:00 - 17:00
Price:
Free

Space Investigators North East

This immersive exhibition takes you on a multi-sensory journey into the hidden worlds of the Universe. There's so much to learn about how advances in technology are constantly unveiling new areas of the universe for us to investigate. With every advance, we learn more and more about how our beautiful planet sits amongst the endless beauty and wonder of space. Whilst on your 'galactic voyage' through this exhibition you can discover some of the objects of astronomical importance that were designed and made right here in the North East, as well as learning about the cutting-edge astronomy research that still takes place in the region today. This exhibition has been designed and curated in collaboration with a team of Astrophysicists at Newcastle University.

Venue:
Great North Museum: Hancock, Barras Bridge, Newcastle upon Tyne, NE2 4PT
Date:
Mar 30th 2024 - Sep 1st 2024
Opening Times:
Mon-Fri 10:00 - 17:00 , Sun 11:00 - 16:00 , Sat 10:00 - 16:00
Price:
Free

Collecting the Past

The aim of many of the local museums set up in the nineteenth century was to have ‘the world under one roof’, so they collected a wide range of objects from around the world, including archaeological pieces. This exhibition looks at some of these objects and explores what we know – or don’t know – about them now.

Venue:
Segedunum Roman Fort, 2 Buddle Street, Wallsend, NE28 6HR
Date:
Mar 23rd 2024 - Nov 2nd 2024
Opening Times:
Mon-Sat 10:00 - 15:00 , Daily 10:00 - 17:00
Price:
£6.95/£4.95/u-21s Free

Streets Above

Housing built for ship-workers in the late nineteenth-century once covered the whole site of the Roman fort and the surrounding areas. Most of these streets were demolished in the 1970s and 1980s, and the area was transformed. These photographs are records of those streets, and how this area once looked very different.

Venue:
Segedunum Roman Fort, 2 Buddle Street, Wallsend, NE28 6HR
Date:
Mar 23rd 2024 - Nov 2nd 2024
Opening Times:
Mon-Sat 10:00 - 15:00 , Daily 10:00 - 17:00
Price:
£6.95/£4.95/u-21s Free

Northern Gallery for Contemporary Art Collection Display

On display across National Glass Centre are a selection of photographic works taken from Northern Gallery for Contemporary Art’s Collection (NGCA). The photographic works were originally exhibited as part of exhibitions held at NGCA during its existence at Fawcett Street, Sunderland and now National Glass Centre. They delve into extraordinary worlds, mapping the contours of Alpine glaciers, a 3D model of a tree surrounded by a blanket of millions of individual crystals and document the lives of stage entertainers across the world from Las Vegas to India to Blackpool. Artworks on display by Michelle Allen, Alice Hawkins, Dan Holdsworth, John Kippin, Tim Mitchell, Kelly Richardson and Simon Roberts.

Venue:
Northern Gallery for Contemporary Art, c/o National Glass Centre, Liberty Way, Sunderland, SR6 0GL
Date:
Jan 16th 2024 - Dec 31st 2024
Opening Times:
Daily 10:00 - 17:00
Price:
Free

Hilke MacIntyre: Layers of Colours

For the first time at The Biscuit Factory they bring together a solo show of ceramics, linocuts and paintings by artist Hilke MacIntrye. Born in Germany, Hilke studied architecture at the College for Art & Design in Kiel, working in different architectural practices until she moved to Scotland in 1995. Since then, Hilke has focused on printmaking, ceramics and painting. Her simplified figurative work, with bold shapes, strong colours and abstract pattern reflects varied influences including ‘primitive’ and folk art styles, early 20th Century European art and contemporary design. Whichever medium Hilke works in, she builds layers of color and pattern searching for unpredictable and unexpected combinations.

Venue:
The Biscuit Factory, 16 Stoddard Street, Newcastle, NE2 1AN
Date:
Mar 23rd 2024 - May 12th 2024
Opening Times:
Daily 10:00 - 17:00
Price:
Free

Oliver Kilbourn: My Life as a Pitmen

A special collection of paintings made by Ashington Group artist Oliver Kilbourn. The collection forms a comprehensive record of Kilbourn’s 50 year career underground, offering valuable insight into the working environment of a Northumberland coal miner during the mid-20th Century. This collection will be on special display as part of the Ashington Group 90 programme so don’t miss your chance to view these unique artworks.

Venue:
Woodhorn Museum , Queen Elizabeth 2nd Country Park, Ashington, Northumberland, NE63 9YF
Date:
Mar 29th 2024 - Sep 15th 2024
Opening Times:
Sun and Wed-Sat 10:00 - 16:00
Price:
£9.50/£8.50/under 18s Free

Spirit of Invention: A world of creativity from Victorian Britain to the present day

This new family friendly exhibition was inspired by some of the thousands of creative designs registered with the Board of Trade from 1839 onwards which are housed at The National Archives. See contemporary technology alongside eye-catching inventions from the Victorian era – including a ventilating top hat and a typewriter for visually impaired people. With hands-on interactive activities, visitors of all ages can try their hand at designing and inventing.

Venue:
Discovery Museum, (Closed on all Bank Holidays) Blandford Square, Newcastle upon Tyne, NE1 4JA
Date:
Mar 16th 2024 - Jun 23rd 2024
Opening Times:
Sat-Sun 11:00 - 16:00 , Mon-Fri 10:00 - 16:00
Price:
Free

There is Light in the Fissures

There is Light in the Fissures is a new exhibition at Belsay Hall. Created by Turner Prize nominee Ingrid Pollard MBE, the works explore the landscape and natural materials which Belsay is made of and aim to bring the outside in. Discover pieces in the dramatic Pillar Hall and jurassic feeling Quarry Gardens.

Venue:
Belsay Hall, Castle and Gardens, Belsay, Nr Morpeth, Northumberland, NE20 0DX
Date:
Feb 10th 2024 - Jul 14th 2024
Opening Times:
10th Feb - 14th Jul 2024 10:00 - 17:00
Price:
From £11.30

The Magic of Dark Skies

This exhibition celebrates a decade of Northumberland's International Dark Sky Park. To celebrate this landmark, the Park collaborated with Unison Colour to create a bespoke set of pastels inspired by the night sky, which were then gifted to six artists to produce their artworks. The exhibition perfectly captures the wonder and awe we feel looking up at the night sky.

Venue:
The Sill: National Landscape Discovery Centre, Bardon Mill, Hexham, NE47 7AN
Date:
Mar 16th 2024 - May 12th 2024
Opening Times:
Daily 10:00 - 17:00
Price:
Free

Shells, shores and beyond: A global collection of a Georgian lady

See an extraordinary 18th century shell collection on display at Chesters Roman Fort. It was believed to be lost, but was returned to English Heritage after being saved from a skip. There are spectacular shells on display, including an extinct species and several shells believed to have been sent back from Captain Cook’s ill-fated third voyage.

Venue:
Chesters Fort and Museum, on B6318 nr. Chollerford, nr. Chollerford, Northumberland, NE46 4EU
Date:
Mar 12th 2024 - Nov 3rd 2024
Opening Times:
12th Mar - 3rd Nov 2024 10:00 - 17:00
Price:
From £8.60

Bobby Chainbridge and Margarita Frančeska Ieva Loze

Bobby Chainbridge (some say the he’s the alter ego of artist Andrew Mitchell, but who really knows?) catalogues the People, Places and Pints of the North East's greatest clubs; both past & present. His work captures the “alone, but together” conviviality that made and makes social clubs a staple of Northern life. Margarita Frančeska Ieva Loze's work is an exploration of the subtle beauty of life’s moments and a celebration of the poetics of the ordinary. Her recent work combines textile production with the use of found objects. Through her experimental narrative approach, Margarita makes a dreamlike ontology, to capture the nuances of spatial, temporal and poetic navigation.

Venue:
OWTSIDE Gallery, No More Nowt, Community House, Yoden Road, Peterlee, SR8 5DP
Date:
Dec 12th 2023 - Oct 31st 2024
Opening Times:
12th Dec 2023 - 31st Oct 2024 TBC
Price:
Free

Lily Senner: Tyneside Dreaming

A new lightbox commission created by Lily Senner who's paintings of otherworldly landscapes are created through memory and imagination. You can find this artwork displayed on the right-hand wall as you enter through our main doors.

Venue:
BALTIC Centre for Contemporary Art, South Shore Road, Gateshead Quays, Gateshead, NE8 3BA
Date:
Mar 17th 2024 - Sep 1st 2024
Opening Times:
Sun and Wed-Sat 10:00 - 18:00
Price:
Free

Kirsty Adams Ceramics Showcase

Kirsty Adams is an award-winning ceramicist, making wheel-thrown pieces for the home for over twenty years. She originally trained at Brighton Art College, and then on the potters’ wheel in Japan. This showcase presents limited edition, one-off and upscaled pieces from three of her prestigious collections taking influence from Iceland, Japan and Northumberland.

Venue:
The Biscuit Factory, 16 Stoddard Street, Newcastle, NE2 1AN
Date:
Mar 23rd 2024 - Jun 16th 2024
Opening Times:
Daily 10:00 - 17:00
Price:
Free

The World of Childhood

An exhibition for all ages providing fun and thought provoking childhood experiences. It will provide the visitor with an insight into how experiences have changed over time, by using images, literature, activities and information. The exhibition has been locally curated drawing inspiration from playful histories. Come along and gain a new perspective on childhood through this exciting exhibition, providing visitors with an opportunity to engage in childhood games and a range of activities. Leave your mark on the exhibition, by creating your own artefact that can be added to the visitor display wall.

Venue:
Bailiffgate Museum, 14 Bailiffgate, Alnwick, Northumberland, NE66 1LX
Date:
Apr 25th 2024 - Sep 8th 2024
Opening Times:
Sun and Tue-Sat 10:00 - 16:00
Price:
Adults £5/conc £4/children £1

Rob Rez

Artist Rob Rez has been working with local arts promotion charity Northern Roots over the past four years, and during that time he’s produced a number of portraits of the region’s rising music stars, including local R&B/rap artist Kay Greyson, rapper Kema Kay as well as the founders of the Voices of Virtue Gospel Choir Mathapelo Imarhiagbe and Chinyere Igun. Rez has also painted the likes of Sting (who proclaimed his work “beautiful”) and Martin Luther King (with emphasis on King’s connection with Newcastle).

Venue:
Gosforth Civic Theatre, Regent Farm Road, Newcastle, NE3 3HD
Date:
Apr 22nd 2024 - Jun 30th 2024
Opening Times:
22nd Apr - 30th Jun 2024 TBC
Price:
Free

Working Lives

Working Lives brings together artworks dating from the 1880s to 2024 held in the Middlesbrough Collection and are shown alongside loaned pieces by contemporary artists connected with Cleveland Art Society. The exhibition examines the creative lives of artists working in the Tees Valley and highlights the importance of artist groups and the support structures that have been built by artists in the region. A new film made using Artificial Intelligence (AI) asks questions about what collections mean to different people.

Venue:
Mima, Centre Square, Middlesbrough, TS1 2AZ
Date:
Apr 25th 2024 - Aug 18th 2024
Opening Times:
Sun 12:00 - 16:00 , Tue-Sat 10:00 - 16:30
Price:
Free

Ushaw Editions

In collaboration with Woolwich Contemporary Print Fair, a display of new work in response to residencies at Ushaw by contemporary artists Maite Cascón, Natasha Michaels and Lindsey Moran.

Venue:
Ushaw: Historic House, Chapels and Gardens, Woodland Road, Durham, DH7 9RH
Date:
Mar 23rd 2024 - Jun 23rd 2024
Opening Times:
Mon-Sat 11:00 - 16:00
Price:
Adult £10/child £6/under 5s Free

Dressing Room No.1

Born and raised in Bishop Auckland, photographer Sophie Teasdale has been delving behind the scenes into a world that we rarely get to see…backstage in theatres. For over a decade Sophie has photographed actors and musicians in the safe haven of their dressing rooms, from local North East venues to London’s West End, with the aim to capture that golden moment somewhere between real life and the bright lights of the stage.

Venue:
Bishop Auckland Town Hall, Market Place, Bishop Auckland, DL14 7NP
Date:
Mar 2nd 2024 - Jun 1st 2024
Opening Times:
Mon-Sat 10:00 - 16:00
Price:
Free

SCRAN! A history of Food & Drink in South Tyneside

Food and drink is the mouth-watering theme for South Shields Museum’s latest exhibition. The exhibition charts the story of food and drink across South Tyneside and celebrates the traditional cuisine of the North East, from regional favourites such as stottie cakes and leek pudding, to singing hinnies and panaculty. In this exhibition, visitors can discover South Tyneside’s evolving food and drink story, from Roman times up to the present day, and learn of the origins of some of the borough’s most iconic eateries, including Colmans fish and chips, Dicksons pork butchers and Minchella & Co’s ice cream.

Venue:
South Shields Museum & Art Gallery, Ocean Road, South Shields, NE33 2JA
Date:
Jul 18th 2023 - Jan 25th 2025
Opening Times:
Sat 11:00 - 16:00 , Mon-Fri 10:00 - 17:00
Price:
Free

Turner: Art, Industry & Nostalgia

Turner’s The Fighting Temeraire (1839), on loan from the National Gallery, will be the centrepiece of the exhibition, which explores the rise of steam power and industry in Britain. Turner: Art, Industry & Nostalgia will include over 20 works by Joseph Mallord William Turner (1775-1851), one of Britain’s greatest and most prolific painters. The Fighting Temeraire, one of the artist’s best-known works, is a tribute to the ship HMS Temeraire, which played a distinguished role in The Battle of Trafalgar in 1805. The painting shows the final journey of the ship as it is towed along the river Thames by a modern paddle-wheel steam tug in 1838, towards its final berth in Rotherhithe to be broken up for scrap.

Venue:
Laing Art Gallery, New Bridge Street, Newcastle upon Tyne, NE1 8AG
Date:
May 10th 2024 - Sep 7th 2024
Opening Times:
Mon-Sat 10:00 - 16:30
Price:
£5/£4/under 21s Free

New Perspectives: L-INKing Communities

We are all part of a community. Some communities we choose; some are chosen for us. We find community where we live, learn, socialise and practise our beliefs. Our communities include the families we are born into, the families we select, our friends, colleagues, and the society we are all part of. Our communities offer us space and support to share interests, ideas and values. Community means different things to different people. This display, curated by L-INK, brings together artworks that explore the architecture and activity that communities share. To us, community offers comfort, it means home, it means belonging.

Venue:
Laing Art Gallery, New Bridge Street, Newcastle upon Tyne, NE1 8AG
Date:
Nov 1st 2023 - Jul 1st 2024
Opening Times:
Mon-Sat 10:00 - 16:30
Price:
Free

About suffering, they were never wrong

MA Curating Art students present a sequence of three related exhibitions in February, March and April - May. The project partners 12 artists from 12 different countries with 12 historical artworks from the Hatton collection. It reveals how artists across time and space have pictured the pain or suffering of others, by re-examining the history of emotions.

Venue:
Hatton Gallery, The Quadrangle, University of Newcastle, 6 Kensington Terrace, Newcastle, NE1 7RU
Date:
Feb 9th 2024 - May 15th 2024
Opening Times:
Mon-Sat 10:00 - 17:00
Price:
Free

Long Exposures Along the North East Coast: A photography exhibition by Bill Simpson

"As an amateur photographer I embarked on a project to photograph various locations along the north east using the particular photographic technique of long exposure. I used this technique because of the interesting visual effects it can produce on moving water. These can range from showing the power and beauty of water flowing back to the sea; to making a moving sea look quite still."

Venue:
Arts Centre Washington, Biddick Lane, Fatfield, Washington, NE38 8AB
Date:
May 7th 2024 - Jun 7th 2024
Opening Times:
Mon 09:30 - 17:00 , Tue-Sat 09:30 - 20:00
Price:
Free

On The Map: Treasures from Ushaw’s Library Collection

An exhibition highlighting some of the significant maps and atlases in Ushaw’s Library collection. Following digitisation by Palace Green Library, a number of rare and interesting maps will be reproduced and shown on the Gallery walls. Original maps – including the first ever maritime atlas and an early road map of Britain – will be shown in display cases. A companion exhibition exploring the mapping of the north and north east will be shown in the Outdoor Art Gallery.

Venue:
Ushaw: Historic House, Chapels and Gardens, Woodland Road, Durham, DH7 9RH
Date:
Mar 23rd 2024 - Jun 23rd 2024
Opening Times:
Mon-Sat 11:00 - 16:00
Price:
Adult £10/child £6/under 5s Free

She Shall Be Called Woman

A body of work which celebrates women, by women. The images, by photographer Elaine Vizor, span a decade showing contemporary and environmental portraiture of females in different roles and landscapes, and in the accompanying soundscape, by writer and broadcaster Marie Gardiner, you hear the voices of some of those featured in the images and the authentic sounds of the Durham Dales.

Venue:
Bishop Auckland Town Hall, Market Place, Bishop Auckland, DL14 7NP
Date:
Mar 2nd 2024 - Jun 1st 2024
Opening Times:
Mon-Sat 10:00 - 16:00
Price:
Free

Sonia Strong

Sonia Strong is an artist from the North East of England, she has been painting and sketching for many years. Mainly oil on canvas and pencil drawings. She trained in Las Vegas in 2002 as an airbrush artist and educated for an American art company. She now produces custom made canvases for businesses & individuals. Sonia is excited to showcase her artwork at the Washington Arts Centre, especially her new Northern Lights collection.

Venue:
Arts Centre Washington, Biddick Lane, Fatfield, Washington, NE38 8AB
Date:
Apr 30th 2024 - Jun 1st 2024
Opening Times:
Mon 09:30 - 17:00 , Tue-Sat 09:30 - 20:00
Price:
Free

Feline-Thropic

Kicking off the summer in feline style at Redcar Palace, Feline-Thropic explores the human cat relationship through time. Alongside invited artists Feline-Thropic will feature newly commissioned tributes to Teesside cats past and present. The “Open Calls not Cat Calls” wall will invite anyone who has created a picture of a cat to bring it along and install it for the duration of the exhibition whilst the “Cat Tat” space will explore the material culture of our cat obsession in collaboration with Blooming Youth Collective and local animal charities.

Venue:
The Redcar Palace, Palace 28, 28-29 Esplanade, Redcar, TS10 3AE
Date:
May 11th 2024 - Jun 30th 2024
Opening Times:
Tue-Sat 10:00 - 16:00
Price:
Free

Oceans of Kindness

An exploration of the cumulative power of words, creativity and kindness sparked by children’s imagination. Children from Christchurch Primary, Hotspur Primary and Shieldfield Youth Programme have written their own collection of ‘poems of kindness’ and then delicately adorned these onto majestic large-scale willow fish lanterns. The final gathered shoal of fish will feature in a twilight community parade and exhibition at Shieldfield Art Works, before migrating to Ouseburn Festival to become part of a kindness trail. Come and walk among the ocean of kindness, experience this symphony of benevolence and ‘swim’ among the shoals of fish, as we stand for kindness as a community together. You can also make your own fridge haiku poems and share your own stories of kindness.

Venue:
Shieldfield Art Works, Formerly The Holy Biscuit, Opposite The Biscuit Factory, 1 Clarence Street, Shieldfield, Newcastle upon Tyne, NE2 1YH
Date:
May 4th 2024 - Jun 13th 2024
Opening Times:
Tue-Thu 11:00 - 16:00
Price:
Free

Recording Time

Explore music, heritage, duration, and experience through group exhibition ‘Recording Time’, with artworks by Catherine Bertola, Jane Bown, Anna Chapman, Rachael Clewlow, Alan Hathaway, and Nick Kennedy. How do you enjoy marking time? Listening to music, drawing, walking, reminiscing, staring at a patch of grass? This group exhibition plays on the idea of ‘Recording Time’ in multiple ways. In honour of Record Store Day, guest-curator Matthew Hearn presents a second spin of ‘Beyond the Goldmine Standard’, featuring iconic 12” Vinyl Records creatively reimagined by 20 local artists, with proceeds benefiting Maggie’s Cancer Treatment Centre in Newcastle.

Venue:
Gallagher & Turner, 30 St Mary’s Place, Newcastle upon Tyne, NE1 7PQ
Date:
Apr 19th 2024 - May 25th 2024
Opening Times:
Tue-Fri 10:30 - 17:00 , Sat 10:00 - 16:00
Price:
Free

Lindsey McClaren: From Country to coast

Plein air paintings.

Venue:
Wild & Free Gallery, 3A Ilfracombe Gardens, Whitley Bay, NE26 3ND
Date:
May 12th 2024 - Jun 2nd 2024
Opening Times:
Wed-Sat 09:30 - 17:00
Price:
Free

Joanna Manousis: Iris Obscura

Joanna Manousis, a British-American artist known for her monumental and intimate-scale sculptures in glass, mirror, and mixed media, is set to captivate audiences with her last exhibition, “Iris Obscura.” Drawing on two decades of studio practice and three years of academic research, Manousis presents an innovative exploration of mirrored glass as a medium for artistic expression. “Iris Obscura” represents the culmination of Manousis’s extensive research of cast glass mirrors, a technique historically overlooked in mirror-making due to its textured, opaque surface. Through meticulous experimentation, Manousis has harnessed the potential of investment cast glass as a canvas for silver nitrate coatings, creating a mesmerising palette of surface effects.

Venue:
Abject Gallery, 47 Fawcett street, Sunderland, SR1 1RE
Date:
May 2nd 2024 - May 24th 2024
Opening Times:
Wed-Sat 11:00 - 17:00
Price:
Free

As Within So Without

An exhibition of abstract and landscape paintings by Jonny Bainbridge. Jonny’s new collection of paintings examines the recurring mechanisms and forms, between the microcosm and the macrocosm and our place, as humans beings , within it. What we see under the microscope on a cellular level is often mirrored to that which we perceive through telescopes, on an interstellar level.

Venue:
Bottleworks, 8 Riverside Walk, Ouseburn, Newcastle, NE6 1LX
Date:
May 15th 2024 - May 22nd 2024
Opening Times:
15th - 22nd May 2024 TBC
Price:
Free

North East Emerging Artist Award

A collaboration between curator, Matthew Jarratt and Seaton Delaval Hall, the NE Emerging Artist Award takes inspiration from the hall’s long-standing history of supporting and encouraging emerging creative talent. The award aims to showcase site specific contemporary art in an historic context. See 2022/23 winners Rachel Blackwell’s Flight of the Pipistrelles, inspired by the bats that live in the hall; Jacob Goff’s Many Hands, exploring the contributions made by volunteers and Wambui Hardcastle’s Time Flies in the Blink of an Eye, which encourages you to think about Seaton Delaval Hall in the future.

Venue:
Seaton Delaval Hall, The Avenue, Seaton Sluice, Northumberland, NE26 4QR
Date:
May 15th 2024 - Jun 23rd 2024
Opening Times:
Sun-Wed and Sat 11:00 - 17:00
Price:
£13/£6.50 child

No Last Dance

A group exhibition and a one-day symposium exploring how time is intrinsic to the act of making and viewing painting. The exhibition will showcase exciting approaches to painting that will be a stimulus for discussion about how artists sustain a motivated and ambitious practice with or without public recognition. The curation of the exhibition has been informed by the writing and practice of Isabelle Graw and Charlotte von Heyl. Isabelle Graw is an art writer who is interested in painting as a “formation”, something that continues to maintain itself under new historical conditions. As well as offering a way of discursive communication, painting operates at a non verbal level through bumps, marks, material and colour. Artist Charlotte von Heyl suggests that the moment of beholding a painting is the most important for her. That activation of the space between the viewer and the picture externally by its material presence and internally through shifting thoughts as the mind wanders is crucial. This process with a painting is not one the beholder can take away, but one that needs to be replayed and updated again and again whether positive or defensive.

Venue:
Newcastle Contemporary Art, High Bridge Works, 31-39 High Bridge, Newcastle upon-Tyne, NE1 1EW
Date:
Apr 25th 2024 - May 18th 2024
Opening Times:
Thu-Sat 12:00 - 17:00
Price:
Free

The Late Shows

An award-winning late-night free culture crawl across Newcastle and Gateshead. During The Late Shows, open art studios, music and performance venues, galleries, museums, studio collectives and landmark historical buildings come together to host intriguing interactive events for visitors.

Venue:
Various venues in Newcastle and Gateshead,
Date:
May 17th 2024 - May 18th 2024
Opening Times:
17th - 18th May 2024 18:00 - 22:00
Price:
Free

Laura Pedley

Inspired by big skies and open spaces Laura paints beautiful abstract landscapes. This - her first large scale solo exhibition at the gallery - is an opportunity for visitors to enjoy a broader selection of these ethereal works presented in her signature dreamlike soft pastel colour palette.

Venue:
The Biscuit Factory, 16 Stoddard Street, Newcastle, NE2 1AN
Date:
May 17th 2024 - Jun 23rd 2024
Opening Times:
Daily 10:00 - 17:00
Price:
Free