A most creative station
A most creative station
Artists are adding vibrancy and flair to one of the region’s historic railway stations ahead of bicentenary celebrations next year, as David Whetstone reports
If anyone ever buttonholes you with the question “What’s the most creative station?” – stranger things have happened – then Middlesbrough must be the answer.
That’s the hope of those behind the Most Creative Station project which was launched last summer and runs until spring 2025 (when major rail bicentenary celebrations are planned for Teesside and County Durham).
It’s the initiative of Navigator North, an artist-led organisation based in the town, Middlesbrough Council and station operator TransPennine Express, and it includes artist commissions and residencies.
The aim, according to Navigator North, was to “animate the station with site specific artworks, creative interventions and opportunities for people to be creative”.
And it was designed to coincide with the multi-million-pound refurbishment of the historic station, built in 1877, which is to include a new platform and infrastructure.
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The process of station animation is in train, you might say, with four of the eight commissions already installed.
Kiosk, by Adam Shaw, is a fusion of art, heritage and practicality.
Adam is a printmaker and painter and his creative practice, say Navigator North, is “rooted in archival and media archaeology”.
For his Most Creative Station commission he built a kiosk just like the one he spotted in a photo dated January 1955 showing the station after it had been restored following wartime bomb damage.
That was a newspaper kiosk, a familiar focal point for station users. Adam’s latter day homage is all sorts of things – a functional artwork, a printmaking space and a gallery dedicated to interesting station-related stuff.
Beth Johnson’s art tends to focus on embroidery but she has also studied architecture and the two disciplines come together in Journey, an artwork fashioned from thousands of rail tickets collected from passengers.
As well as soliciting tickets, Beth spent time in the ticket office, eavesdropping on interactions with customers, and also set up a desk on the platform to gather people’s stories.
With virtual ticketing on the rise, you can’t help wondering if Beth’s visually appealing creation, featuring tickets stitched together in patterns inspired by the station architecture, will soon be pure nostalgia – a worthy exhibit for Adam’s kiosk.
Unveiled first, back in July, was Rachael Clewlow’s Tees Colour Register, a transparent frieze of 492 coloured vinyl strips spanning the 50m length of the station’s concourse windows.
The colours were inspired by Rachael’s observations when journeying across the region by train, starting in Middlesbrough.
Rachael, who grew up in Linthorpe, would take her notebook on each journey and jot down points of interest in tiny handwriting as she travelled.
“I’ve used the station so much during my life that I was instantly drawn to this project,” she said.
“Travelling to places like Whitby and Saltburn by train did stir up an awful lot of childhood memories.
“Being on a train allows you to look out of the window and really take in what’s going on, and each journey really highlighted how diverse our area is. You go from urban to suburban, into countryside and then the coastline.”
Rachael’s installation, from left to right, details her journeys to Bishop Auckland, Saltburn, Hartlepool, Yarm and Whitby.
“I hope that people can take joy from it, and that it helps celebrate what is actually a stunning building with some brilliant architecture,” she said.
Also installed is Middlesbrough Moquette by Emma Bennett, another artist inspired by colour and architecture and who lives and works in the town.
Moquette, from a French word for carpet, is a type of dense woven fabric that is widely used on public transport. Emma researched its history at London Transport Museum and York Railway Museum before producing her own patterns referencing the architecture of Middlesbrough station, past and present.
Her research fed into the series of vinyl artworks she created and which are now displayed at the station as a bespoke Middlesbrough moquette.
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The four other commissions went to Ed Carter, Gareth Hudson and Toby Thirling, Keino and Helen Pailing and their creations will be further animating Middlesbrough’s supremely arty station in due course.
Coun Philippa Storey, Middlesbrough’s deputy mayor and executive member for culture, said selectors had been “blown away by the originality, quality and passion for Middlesbrough displayed in the submissions”.
She said the project was just one of the ways the council was improving access to art and culture with funding it received from the cultural development fund administered by Arts Council England.
It was also a fantastic way to kick off the celebration of the railway bicentennial (the Stockton & Darlington Railway opened in September, 1825).
She added: “Middlesbrough Railway Station is one of our most striking and historic buildings and I’m excited to see its refurbishment completed, and then how this artwork will interact within the space.”
Details of the Most Creative Station project can be found on the website of Navigator North.