Culture Digest 24.07.26
A round up of some of the arts and culture stories which caught our attention this week
🌻 🌻🌻 Un petit note from Provence: Annual leave means Culture Digest is a little lighter for the next couple of weeks while Cultured. On Sunday takes a short break, returning on August 9. 🌻🌻🌻
Meet the man behind Newcastle's big domino run
A giant domino run through Newcastle city centre is planned as the grand finale of this year’s NOVUM Summer Festival, taking place from August 7 to 9.
A giant domino run through Newcastle city centre is planned as the grand finale of this year’s NOVUM Summer Festival, taking place from August 7 to 9.
What a beautifully simple idea!
Then again, it also sounds like something Buster Keaton or one of the other masters of silent slapstick would have revelled in.
Knock one down and they’ll all follow. What could possibly go wrong?
Julian Maynard Smith, the man behind Dominoes, is quick to quash the suggestion that the artwork resulted from an accident, happy or otherwise.
No, he says. Station House Opera (SHO), the performance art and theatre company he set up in 1980, had been using breezeblocks long before the first Dominoes performance in London in 2009.
Gala premiere for Eddie Cochran doc at Tyneside
Music legend Eddie Cochran will be strutting his stuff at Tyneside Cinema when the first fully authorised documentary of the pioneering rock ‘n’ roller gets a northern gala premiere.
The European premiere of Eddie Cochran: Don’t Forget Me closed the recent Raindance Film Festival in London where its director, Kirsty Bell, from Newcastle, won the best director accolade.
It will be screened in at the Tyneside on Thursday, September 3 at a gala event celebrating the 10th anniversary of the Sir Graham Wylie Foundation, funder of the cinema’s Tyneside Talent Unit.
The screening, made possible with support from the North East Mayoral Strategic Authority, will be followed by a Q&A session with Kirsty Bell and guests.
The film was produced by Goldfinch, the highly regarded entertainment company founded by Bell in 2016.
New future for Neville Hall
The historic Tyneside home of an internationally significant mining engineering archive is being saved for the region.
Newcastle City Council’s Cabinet has agreed to take ownership of the Grade II* listed Neville Hall in Newcastle, formerly the North of England Institute of Mining and Mechanical Engineers.
The building on Westgate Road, which opened in 1872, houses a vast collection of mining and engineering records, dating from when the North East was a world leader in the fields.
But an uncertain future lay ahead after the charity which runs the building, The Common Room of the Great North, experienced financial challenges caused in part by the Covid lockdown.
The council will now take ownership of the building and North East Museums will run it as part of its estate of 12 cultural venues, which includes the Great North Museum: Hancock, Discovery Museum and the Laing Art Gallery in Newcastle. Read more
North East comedy talent showcased at BBC-backed scratch night
Twelve North East writers and performers unveiled six original comedy creations at Alphabetti Theatre this week as part of New Writing North’s development project designed to nurture the region’s next generation of comedy screenwriters.
Backed by BBC Comedy, the group took part in three writing sessions in July with industry figures including The League of Gentlemen co-creator Jeremy Dyson, Saturday Night Live UK writer Chris Cantrill, Horrible Histories writer Rebecca Bain and Ludwig director Chris Foggin before presenting the character-led sketches to an invited audience.
The showcase introduced an eclectic cast of comic creations, from an over-familiar emergency call handler and a funeral celebrant with stand-up ambitions to a care home worker staging raves for residents and the owner of an animal modelling agency.
The project brought together writers Hal Branson, Anna Costello, Sammy Dobson, Laura Fulgenzi, Rebecca Glendenning-Laycock, Emily Low, Elaine Robertson, Jack Robertson, Kema Sikazwe, Chess Tomlinson, Lois-Amber Toole and Scott Turnbull.
Supported by BBC Comedy and the North East Mayoral Strategic Authority, the evening concluded with feedback from industry guests including Blue House Productions’ Shaunna O’Brien, Merman’s Maddy Beautyman, Schnoobert Productions founder Jason Cook and BBC Comedy commissioner Ethan Andrews.
A taste of Morton's magic ahead of the BBC Proms
Preparations for the BBC Proms are underway across the North East with Gateshead, Sunderland and Middlesbrough all playing host this year to the world’s biggest and longest-running music festival.
Known primarily as a celebration of classical music, the Proms programme seems to become ever more eclectic as it embraces different genres and sounds.
This was in evidence at The Glasshouse on Tuesday afternoon where Nadine Shah was watching a stage being constructed on the concourse.
The singer, born in South Tyneside, will be there under the spotlight (you’d assume a spotlight) on Friday evening as she performs with a Royal Northern Sinfonia ensemble.
In other years – this is the fifth time the Gateshead building has been a Proms venue – they would have been in Sage One, but the big hall is closed and not due to reopen until the new classical season begins in September.
Glimpse inside proposed new Glassworks: Sunderland
Images have been released to show how Glassworks: Sunderland might look, just days ahead of the proposed closure of the National Glass Centre.
The latter, at St Peter’s Riverside on the north bank of the Wear, is due to cease operations at the end of the month despite a concerted campaign by supporters to save it.
The architect-designed images of the proposed new facility have been submitted with a planning application to Sunderland City Council to develop the former Peter Smith Antiques building, in Sunniside, into a hub for glassmaking, ceramics and creative production. Read more
Pricking pomposity at Stockton's outdoor showcase
Stockton’s flagship cultural event is nearly upon us, with the 39th Stockton International Riverside Festival (SIRF) another golden opportunity for the region’s UK Town of Culture contender to show what it’s about.
It’s taking place over the weekend of July 31 to August 2 when the new Waterfront Park and adjacent High Street will be given over to street theatre, circus, music and dance.
More than 100 individual performances – local, national and international – are part of the lively programme, including a new SIRF commission from disabled-led production company Little Cog and the Full Circle learning disabled theatre ensemble.
They have collaborated to create an outdoor comedy called The Market Inspector, text-free but inspired by clowning and physical comedy.
It tells of a pompous perfectionist whose grand plans for a pristine artisan quarter in Stockton’s famous market unravel when a group of playful troublemakers arrives to claim the space.
Byker Estate appoints first artist in residence
A former hobby room on Newcastle’s Byker Estate has been given a new lease of life as an artist’s studio, with local maker and community artist Lucy Minta Reeves announced as its first artist in residence.
The studio, on St Michael’s Mount, has stood empty since 1988 but has been transformed with funding from Historic England as part of wider investment in community spaces across the estate.
Following a public call for applications and a selection process involving community partners and local residents, Reeves was chosen to lead the new residency.
A costume and prop maker with almost two decades’ experience across theatre, dance, live events and community arts, she plans to use the studio as an open creative space where residents can learn practical skills, collaborate on projects and explore their own creativity.
Among the ideas she hopes to develop is a large-scale recycled proggy (or clippy) mat banner celebrating Byker’s stories, character and community spirit.
Self-taught artist's homage to his home town
It’s 45 years since Stanley Davison first displayed his work in Hartlepool and now he’s back with a timely exhibition at Hartlepool Art Gallery.
Stanley Davison: A Decade in Paint features paintings done over the last 10 years in homage to the people, places and history of the town - and, you could say, warts and all.
There’s no art school qualification to bolster Davison’s credentials since he’s completely self-taught, having begun painting as a child when his mother bought him a set of paints using cigarette cards.
It would be fair to say he took to it like a duck to water.
In adulthood he painted when working in the steel industry and also when framing other people’s pictures in a shop on Hartlepool’s Park Road.
Mining fashion comes to light
A foray into underground fashion by a group of textile artists will go on show in a two-day exhibition at a historic lead and zinc mines complex.
The Inspired 2026 event on August 8-9 will be held from 10am-4pm at the Barracks Building at the extensive Nenthead Mines site near Alston, when 20 North Pennines artists will be exhibiting.
The exhibition will feature a project by the 16 women who make up the Lololasses textile group.
They decided to see what would happen if they left organic calico cloth for six weeks underground in Carr’s Mine at the Nenthead site.
Pieces of the cloth were folded to create patterns and pegged onto a line and left for mould and atmospheric chemicals to make their mark. Read more
Sunderland dance company to tell a different Romeo and Juliet story
A Sunderland-based dance and performance company is developing a new outdoor production inspired by Romeo and Juliet after securing support from a national arts funding programme.
Southpaw Company, based at Sheepfolds Stables, has been named as one of Without Walls’ Blueprint artists for 2026, receiving research and development funding to create Tommy & Teresa – a contemporary retelling of Shakespeare’s tragedy, co-created with Gypsy and Traveller communities.
The production, being developed in partnership with West Yorkshire’s Spin Arts and Gypsy rapper Big Deli, will tell the story of two young people growing up in neighbouring but very different communities – a council estate and a Traveller site. Using the familiar framework of Romeo and Juliet, it will explore social division, family conflict and cultural expectations through dance, music and spoken word.
Southpaw has built a national reputation for large-scale outdoor performances that combine choreography with striking visual storytelling. Its previous collaborations with Without Walls include Faust, which toured nationally for five years following its 2010 premiere, as well as Carousel in 2015 and Icarus in 2018.
Artistic director Robby Graham said the funding would allow the company to develop a production rooted in genuine collaboration. Read more
A brush with extinction
Nigel is a name very much in the news, with hardly a day passing without Mr Farage featuring.
County Durham artist Stephen Livingstone has used Nigel as the inspiration for his latest exhibition.
But in Stephen’s case it is a specimen of the long-extinct Irish Elk, also called the Giant Deer, which for years has been known by its pet name of Nigel by Durham University academics and students.
One of the largest deer that ever lived, with antlers which can span over 4.2 metres (13.8 ft) across, the most recent remains found of the species have been radiocarbon dated to about 7,700 years ago.
Nigel is part of the collection of Durham University’s biosciences department’s array of animal skeletons and skulls, which Stephen has been sifting through.
The collection dates from the 1830s and was used as a teaching aid, but is now kept in storage. Read more
Sunderland's National Mackem Day unveils 2026 line-up
National Mackem Day will return to Sheepfolds Stables on August 12 with a free celebration of Sunderland’s music, creativity and community, headlined by Sunderland-born singer Ruth-Ann Boyle.
Best known as the lead singer of 90s chart-toppers Olive, Boyle will perform the UK number one hit You’re Not Alone alongside a selection of other favourites as part of a programme celebrating local talent.
The line-up also features all-female punk trio Claudia, Sunderland Ceilidh Band, Unfolding Theatre’s Dear Sunderland, the Abbie Finn Trio and young pop group Northern Daughters, with broadcaster Jeff Brown hosting the event.
Alongside the live performances, visitors can browse a marketplace showcasing local artists, makers and independent businesses, including Under The Ivy, Roker Records, A Love Supreme and GrassiArt, as well as food traders and Sunderland Music City merchandise. Admission is free, although advance booking is recommended as places are expected to fill quickly.
Where fantasy found its roots
The Anglo-Saxons loved a good story and how this has impacted on culture and literature today is celebrated in a new exhibition.
Here Be Dragons: Anglo-Saxon Influence on Fantasy is part of the Jarrow Hall Festival of Archaeology, which runs until Sunday, August 2.
The exhibition itself will continue until November at Jarrow Hall, Anglo-Saxon Farm and Village and Bede Museum.
The festival includes handling sessions of objects up to 1,000 years old every Wednesday from 11am to 1pm throughout the festival and visits to the site’s current archaeological investigations at the adjacent Drewett’s Park.
At the reconstructed Anglo-Saxon village on August 1, living history group Regia Anglorum will be bringing the Anglo-Saxon period to life and the group Historia Normanis will also be demonstrating Norman living history.
Northumberland folk art menagerie raises £28,000 at auction
An extraordinary collection of handmade animal sculptures which became an unlikely Northumberland visitor attraction has found new homes after selling for £28,000 at auction.
The Branxton Cement Menagerie, created over decades by retired joiner John Fairnington, featured almost 100 life-sized animals alongside figures including Winston Churchill. Originally made to entertain his disabled son, the collection grew into a much-loved garden attraction at Fountain House in Branxton.
Auctioneer Jim Railton said bidders from across the UK and France competed for the sculptures, with a giraffe and a lion each selling for £1,800 against estimates of little more than £100. Other highlights included a figure of a man in a tin hat (£1,500), two seals (£950), a wild boar (£980) and a pig (£900). The sale formed part of a wider auction of contents from Ayton Castle, which was recently bought by comedian Alan Carr.