Culture Digest 26.06.26
A round-up of the North East arts and culture stories that caught our eye this week
“There’s nothing like it in the world” - Claire Malcolm
Claire Malcolm, founding chief executive of New Writing North, opened her remarks at a lively Northern Writers’ Awards celebration and showcase with an update on the proposed new centre for writing and publishing in Newcastle.
“We are about to buy the Old Post Office,” she said.
Seven years in the planning (although with several previous possible sites looked at), £10.7 million had been raised and “a new generation of storytellers” would soon see the benefits of the proposed facility opposite St Nicholas’ Cathedral.
It would enable a scaling up of activity, creating new opportunities for young people and new creative jobs.
“You’ll be able to grow up here, dream of becoming a writer or publisher and not have to leave the North East to do it,” Claire told her audience of writers and cultural figures from across the north of England (and many others watching online).
The aim, she said, was to “rebalance” the UK reading and writing scene. “The North is rising!” she declared in a nod to Newcastle writer and academic Alex Niven’s recent book, The North Will Rise Again.
Later she said privately that she expected the purchase to have gone through by the end of July and hoped the new centre would be open by the end of 2028. Read more.
Something big is building in Newcastle
The first big wave of programming for the return of Newcastle’s NOVUM Festival has been announced.
The free three-day festival will run from August 7-9 and is sporting a determined mission to turn the city centre into one big open-air playground.
Since launching as part of Newcastle City Council’s long-term cultural events strategy, NOVUM has occupied a distinctive place in the city’s cultural calendar, with a blend of big spectacle, community participation and joyful chaos.
This year’s line-up promises plenty of all three.
Summer opening announced for The Light in Durham
The Light, Durham’s latest cultural attraction, is to open to the public on Saturday, August 22, it has been announced.
The venue, on the site of the old DLI Museum & Art Gallery, will open with an exhibition of international light-based art called Victory Over the Sun: Encounters with Light.
Featuring work by artists who have used light in extraordinary ways, including Tracey Emin, Dan Flavin, Olafur Eliasson and Chila Burman, it will spread over three galleries in the newly transformed building at Aykley Heads.
Durham County Council say it “will immerse audiences in a range of sensory effects, increasing their understanding of how we see and experience light, and showcasing the links between light, science and nature”. Read more
Northern Writers' Awards show abundance of talent
Twenty seven writers have received support worth £75,000 in the latest round of Northern Writers’ Awards run by New Writing North.
The total package includes £64,300 in cash bursaries with the additional value accounted for by mentorship opportunities.
The annual awards, as old as the century now, have helped to bring many writing projects to fruition and every year sees lustre added to the litany of success.
In the last year previous winners have been shortlisted for the Women’s Prize for Fiction (Rozie Kelly), won the Goldsmiths Prize for fiction (C. D. Rose) and won the Forward Prize for Best Collection (Vidyan Ravinthiran).
The awards also see New Writing North – based in Newcastle since it was established 30 years ago – in its Arts Council-appointed role as the development agency for writing and reading across the whole of the north of England.
Many of those applauded at Wednesday’s awards ceremony at Northumbria University were from outside the North East.
There was success, though, for Redcar’s Nate Black (Northern Debut Award for Fiction), Sarah Hunt from Whitley Bay (inaugural Great Northern Read Award), Victoria Flemming from Newcastle (Northumbria University Student and Alumni Award) and Shazia J. Altaf from Middlesbrough (Tees Valley Award).
From screen to stream for Desert Island Flicks
Comedian, actor and presenter Davey Johns is taking his popular Desert Island Flicks events series from Tyneside Cinema to podcast platforms this August.
Featuring chats with Bill Bailey, Stewart Lee, James Purefoy, Christopher Eccleston and Brenda Blethyn (to be recorded on July 27), the series explores the films that shaped its guests.
The final live recording with Vera star Brenda Blethyn is already sold out.
Songs from the coalface
For Billy Mitchell, Bob Fox and Jez Lowe, The Pitmen Poets was never supposed to become a long-running live music project.
When the three North East folk stalwarts first came together in 2011 - alongside Benny Graham - for a one-off concert at London’s Kings Place, the plan was simple: sing a few songs, tell a few stories and shine a light on the culture and communities shaped by the region’s coal industry.
Fifteen years later, they’re still doing exactly that - and audiences are still turning up in force.
Set in stone, but up for sale
One of the quirkiest North East sculpture collections, which became a quaint visitor attraction, is to be sold.
The Branxton Cement Menagerie consisted of more than 200 animals of every description, together with historical figures such as Winston Churchill and T. E. Lawrence.
The sculptures were created at Fountain House in the Northumberland village of Branxton, with visitors able to tour the private property’s garden to inspect the assemblage.
The collection, ranging from a giraffe and a lion to a rhino and zebra, was the work of John Fairnington, a retired joiner who began making the figures in 1961, originally to entertain his disabled son who spent much of his time at home.
The collection was eventually bought in 2021 by the owners of Ayton Castle in Berwickshire in the Borders.
They in turn have moved on and the 17-bedroom mansion, which was on offer at £3.25m, has now been purchased by comedian, presenter and Celebrity Traitors champion, Alan Carr.
Dance City announces new CEO and creative director
A nimble quickstep across Newcastle will see Jennifer Curry take up her post as the new chief executive and creative director of Dance City in September.
Currently director of philanthropy and external relations at Gosforth Civic Theatre, she will succeed Anand Bhatt who left Dance City recently to take up a new appointment in Birmingham.
The announcement from Dance City says Jennifer was chosen for her “strong record of leadership, advocacy and sector influence across national and regional cultural organisations”.
The board was also impressed by the fact that her career is “rooted in championing dance, supporting artists and strengthening the cultural ecology of the North East and the UK”. Read more
Sam Ryder to lead cast of Jesus Christ Superstar to the North East
North East audiences will get two chances to experience one of musical theatre’s most enduring rock operas when Jesus Christ Superstar returns to the region in 2027 as part of a major new UK tour.
Following acclaimed West End runs at London Palladium and Theatre Royal Drury Lane, the new production of Tim Rice and Andrew Lloyd Webber’s iconic musical - produced by Newcastle’s Michael Harrison - will be at Newcastle Theatre Royal from March 16-27.
The production’s second coming will see the show grace the stage at Sunderland Empire from September 14-18.
Singer-songwriter Sam Ryder - who shot to international fame after representing the UK at the Eurovision Song Contest 2022 - will take on the role of Jesus for the duration of the tour.
North East celebrates Vanbrugh legacy
The extraordinary life of Sir John Vanbrugh spanned India, Europe and the length of England.
He worked for the East India Company, then served in both the army and navy, was imprisoned in the Bastille and elsewhere as a suspected spy for four years by the French, was a royal herald, a popular if provocative dramatist with plays such as The Provoked Wife, and finally one of the country’s leading architects whose work includes Blenheim Palace, Castle Howard and Seaton Delaval Hall.
He has been described as “bringing drama to both stage and stone.”
This year, events are marking the 300th anniversary of his death – and Durham University professor of classics Edmund Thomas and colleague faculty librarian Richard Pears have ensured that the North East does not miss out on the Vanbrugh celebrations.
They have organised a conference titled The Architecture and Influence of Sir John Vanbrugh in North East England, which will be held at Redhills Durham Miners Hall on July 8. Read more
Folks, it’s Rothbury time
Musicians and music lovers from across the UK and beyond will head to Northumberland next month as the Rothbury Traditional Music Festival returns for another weekend of tunes, sessions and community spirit.
Running from July 10-12, the much-loved festival will once again transform the Coquetdale town into a hub for traditional music, with concerts, competitions, workshops, informal sessions and family-friendly events spread across multiple venues.
Founded by renowned Northumbrian musician Alistair Anderson, the festival has grown since its launch into one of the region’s best-loved celebrations of folk and traditional music, drawing performers and audiences from around the world.
This year’s line-up includes acclaimed folk duo Janice Burns and Jon Doran, Irish musicians Mícheál and MacDara Ó Raghallaigh, Belgian accordionist Elke de Meester, alongside North East favourites Andy May Trio, Arthur Coates and Kerran Cotterell, Julian Sutton and festival founder Anderson himself.
Jill Halfpenny joins star-studded TV drama
Gateshead actress Jill Halfpenny has joined the cast of new ITV drama Mavis Eccleston, based on the extraordinary true story of a woman charged with murdering her husband after surviving a joint suicide pact.
Jill, who recently finished an acclaimed run in Noel Coward’s Private Lives at the Royal Exchange in Manchester, will play the couple’s daughter-in-law Tracey alongside a cast led by Penelope Wilton and Jonathan Pryce as Mavis and Dennis Eccleston.
The four-part series, written by Chris Lang, is currently filming in Bristol for ITV.
Art project tracks landscape in transition
When one of Britain’s greatest artists visited Newcastle, he produced a view looking upriver which picked out prominent features on the skyline as it was in 1823.
JMW Turner’s work, Newcastle-on-Tyne looking out from the Ballast Hills on the north side of the river, included the Newcastle Castle Keep, All Saints Church, the St Nicholas’ Cathedral lantern tower, and St Mary’s Church in Gateshead.
He also included the 174ft-high Shot Tower, built in 1797 at Elswick Lead Works and demolished in 1969.
Nature is now reclaiming the lead works site, which is earmarked for housing development. Once a significant employer, the only occupants today are pigeon fanciers and their crees on the fringe of the site overlooking Skinnerburn Road on the riverside.
Also with a stake in the site is artist and Newcastle University researcher Julia Heslop, who is running a long-term project tracking the landscape changes at the brownfield location, working with a botanist and ornithologist. Read more
Tunnard collection passes half-million mark
A remarkable art collection built over decades by late Brian Whitton has now realised more than £500,000 across two auction sales.
The second sale of works by British modernist John Tunnard, amassed by the former Durham University professor, raised £100,100 including fees at Anderson & Garland.
That follows an earlier sale this year which raised £406,000, bringing the total to more than £506,000.
Together, the sales represent one of the most significant bodies of Tunnard’s work ever to reach the open market.
Whitton, a world authority on river systems and algae, spent years assembling what is regarded as the finest private collection of Tunnard’s work. He also co-authored the standard reference book on the artist and organised major exhibitions of his paintings.
A third and final sale from the Brian Whitton Collection will take place on September 16.