Hello and welcome to this week’s Cultured. On Sunday.
It’s also my (Sam’s) birthday weekend and, as I prepare to enter Area 51, I can’t help thinking the prospect would be considerably less terrifying if our paid subscriber counter also went up a notch. Or 25. Just putting that out there…
OK, shameless birthday appeal over. We’ve got plenty to get through.
Dave has been to Middlesbrough to meet the artists behind two exhibitions opening as part of Turner on Tees, the programme of events wrapping around this year’s Turner Prize exhibition at MIMA.
He also looks ahead to The Glasshouse’s Steve Reich at 90 weekend.
We talk to TV executive Kirstie Macdonald about building a television career in the North East, while Tony Henderson brings us stories from Northumberland National Park and tonight’s Antiques Roadshow at Souter Lighthouse.
New recruit Charley Dobson takes a closer look at North East documentary Marathon Man and the extraordinary 3,332-mile challenge behind it.
Elsewhere, we mark the opening of Newcastle’s first radical bookshop in decades, meet former Hjem head chef Marek Dziedzic ahead of the opening of his first restaurant, Biedronka, and Get Stuck In heads to The Hearth in Horsley for a spot of wet cyanotype.
Happy Sunday!
Focus on creative Tees Valley as MIMA hosts Turner Prize
A big weekend has arrived for the visual arts in Middlesbrough with the high profile Turner Prize exhibition opening at MIMA.
It’s a chance for this aspirant town – a longlisted contender to be the next UK City (yes, City) of Culture - to show outsiders that what they thought they knew about the place might not be the whole story.
This is also the start of the well-established Middlesbrough Art Week (September 24 to October 3) with artists exhibiting and performing in various venues.
Running alongside the Turner Prize exhibition, and further highlighting the area’s vibrant arts scene, is the Turner on Tees programme which embraces the most prominent exhibition spaces.
Supported by Arts Council England, MIMA and Teesside University, it is part of a strategy called The Next Wave: Creativity Rising aimed at building and sustaining culture, confidence and creative ambition across the Tees Valley.
Read on to meet a couple who have found Stockton a supportive and welcoming place for their performative art… and a photographer from the area whose work is being celebrated in parallel with the Turner Prize contenders.
Bringing it home
When you sit down to talk to Kirstie Macdonald, there really is no getting away from the ‘Home’ in Forever Home.
The FilmNation Entertainment executive producer, who was born in South Shields and went to school in Sunderland, spent the early part of this year working across Northumberland on the adaptation of Graham Norton’s novel, having first suggested moving its story from Ireland to the North East.
Bringing the six-part Channel 5 drama here meant returning to the region where her own ambitions in television first took shape – and strengthening her determination to make a lot more here.
Now that Forever Home has been made and screened – the finale was broadcast last night – Kirstie is more interested in what comes next, and is very clear she doesn’t want it to be a one-off.
“What we really need is a version of The Bill or something that is made here and is going to be returnable,” she says. “Multiple series, multiple writers, multiple directors, so that you can create a sort of training ground and infrastructure.”
Kirstie wants to see work generated here, regional writers developed and people able to build sustainable careers without having to leave – something she knows plenty about herself.
“If we can make stuff in the North East... the crew we had on Forever Home were phenomenal and we had the best time making it,” she says. “To be able to keep doing that here and to be able to guarantee work for people throughout the year. That has to be the aim.”
Feel the rhythm as Glasshouse honours Steve Reich
If you have been looking to see what’s on at The Glasshouse, you’ll have noticed one name figures prominently in the coming days – that of American composer Steve Reich.
People will be travelling from near and far, including a significant number from overseas, to enjoy a long weekend of music marking his 90th birthday on October 3.
The Steve Reich at 90 programme, featuring 12 talks and performances over three days, has been curated by Scottish percussionist Colin Currie who is one of the leading interpreters of Reich’s work.
He is also something of a super-fan, as quickly becomes apparent.
Invited for a meeting with James Thomas, head of the classical programme at The Glasshouse, Colin recalls popping down from Glasgow excited and full of ideas.
Volunteers who shaped a landscape
Personal stories from the people who helped shape Northumberland National Park are being brought to life in a new exhibition.
Volunteer Voices at The Sill: National Landscape Discovery Centre uncovers over 60 years of volunteer history, revealing individual stories, rare personal archive material and discoveries not previously documented.
Developed and curated by park volunteers, the exhibition celebrates the generations of people who have dedicated their time, passion and expertise to caring for the national park’s landscapes, heritage and communities.
Through oral histories, photographs, archive documents and personal artefacts, the display tells of volunteering in the park from its earliest days to the present, preserving memories and experiences that might otherwise have been lost.
New film follows a marathon journey through grief
Grief is inevitable and universal, but it can still be something we struggle to talk about.
A new documentary coming to Tyneside Cinema on September 30 doesn’t shy away from that difficult conversation.
Marathon Man follows North Shields runner Leodhais Macpherson as he takes on an extraordinary challenge in memory of his brother Conor, who took his own life in 2018 and whose body was never found.
Over 128 days, Leodhais ran 128 marathons – 3,332 miles, the equivalent of the distance from Newcastle to New York, where Conor had dreamed of living.
As well as pushing himself physically and raising money for suicide prevention charity If U Care Share and the RNLI, the challenge forced Leodhais and his family to confront a grief they had struggled to talk about.
“I’d always called it the ‘Elephant in the Room,’ the fact that neither me or my parents could talk about Conor,” he said. “There were photos of him all over the house, but sometimes, it felt almost as if he’d never even existed.
“Doing the challenge meant talking about Conor publicly for the first time and though that was difficult for me and especially my parents, it forced us to face up to feelings and thoughts we’d not dealt with.”
A new chapter for Newcastle’s radical readers
Newcastle’s first radical bookshop in decades opens its doors today (September 27) following a crowdfunding campaign.
Books From Below, is based at the rear of Blandford Square in the city centre, with an opening-day ribbon cutting at 10am and everyone welcome to go along.
The independent shop will stock books covering radical politics and grassroots movements, including writing on class, race, feminism, queer and trans issues, disability and environmentalism. Coffee and snacks will also be available.
Its founders - Rob, Emily and Ben - hope Books From Below will become more than a place to buy books, with plans for talks, reading groups, screenings, workshops, zine fairs and other events.
The opening follows a crowdfunding campaign launched in March to help get the project off the ground. Supporters contributed almost £14,000 towards securing premises and stocking the shelves.
***Cards on the table: I (Sam) have been helping Restaurant Biedronka with spreading the word ahead of its launch. But we didn’t think our readers should miss out on the story because of that!***
Former Hjem head chef draws on his Polish roots for his first restaurant
For Marek Dziedzic, the idea behind his first restaurant can be traced back to two stretches of countryside, nearly one thousand miles apart.
One is in Puszczykowo in western Poland, where the 35-year-old chef grew up after being born near Kościan, not far from Poznań. The other is in County Durham, where Restaurant Biedronka will welcome its first guests at The Farmhouse, South Causey Inn, on October 1.
“I want to bring my heritage from the Polish countryside to the British countryside,” says Marek. “They’re not as far apart as you might think.”
Biedronka – Polish for ladybird – will combine British produce with the food Marek grew up with, putting handmade Polish dumplings centre stage alongside snacks, starters, fish, meat and desserts.
But this wasn’t a restaurant concept Marek had been carrying around in his head for years.
“The idea came to me quite naturally,” he says. “I’ve listened to a lot of people talking about opening restaurants and one thing that stayed with me was the idea that sometimes the concept should come from the place, rather than arriving with an idea and trying to make the place fit.
“When I looked at The Farmhouse, I started thinking about contemporary farmhouse cooking and bringing my Polish heritage into that.
“It means I’m telling my own story through the food. It’s true to me. I don’t need to make up stories that aren’t real.” Read more
Culture isn’t just something to watch from the sidelines. Get Stuck In is our new way of highlighting opportunities to get involved – from workshops and courses to clubs, classes and one-off events where you can learn something, make something or simply have a go.
This week… Wet cyanotype at The Hearth
Fancy going beyond the traditional blueprint? A workshop in Horsley offers beginners the chance to experiment with one of photography’s oldest printing processes.
What is it?
Cyanotype is a photographic printing process which uses iron salts and ultraviolet light to produce its distinctive deep-blue images.
But this workshop at The Hearth in Horsley goes a step further, introducing wet cyanotype, where water and other ingredients including vinegar, soap suds and spices are added to create different colours, textures and effects.
Led by cyanotype artist Emily Surash of Crafty Wagtails, the two-and-a-half-hour session will give participants the chance to experiment with the process and create their own prints to take home. Emily works with botanicals gathered from gardens, meadows and woodlands across Northumberland, creating work on both paper and fabric.
No previous experience is needed, so it’s very much one for people who fancy trying something new rather than those who already know their ferric ammonium citrate from their potassium ferricyanide.
Where is it?
The workshop takes place at The Hearth in Horsley, a charity and arts organisation which combines studios and creative activity with a café and community space, and supports artists and cultural experiences in its rural Tyne Valley setting.
When, and how much?
Saturday, October 3, 10.30am–1pm, priced at £40
The Hearth, Main Road, Horsley, Newcastle upon Tyne NE15 0NT
There is accessible parking behind The Hearth, free on-road parking nearby and the venue is on the 685 Newcastle–Hexham–Carlisle bus route.
What else is coming up?
The Hearth has a packed programme of creative workshops during October, covering everything from making inks and art materials from trees and plants to textile pet portraits, wildlife painting, metal embossing, appliqué and pastel painting.
There are also further opportunities to try cyanotype, including Blue Impressions, another workshop with Emily Surash which moves the process onto fabric, with participants creating their own printed tote bag and zip pouch.
Find out more and book via The Hearth website.