Cultured. On Sunday 28.06.26
From Sunderland’s musical momentum to Norman Cornish’s enduring power - plus community, culture, books and brilliant telly
Hello and thanks for opening this week’s Cultured. On Sunday. Or maybe it should be Cultured. On Sund-erland.
There’s a distinctly Wearside flavour to this weekend’s edition, with Sunderland’s creative spirit running through much of what we’re serving up.
We reflect on the city’s Year of Music with Sunday columnist Frankie Francis, celebrate The Futureheads taking their rightful place on the Wall of Fame at The Fire Station, and explore two powerful cultural projects born from the 2024 riots that are helping build community cohesion through creativity.
Elsewhere, David Whetstone reports from the launch of a major new Norman Cornish exhibition at The Bowes Museum and brings news of celebrations marking 30 years of the Samling Academy.
We’ve also got a tempting bookshelf recommendation from Forum Books’ Helen Stanton and a delightfully cosy-but-cerebral whodunnit from Boxing Clever.
Happy reading!
Cornish sketchbooks on show with 'The Pitmen's Madonna'
The deft hand of Norman Cornish is evident everywhere in the latest exhibition of his work at the Bowes Museum – as potent an attraction as that of the European masters with their gilt frames and fancy names.
Cornish, who found all the inspiration he needed along the road in Spennymoor, has a room of his own.
It could have been much bigger.
Vicky Sturrs, director of programmes and collections at the Bowes and one of those tasked with selecting work for Norman Cornish: A Life in Sketchbooks, said it had been a challenge, albeit an enjoyable one.
“We were struck by the sheer volume – 269 sketchbooks with about 30 or 40 pages in each. We’ve got about 60 on show and they’re so incredibly varied and beautiful.
“Norman always had a sketchbook with him. They were his constant companions.”
After the riots, what could art do for Sunderland?
In the immediate aftermath of the riots which shook Sunderland in the summer of 2024, the physical damage was easy enough to see.
Broken windows, scorched streets and the visible scars left by a city caught in the glare of national headlines told one story. But, as is so often the case, the harder damage to quantify sat beneath the surface.
Trust had been shaken. Relationships between communities felt strained. Longstanding tensions around identity, belonging and who gets heard had been dragged into the open in an ugly and painful way.
For many, the question was not simply how Sunderland recovered from those days, but what meaningful recovery might actually look like.
For Sunderland and South Tyneside-based arts organisation The Cultural Spring, part of the answer lay in creating spaces where people could come together, speak honestly and, perhaps most importantly, listen to one another.
Using funding from Sunderland City Council and the UK Government’s Community Recovery Fund, The Cultural Spring developed a community cohesion project, Sunderland: Our Home in response to the unrest.
Celebrating a band which never stops backing Sunderland
The Futureheads have taken their rightful place on Sunderland’s Music Wall of Fame, joining a growing roll call of artists who have helped shape the city’s rich musical identity.
The latest mural to be added to the collection outside The Fire Station was unveiled last weekend, cementing the band’s place alongside Sunderland music royalty Dave Stewart, Field Music and Kenickie.
Commissioned by Sunderland Music City and created by Sunderland illustrator Kathryn Robertson (KR Illustrates), it’s difficult to imagine a more deserving addition.
I’ve followed The Futureheads (Ross Millard, brothers Barry and Dave Hyde and David ‘Jaff’ Craig) through pretty much my entire journalism career covering arts and culture in the North East.
Album launches. Big hometown gigs. Festival announcements. Passion projects. Campaigns to champion Sunderland’s creative future. If something meaningful has been happening in Wearside’s cultural landscape over the past two decades, there’s a decent chance at least one Futurehead has been somewhere in the mix.
From community halls to international summits, Frankie Francis reflects on how Sunderland’s Year of Music showed the power of music to connect, inspire and build pride.
Sunderland’s Year of Music has marked a significant chapter in the city’s cultural story.
Over the past 12 months, we’ve celebrated Sunderland’s rich musical heritage while also looking confidently towards the future. For me, that balance feels important. Music in Sunderland has always been about honouring what came before while creating space for what comes next.
The Year of Music brought together artists, community groups, schools, venues and audiences to showcase the diversity and strength of Sunderland’s music scene. From large-scale concerts to grassroots performances, it demonstrated something many of us have known for a long time: music has a unique ability to connect people, inspire creativity and strengthen civic pride.
One of the things I’ve loved most has been seeing music happen everywhere.
Of course, Sunderland is lucky to have fantastic venues, but some of the most powerful moments of the year happened beyond traditional stages - in community centres, schools, public spaces and neighbourhoods across the city. Music reached people where they are, and that matters.
Accessibility was another real success. So many events were free or low-cost, allowing people from different backgrounds to take part. Families came together at outdoor festivals, young people discovered new artists, and older generations reconnected with the songs and traditions that helped shape Sunderland’s identity.
That inclusive approach is important because music should belong to everyone.
This week’s tasty recommendation for your bookshelf - I’ll Cook by Sophie Godwin - comes from Forum Books* founder Helen Stanton. You can pick it up at Forum Books in Corbridge, or one of its sister shops, The Bound Whitley Bay and The Accidental Bookshop in Alnwick.
I definitely don’t need any more cook books … but I’m definitely damn glad I didn’t resist this one.
Sophie’s relaxed style is infectious with easily achievable recipes that make you want to cook just about everything in here. Genuinely one I’ve tried, tested and tasted. I’ve made, ate and gone back for seconds of the fish tacos with pineapple salsa.
Her ’seriously good prawn spaghetti’ is just that … seriously. Kimchi Mac ’n’ cheese works a treat, as do the baked raclette potatoes described as ‘a filthy one-pan banger’.
The salads are standout - from super easy sides of instant French sophistication with an apple and cornichon salad to halloumi and charred lemon giant couscous, harissa roots and chickpeas - I’m making interesting delicious salads at last!
Recipes are mixed to serve 2, 4 or 6 and start with drinking snacks, then the aforementioned one pot bangers, summer lovers, winter waters, speedy catch-ups, sharing feast and something sweet.
The ’sharing feasts’ bit is kinda genius too as suggests a five feasts with three recipes each from a full vegan curried number to an update on steak and chips.
There’s a lush 1970s colour vibe to the photographs, but it’s the recipes that are just delicious and doable… I’ll just leave with some pud…Basque cheesecake or chocolate Guinness pudding or miso cornflake tart or…
*Note: Did you catch Forum Books on BBC Breakfast recently? They were chatting all things Independent Bookshop Week. Here it is if you missed it…
Every week, Michael Telfer – aka Mike TV – recommends a box set to crack open. This week’s choice is cosy but clever whodunnit on the BBC iPlayer.
Pop quiz: What do Jeremy Irons, Christian Bale, Lindsay Lohan, Jean-Claude Van Damme, Michael B. Jordan and David Mitchell have in common?
That’s right, they’ve all shown themselves to be acting virtuosos by playing identical twins on screen.
And for me, until De Niro or Pacino ever simultaneously play a Hong Kong gangster and Parisian martial arts instructor in the same film as JCVD did in Double Impact, they’ll be B-list at best.
In Ludwig David Mitchell plays twin brothers John and James Taylor. When successful and popular Detective Chief Inspector James goes missing in the middle of a case, it falls to John, a reclusive puzzle maker who writes under the pen name Ludwig, to reluctantly step into James’ shoes and find out what has become of his brother.
The ruse is the brainchild of James’ anxious wife Lucy (Anna Maxwell Martin), who bullies John into moving in with her and James’ son Henry and going into the police station to have a root around in the missing DCI’s PC and files.
What they don’t reckon with is that every time John trundles along to work somebody gets murdered in mysterious circumstances, and obviously it falls to him to find out how and by whom.
