Enchanted City adds cosmic dimension to festivities
A winter showcase for artists
Tradition is important in the run-up to Christmas but a little novelty never goes amiss and some of the region’s most talented creatives are primed to deliver.
Their mission is to put the enchantment into Enchanted City, a new addition to Newcastle’s festive programme on which high hopes are pinned.
Funded by the city council and the North East Combined Authority, it will see Northumbria University’s city campus, a short walk from the top of Northumberland Street, transformed into an after-dark winter attraction.
The university are certainly up for it.
Dan Monnery, pro vice-chancellor for external affairs, said: “This is an important new cultural event for the region and we look forward to welcoming families and visitors to our campus to see some fantastic performances and installations.”
Clearly there’s confidence behind the Enchanted City idea since it has been introduced as an annual event.
Coun Abdul Samad, Newcastle City Council’s cabinet member for culture, music and arts, has called it “an exciting addition to the city’s growing cultural programme, offering local people and visitors to the city easy access to arts and culture and giving local artists the opportunity to have their works seen and enjoyed by a wider audience”.
While hoping it would boost the city’s winter economy, he predicted it would become a firm favourite with families, “accessible both in terms of location and cost, and something people can look forward to every year”.
No pressure, then, on those who have been given a university campus as a blank canvas on which to work their magic.
The omens look good. Many will remember North of the Tyne, Under the Stars which climaxed in March 2022 with colourful projections onto buildings on and around the nearby campus of Newcastle University.
Over four evenings, 40,000 people flocked to see them.
OK it was free, while there’s an admission charge for Enchanted City, but it proved that a campus beautifully transformed after dark can exert a powerful pull.
The inaugural Enchanted City theme is “the wonder, mystery and imagination of space”.
Roll up, then, for Enchanted City: From City Streets to Cosmic Skies.
Installations, we’re told, will “delve into themes of astrology, space junk, cosmic heritage and the human desire to connect with the stars”.
At NOVAK, the Newcastle-based creative design studio, they’re masters of projection, having moved into public art after cutting their teeth creating visuals for musicians and DJs.
Deploying new technologies, they have become known for “transforming architecture into dynamic, living canvases” – which is what they plan to do to the university’s Ellison Building, as viewed from Northumberland Road.
For North of the Tyne, Under the Stars they created Hyem, a projection which carpeted Newcastle University’s old quadrangle to the accompaniment of a soundscape by the innovative and widely experienced Ed Carter.
That’s a collaboration that’s to be continued here.
NOVAK creative director Elliott Thomson said: “We’re thrilled to be part of the inaugural Enchanted City and to unveil SIGNAL, a new collaboration with composer Ed Carter.
“This artwork takes real radio transmissions from deep space and transforms them into an ever-shifting landscape of light and sound.
“SIGNAL invites audiences to imagine what these transmissions might mean, where they originate and how we interpret the unknown.”
Studio Vertigo, founded by artists Lucy McDonnell and Stephen Newby, will exhibit Supernova, a glowing sculpture previously exhibited in Brooklyn Botanic Garden in New York.
Stephen said: “As an international light art studio based in Newcastle, we’re often sending our work overseas.
“Given the choice between shipping this piece across the world or keeping it in the place where it was designed and built… well, the decision was easy.
“Light events like this bring people together in shared spaces after dark and it’s great to see Newcastle joining the cities that make these experiences possible.”
Supernova will be accompanied by three smaller nova sculptures in Northumbria University’s Ellison Quad.
North East artist Bethan Maddocks, who graduated from Northumbria University 20 years ago, makes delicate sculptures using paper, fabric and light. Previously she has exhibited at Seaton Delaval Hall and Woodhorn Museum.
Her new creation, Terra Nova, made with technician Jona Aal and Newcastle community groups, will be displayed in the yard behind the Sutherland Building.
Imagine a globe adorned with space-inspired papercut imagery, spinning and casting shadows.
It’s based, says Bethan, on an armillary sphere, an ancient tool for mapping the sky.
Other contributors include Dan Fox, of Cumbria-based Sound Intervention, whose work was also seen at the recent Lumiere in Durham, and Moving Parts Arts who produce the annual Newcastle Puppetry Festival (a clue there as to what they might have in mind here).
Unfolding Theatre, based in Newcastle, plan to set up a space-themed ‘participatory installation’ called Clear the Way, adding a performative element.
Artistic director Annie Rigby enthused: “The whole event promises to be an awe-inspiring, surreal and magical spectacle – a fantastic way to kick-start family festive celebrations this year.”
Amy Lord, an artist who works both in London and the North East, has dreamt up Horoscope Hotel as her Enchanted City contribution.
Owing more to astrology than astronomy, its 12 uniquely decorated doors, each with a horoscope to impart, will be scattered across the site.
Among artists from outside the region will be the experienced Mandy Dike of AndNow, based in Wales, who plans to transform the Ellison Place walled garden into Celestial Dreaming, “a surreal and magical landscape filled with firelight, sound and cosmic imagery”.
Meanwhile another certain talking point will be Ascendance, a holographic projection inside St James’ United Reformed Church, on Northumberland Road, featuring, we are told, an astronaut “drifting through a dreamlike cosmos of flowers, butterflies and hallucinations”.
This rather trippy sounding creation is the work of married couple Davy and Kristin McGuire whose renowned Hull-based Studio McGuire has won many awards and exhibited in countries all over the world.
There is to be more… but maybe you’ll just have to go and explore.
Enchanted City: From City Streets to Cosmic Skies will run from Thursday, December 11 to Sunday, December 14, from 4.30pm until 9.30pm each day (last entry 8pm).
Tickets, which cost £12.50 for adults and £7.50 for children aged three and over, can be bought for various different time slots from the Enchanted City website where you will also find full details of the event.