New arts initiative connects campus and community
Launch for arts project which will link and highlight a university’s creativity. Tony Henderson reports
An arts centre “without walls” will showcase creativity across a university’s activities and research.
On Friday (January 23), Northumbria University’s School of Design, Arts and Creative Industries launched Programme Northumbria, which will connect different locations across the Newcastle campus and beyond through a varied programme of public exhibitions and events.
Running until August 31, the inaugural programme will feature work from leading academics and past students, demonstrating how creative practice is pushing boundaries across disciplines from contemporary art and design to performance and digital innovation.
Steve Gilroy, associate professor of theatre and performance, is leading the new programme. He said: “Programme Northumbria represents an exciting new chapter for creative research at Northumbria.
“By bringing together our diverse range of exhibitions and events under one programme, we’re creating an arts centre without walls – one that’s outward-facing, collaborative, and firmly embedded in the North East’s thriving cultural landscape.
“We want Programme Northumbria to be a springboard for creative dialogue and collaboration, not just a campus venue. Our ambition is to create connections between our research community and the wider public, demonstrating how creative practice can illuminate pressing contemporary issues and inspire new ways of thinking.”
The initiative aims to position Northumbria as an active contributor to the region’s arts scene, involving local audiences, creative practitioners and cultural partners beyond the university campus.
Northumbria has hosted public exhibitions at Gallery North – the university’s dedicated contemporary art space – for many years, and the gallery will remain an anchor venue. But the programme will also make use of other spaces across campus, as well as further afield thanks to collaborations with regional cultural partners.
The first Programme Northumbria exhibition, in Gallery North until February 9, by Northumbria’s Professor Corin Sworn and filmmaker Luke Fowler, is based around their film On Weaving – an exploration of High Sunderland, a modernist home built in 1957.
It was constructed for textile designers Bernat and Margaret Klein, and is now the home of design historians Juliet Kinchin and Paul Stirton.
The full programme is:
A1 or All, by artist Jayne Wallace at Design North from February 16 to March 9. The exhibition, created through collaboration between young people, designers, writers and AI experts, focuses on who shapes AI technology and whose voices are heard in its development.
Extraterritorial by Paul Dolan, Daniel Walsh and Pete Howson. Gallery North from February 23 to March 16. Specialist infrared photography is used to transform space launch sites in the United States and Scotland into alien landscapes, questioning the impact of commercial NewSpace industries on our relationship with Earth.
Design Feminisms – Open Studios at the Late Shows, Design North, April 13 to May 4.
What Are Words Worth 2U by Matthew Hearn, Gallery North and Studio 27, April 20 to May 11. Looking at a range of public-facing spaces, this will examine the operation and functions of language.
Fear in the Bedroom by Dr Kate Egan, Professor Stacey Abbott, Dr Simon Brown and Dr Cat Lester, Gallery North, May 18 to June 8. This will take visitors on a journey through the history of youth horror culture from 1970–2000, recreating a child’s bedroom filled with objects, books, magazines and media.
Hand Thought by Justin Marshall, Gallery North, July 6 to July 27. It explores the intersection of craft and digital technology, investigating how Computer Numerical Control technologies can be approached through a craft perspective that prioritises sensitivity and uniqueness over efficiency and automation.
404 Festival by Steve Gibson, Gallery North, August 24 to August 31. The 404 International Festival of Art and Technology, born in Rosario, Argentina, in 2004, is an independent non-profit project whose objective is to democratise culture, spreading artistic productions that unite art with technology. Across 22 years it has visited 45 cultural centres, universities and public places in 12 countries.
For more information, visit the Programme Northumbria website.