Updates and News from Claire at Culture Northumberland
July 2023
Hello and welcome to another bi-monthly update.
Culture Northumberland is a sector led cultural development project supported by Northumberland County Council and North East Cultural Freelancers.
The project was created in 2020 with support from Cultural Development Manager Wendy Scott at Northumberland County Council. The idea was (and still is) to share as much practise and process as possible as well as raising the profile of individual artists and all of the arts organisations that support them.
It’s currently managed by freelance Engagement Consultant and Mentor Claire Venus with support from Content Creator Bethanie Wardell.
This is our new home for the newsletter and a space to celebrate the cultural sector and those who work in it here in Northumberland. You can share the newsletter using the button below or copying the URL.
You are welcome to contact us if you’d like to submit an activity, event or some news for us to share here in the newsletter or on our blog over at Culture Northumberland.
Kind Regards
Claire and The Culture Northumberland Team
www.culturenorthumberland.co.uk
So far this year…
In June, Claire attended a round table discussion with Arts Council England organised by North East Cultural Freelancers. Claire spoke directly with Nicholas Serota (the Chair of Arts Council) and Jane Tarr (North East Area Manager) about the challenges of living rurally, plugging into events, maintaining a freelance career and why lots of us are taking a step away from participatory work. A blog of reflections will follow from Leila at North East Cultural Freelancers and Claire.
We have added the details of two new strategic cultural projects pages to our website. Berwick CCZ and Cultural Co-working and we’re working on a Funding Menu page with artist Trina Dalziel and our web editor Jason Thompson too.
We attended the Creative UK and Rural Design Innovation Centre funding workshops back at the start of the year. Many artists, makers and creatives were successful in their funding applications to bring ‘challenge fund projects’ to life.
On that same note…
Don’t miss it.
Fri 14 July, 10-12noon
Producer Maureen Lawrie is hosting a FREE artist development event (with brunch) at Queen’s Hal Hexham as part of the monthly co-working session run by artist
. Supported by Creative UK. More on the agenda and booking here.
More chances to network…
We have a growing facebook group ‘Northumberland Artists and Creatives’ of over 330 people which we use to communicate opportunities and news each week. The group is for those who live, work or want to work in Northumberland’s cultural and heritage sector. You are very welcome to join. It support and amplifies the work of the North East Cultural Freelancer’s Facebook Group.
We’ve also been profiling artists and cultural freelancers, supporting cultural venues and organisations on our blog and added a monthly funding round-up blog to help inform sector knowledge. Feel free to pop over to our blog to see those articles.
A reminder the Cultural Strategy for Northumberland is downloadable from our website too.
We are working on an Arts Council Project Grants Application to solidify and stabilise the future of Culture Northumberland project and the impact it can continue to have. It’s nearly ready to submit
Our Blog on the Culture Northumberland website.
We publish a weekly blog and invite guest writers from the cultural and heritage sector to share updates and behind the scenes processes as well as writing our own news, opportunities and updates blogs.
There are well over 100 blogs published and we are growing this space and reaching more people every single week.
We have three sections on the blog;
Artist Spotlight - sharing stories and interviews with makers, writer, artists and cultural freelancers and heritage professionals.
Culture Northumberland Updates - updates about the way we work as a project and the work we’re doing.
Cultural Sector News - wider sector news, Northumberland based projects, opportunities, jobs and funding.
Our Community
…of Artists, Creatives, Cultural and Heritage Organisations and Venues
Our Facebook Group
We have a thriving community on our Facebook group. You are welcome to join us.
Over on Facebook, we host monthly threads for profile raising for freelancers and small cultural/ creative companies.
We also allow posts from other cultural organisations and venues to advertise their work.
You are welcome to post directly and your post will be checked by us then added in flow of the week.
Facebook Pages/ Twitter
If you tag us on facebook or twitter we will repost/ and or reply to help raise the profile or your offer or event.
You’re also welcome to leave a comment or a question here below (you’ll need a Substack account) or reply directly to this email by pressing reply in your email.
(Some of ) What’s on…in Northumberland
It would be almost impossible to profile all of the cultural sector events and activity in the county. We want to support both individuals and organisations so in each newsletter, we’ll hand pick and profile an event across a range of mediums taking place in the next month or so. In 2024 we’d like to work on a cultural clash diary (funding dependent)
We also LOVE Cultured North East created by Sam Wonfor and Dave Whetstone (previous Culture Mag fame) for a monthly round up. Do subscribe to their emails.
If you’d like us to consider profiling your event please email us and we’ll discuss the best way to do that in the timeframe you have.
Other places you can promote your work, activities and offers include our facebook and twitter pages - you need to tag us and we’ll retweet/ share when we’re next online.
You can also write a guest blog for us. You could also try contacting Advance Northumberland, Discover our Land, Visit Northumberland, Cultured North East and promoting via Tourist Information/ Libraries (physical print/ posters are best).
Onto our cultural sector news and Northumberland based events…in July
Sector Development
GROW Development Programme from November Club
After some consultation with freelancers in consultation sessions and online earlier in the year, Morpeth based November Club have launched a development programme called GROW. More here. and here are their key findings.
Come join us at an event!
On Friday 21st July we’re supporting the organisation our own ‘last day of term’ event at the most stunning venue; The Alnwick Garden. Ticket for this inspiring ‘Culture and Climate’ change event including lunch are free and can be reserved here.
Please click through to check the full agenda and list of speakers.
Plans for a new building
Plans are afoot for a new cultural building up in Berwick-upon-Tweed. We are keenly watching all the developments of the Berwick CCZ too - it’s already such an incredibly inspiring place - we can’t wait!
A fun event for Families
Wind in the Willows runs at Alnwick Garden for a WHOLE month over summer. It’s suitable for children age 3+ and their families and tickets are available here. A ticket for the show gives you access to Alnwick Garden too and if you’d like a discount code head over to this post to grab 20% off.
A gallery shout out
The Old School Gallery in Alnmouth is a lovely place to hang out over summer. With fresh cake, tea/ coffee and a wood fired pizza van it’s the perfect place to see some art. The owners Penny and Dale have a tonne of original art and prints for sale - do support them and enjoy a beach walk afterwards this summer.
An event by an artist
Online events took off BIG style during the pandemic and artist
has a lovely set of makes for families for you to purchase over the summer holidays. More here. Let us know if you have something you’d like us to promote in September?A dance event
Northumberland based Meta4 Dance are performing this weekend and then have one last stop on the tour at Stockton Riverside Festival with their BRILLIANT show Jumpers for Goalposts.
Claire wrote a review of her experience at Feltonbury Festival with her son here if you’d like to read it.
An event by a National Portfolio Organisation
Mortal Fools Youth Theatre presents: The Bigger Picture
The voices of 75 young people from Northumberland and the North East come together in a collection of short films, created by Mortal Fools Youth Theatre
with Fly Girl Films and Mortal Fools’ associate artists.
It’s as if we just see things differently...
I just wish there was a way that I
could show them how I see the world.
What it’s like to be me…An event that is somewhere unexpected
There are a range of exciting events for young people taking place in Ashington - do check out their website for more info and to book free spaces.
Books, books and more books!
Congratulations to all of the entries and winners of the Northern Writers award hosted by New Writing North. Read more here.
A sneak peak…
Artist Corinne Lewis Ward was successful in her Rural Design Innovation grant request to develop her ‘Antiques of the Future’ project inspired by Northumberland history and landscape. She’s developed a ‘new crest’ and we can’t wait to see it.
A favour to ask…
Can you support an artist or a colleague you have worked with by recommending them on Linked in? Linked In is a brilliant tool for profile raising and networking. It takes a couple of minutes but increases support and the feel good factor of doing the work we all do.
Homegrown Podcasts and Audio
We have a wealth of podcasts being produced in the county. We are building a new webpage to list them all but here’s a sneak peek to save for later!
The Good Ship Illustration by Berwick based illustrators Katie, Helen and Tania is a brilliant listen for creatives, artists and illustrators
Unseen Podcast by Bridie Jackson and Queen’s Hall Hexham share behind the scenes of performance, music, theatre and more.
Company of Two is a podcast that explores being, balance and business in motherhood cohosted by Creative Producer Claire Venus.
ADD TO YOUR DIARY…
Co-working in Cultural Venues. Artist Yvette Ja is hosting monthly co-working in Hexham at Queen’s Hall along with Chloe Smith in Berwick at Berwick Maltings and Claire Venus in Alnwick at Alnwick Playhouse. You can also co-work at November Club in Morpeth this Summer- drop them a line or head to their website for more details.
Usually co-working in Alnwick is the last Monday of the month unless it’s a bank holiday, Berwick is the last Tuesday of the month usually and the Hexham dates change but you can view them online or contact
Thanks so much to everyone who has submitted content for this month’s newsletter or is supporting Culture Northumberland in other ways.
Thanks also for joining us and reading our update. It’s our intention to send our emails every other month so long as we have enough content to share.
We very much look forward to staying in touch and supporting you, your work and your projects and campaigns.
hello@culturenorthumberland.co.uk
Culture Northumberland is a project supported by Northumberland County Council and North East Cultural Freelancers with project support for individual freelancers from Creative UK and Rural Design Innovation Centre.