The North East Speak Their Name suicide memorial quilt has been created by some of those who have lost loved ones to suicide in our region.

There are three quilt panels, with 120 squares – behind each square is a much-loved person. The squares have been crafted with love and care, honouring each precious person lost to suicide.

People came together as a supportive community to create this powerful artwork. They shared stories and treasured memories and encouraged one another to ‘speak their name’. Work from Darlington Borough Art Collection will be displayed alongside this exhibition.

This exhibition of photography captures different parts of the North of England, including areas of picturesque beauty, heritage, and industry. Darlington Association of Photographers invite you to ponder ‘Where in the North’ each photograph was taken as all locations have been left anonymous, but range from the areas of Ripon/York to Northumberland and from the Pennines in the west to the North Sea to the east.

A Bit About The Artist.

Mike Connell was born in 1957, and grew up in Newton Aycliffe, with his parents and older brother Richard. He attended Marlow Hall and Woodham Comprehensive (1968 - 1975).

After 'A' levels, Mike worked in many bars, shops, and factories, whilst gaining a Fine Art Degree at Sunderland Polytechnic (1976 - 1982), where he benefited from the teaching and guidance of both John Peace (life drawing) and Dave Gormley (tutor).

He returned to factory work and painted everyday scenes in his spare time, showing work in several open art exhibitions, and completing commissions. He also did pencil portraits and caricatures at the Great Aycliffe Show for a few years.

Later, Mike qualified as an Art/Special Needs teacher at Bretton Hall, South Yorkshire, during the Miner's Strike (1984 - 1985) - a real eye-opener!

Mike enjoyed a long teaching career but took early retirement at 55 (although continued supply work until 60). This freed up the time to do his own drawing and painting seriously again - the result of which is this third solo exhibition ‘Observed Surroundings'. This is a 'snapshot' of Newton Aycliffe from 2018 to the present day - including some earlier portraits, studies and some old photos of growing up on town - which visitors to Darlington Library Art Gallery will hopefully find interesting!

After teaching Computer Design for over 30 years, Alan now concentrates on his three passions: photography, travel and writing. In the last few years, he’s visited New York, Tokyo, Venice, Iceland, Death Valley and Berlin always combining exploration with photography.

Alan’s work is focused primarily on events, architecture and landscape; for example, the Venice Carnival, Whitby’s Goth Weekend, the beautiful wilderness of Utah, and the graffiti of New York and Berlin.

Alan has taken most of his aerial photographs while flying the aircraft. He is principally interested in images taken from above that seem abstract, like the colours of the salt-pans round the Great Salt Lake in Utah.

People and Perspectives covers four of Alan’s favourite themes:

• Aerial photography that turns real-world images into abstract designs such as the Humber River mudflats glinting in the sun.
• Carnival photography including Venice and Whitby featuring people in glorious costumes.
• Wilderness photography that captures the magnificence of nature such as Bryce Canyon.
• City photography that includes themes ranging from rainstorms to street art.

Drop in and meet the artist in Darlington Library Art Gallery - Saturday 8 March 2025, 11.30am - 3pm

An opportunity to visit the exhibition, meet the artist Alan Clements, and ask any questions you may have regarding the exhibition, for as long as you want to stay between 11:30am and 3pm. No booking required, just drop in

Darlington Society of Arts was founded in 1922 with the prime object of stimulating interest in and appreciation of art in Darlington and the surrounding area.

This will be their seventh exhibition at Darlington Library since the Art Gallery opened here in 2012, and their previous exhibitions drew positive comments, including "really enjoyed this exhibition, wide variety of work all carried out with great skill."

Darlington Society of Arts are a friendly group of people who love art.

They meet fortnightly at Holy Trinity Youth & Community Centre, Pierremont Road, Darlington, DL3 6DG, with frequent input from guest speakers or artist/demonstrators.

They welcome new members and you can find out more at the Darlington Society of Arts website [external link]

There is growing emphasis in today's society to reduce waste and to recycle wherever possible. There is a huge amount of energy required to produce fabrics and sadly, a huge quantity of clothing goes into waste.

As a textile artist, I am aware of the great attraction to buy beautiful fabrics and interesting threads with which to work. As a result, I have a room stuffed with threads and fabric that I have not yet used along with textiles from many sources, and short lengths of thread that may one day become useful.

In this exhibition my aim is to use what I have, to revitalise and finish projects from the cupboard, to give fabrics another purpose and to turn my stash into something useful.

As William Morris said: 'If you want a golden rule that will fit everything, this is it: Have nothing in your houses that you do not know to be useful or believe to be beautiful.'

Meet the Artist Exhibition Opening - Saturday 9 November 2024, 1pm – 3pm

Darlington Library Art Gallery

 Helen will be in the Art Gallery at Darlington Library on the early afternoon of Saturday 9^th November to answer any questions you may have on this exhibition or her practice as an artist working with textiles.  There’s no need to book, just pop in if you’re coming to Darlington Library on that date and want to find out more.  Further information can also be found at Welcome [external link]. 

Roger Birchall is a 77-year-old artist, living in Darlington. After leaving art school in 1970 Roger had a varied working life mainly in education but he also earned a living for ten years as a graphic designer. He moved here in 2000 and was immediately impressed by the variety of landscapes and seascapes that you can visit so easily when living in the town. His response was to start painting again in a concentrated way.

He regards his art education as vital to the way he works now but there are other influences.

He says, ‘My ability to draw came from both sides of my family and oil paints were the commonest medium at that time but the way I combine these skills definitely depends on what I learned at art school’.

As well as landscapes, the other part of his show features portraits of friends and family some of which date back to the 1980s. Roger works from photographs which help him achieve likenesses but he is also very concerned to create an image that adds to the experience of seeing the person, even if you don’t know them.

This exhibition is full of very approachable paintings that often contain small experiences we all can enjoy; light seen through leaves, a distant horizon or an old brick wall. Roger says he tries to do the ‘seeing’ for us and then attempts to duplicate that experience through the medium of paint.

Kenneth Steel (1906-1970) was a consummate printmaker who found critical acclaim during his lifetime. Yet today the Sheffield artist and designer, remains a largely unknown figure, outside a small group of dedicated enthusiasts and loyal collectors.

This exhibition hopes to further his reputation, not only as an important twentieth century figure in the field of British printmaking, but also an exceptional artist and designer in the fields of both railway art and commercial art.

Thankfully for us his keen eye for detail, colour and composition has left us with a unique record of areas of the British landscape. Locally that includes Teesdale and the City of Durham.

Darlington Library Art Gallery is delighted to present Sophie Seita’s solo exhibition and and and also, a series of textile pieces that depict experimental graphic scores for imaginary queer voices and bodies, accompanied by two sound pieces.

Graphic scores are alternative forms of notation for sound and performance. They move away from the traditional notation of the five-lined musical stave in favour of more expressive, unconventional, and often abstract notations, at the intersection of art, sound, performance, and movement. Given their experimental non-normative nature, the scores remain unfixed, in process, and open to interpretation by and for different bodies and voices.

In Seita’s textile installation, the scores capture so-called Klangfiguren, German for ‘sonic bodies’ or ‘figures of sound’, which is both a musical term and a literary stylistic device, which brings the senses of hearing and seeing closely together. These Klangfiguren are conceptual sounds or allegorical bodies. An allegory is a form of ‘veiled language’, an image or story that captures new concepts but never explicitly. An allegory can also be a material object and visual representation that makes an idea or feeling visible and tangible. Seita’s drawn and printed allegorical  sound bodies, then, represent a queerness we do not yet know. In the origin of the word allegory also lies a suggestion for how it may be used. It’s a Latin word that originates in the Greek and combines allos ‘other’ or ‘different’ and agoreuo ‘to speak in assembly’. In performance, these scores find their other-speaking in a new assembly, in a different (queer) community.

Scores, for the artist, allow reflection on artistic process, on bodies, and (il)legibility. Listening, sound, movement, and performance in this project are not limited to normative understandings of how we can or should use our bodies. The scores can be interpreted by different bodies, different voices, and don’t assume a primary language, form of expression, or range of ability. The work is informed by a drawing and sound workshop with queer young people hosted by Curious Arts (Newcastle), and the artist wishes to thank the young people for their curiosity and open-mindedness. It is also informed by The Lichtenberger® Method in Applied Vocal Physiology, the singing method the artist learned in Germany several years ago, and the work includes prompts inspired by the method’s playful and poetic somatic pedagogy.

The textile works are accompanied by the artist’s own creative audio descriptions as well as a short performative artist statement as a sound piece that imagines and translates what these scores could sound like and what kind of queer relations or desires they intimately perform. The artist statement is also included as a text below.

Work List:

• Klangfigur I-VII, silkscreen on mercerised cotton, embroidery, 80cm x 254cm
• Audio description: digital sound, 22.31 mins
• Artist statement: digital sound, 7.20 mins

'Sophie Seita’s ‘creative audio description’ is a lush, poetic, evocative sister piece to the physical artworks. It offers so much more than ‘description, achieving inclusion through words that aren’t simply a translation of the work, they are the work, in another form…a form that works beautifully regardless of your level of vision. Strangely liberating, the artist’s words do not require a mental visualisation to enjoy her art, it’s all there, crafted in its own right.’  Richard Boggie, visually-impaired North East writer

Biography:

Sophie Seita is a London-based artist and researcher whose work swims in the muddy waters of language, and explores materiality, gesture, and the speculative potential of the archive. She regularly performs and exhibits work across multiple media, publishes books, makes textiles and graphic scores, leads workshops around voice-work, experimental writing, and queer performance, and teaches in the Art Department at Goldsmiths. Often working collaboratively, she’s expanding and deepening her ongoing socially engaged and conceptual project with the musician and conductor Naomi Woo, to give voice to untold queer archives, alongside other international artists, academics, activists, gardeners, designers, and writers, as part of The Hildegard von Bingen Society for Gardening Companions. Their recent activities involved a queer performance ritual in Xochimilco, Mexico City, a workshop in the art research garden at Goldsmiths’s Centre for Art & Ecology, and an irregular zine, called The Minutes. Seita’s latest book, Lessons of Decal (87Press, 2023), is a queer meditation on reading and listening; the things and experiences that leave an imprint on us in unpredictable, messy, and desirous ways. Currently, she is an Artist in Residence at Akademie der Künste (Academy of Arts) in Berlin.

www.sophieseita.com/ [external link]

The Community Art Project (CAP) is part of Darlington Borough Council’s Day Opportunities within the Adult Learning Disability Service.

It provides an opportunity for people with learning disabilities to try out and pursue various visual arts activities with guidance and encouragement from a professional artist.

CAP is open to anyone who has an interest in trying out arts activities even if they have never done so before.

It's geared towards each person’s needs and interests and aims to encourage people to make their own choices and decisions, to work at their own pace and the best of their abilities.

Those involved can explore painting, drawing, printing, photography and digital art, and can make work in various media. It aims to facilitate as far as possible, whatever ideas artists there generate and express.

CAP regularly share exhibitions locally, in the North East, nationally in Brighton, London, Glasgow, and overseas in Munich and New York.

Artists from CAP won first and second prizes in the 2019 Outside In National Open Exhibition – judged by Grayson Perry amongst others.

Having previously met at Darlington Arts Centre, then the Bridge Centre for Visual Arts, CAP is now based at Links and Foundations in Darlington, full addresses below.

Links
Brinkburn Road
Darlington
DL3 6DY

and

Foundations
Salters Lane
Darlington
DL1 3DT

To contact the community art project:

• telephone 01325 468877
• e-mail [email protected]
• got to the community art project page to find out more

Hot Contents’ is a visual arts exhibition exploring the relationships between the past and present industrial heritage of the North East and the climate emergency.

The society we live in has been built on the foundations of industry. In the North East, our industrial culture and landscape – from coal mining to steel working, textile production to large-scale engineering – is a significant part of our regional identity. Industry has played an important part in shaping our cities, towns and communities. However, the growth of industry has also played a significant role in accelerating the climate and ecological emergency: from the pollution caused by industrial waste to the growth and profit-oriented actions that shape our local environments.

‘Hot Contents’ imagines a near future where unsustainable growth and over-production has dramatically changed our landscape. Taking the form of brightly coloured video installations, sound maps and living sculptures, the work in this exhibition explores possible futures through local sites of transition, spaces of resistance, and climate action that aims to shape a positive future for the town.

About the Artist

Matt Denham is a visual artist based in Newcastle. From the visible and invisible structures driving the climate emergency to experiences of ageing in austerity, from the architecture that defines our daily lives to the values that shape our future, his research-led practice explores shared experiences of our physical, virtual and psychological environments in a changing society. Starting with intimate stories of people and place, his video installation artworks reveal and connect global issues.

‘Hot Contents’ is supported using public funding by the National Lottery through Arts Council England and Creative Darlington.

The title ‘With or Without’ (a camera or rules) is inspired by the quintessentially English love of tea and the all-important question of, ‘how do you like your tea, with or without ….?’ So, ‘how do you like your photography, with or without ….?’ And like a good Afternoon Tea, this exhibition is in three tiers, and you can decide which to tackle first.

The word photography is made from two Greek words, photo (light) and graphy (write). Translated literally photography means writing with light and this precedes the use of a camera. This body of work demonstrates different ways of capturing light, with a camera and without a camera, with rules and without rules, and is in three contrasting but complementary parts as each part is grounded in making pictures with light.

CYANOTYPES comprises of ‘photograms’, mainly ‘blue and white’ pictures created with the 19th Century cyanotype printing process. This early form of cameraless photography dates back to 1843 when the first ever photographer and botanist, Anna Atkins, using Sir John Herschel’s 1842 blueprint process, prolifically produced botanical prints and the first ever photobooks, with volumes of her work later donated to the Royal Society despite not being allowed to be a member due to being female. The cyanotype process involves using light sensitive chemicals coated on surfaces, such as paper, card or fabric; placing objects in contact with the surface and exposing in sunlight (or nowadays also UV light). Most of the cyanotype pieces displayed were created with FOUND OBJECTS, often discarded, preloved or recyclable materials, each created with symbolic meaning or metaphor to challenge, celebrate, commemorate and communicate. Though John Herschel’s use of his invention was mainly for diagrams which became ‘blue prints’; the first photograms were made with lace and then extensively botanical species. The process was extended in 2015 when ‘Wet Cyanotypes’ were developed by departing from the traditional process and adding elements, such as salts and magnesium flakes to the coated surfaces when the chemicals are either dry or wet, resulting in a different type of image, often less literal or pictorial and more abstract art like pictures emerging from the more unpredictable process.

PAINTINGS WITH LIGHT is a display of night images created with a camera and with a conscious absence of the usual rules of photography. That is, images created on long exposures, without the steadying aid of a tripod whilst deliberately allowing the camera to move to the motion of a moving vehicle, the pace of walking, or just the rhythm of the human heartbeat and breathing. Inspired originally by a large scale abstract painting titled ‘Rivulets of Red’, the rationale behind this process is to produce abstract ‘black and light’ images of shifting light at night, or in dark places, as if paint dripping on a black canvas. The paintings with light are with the sole use of a handheld camera, without the use of conventional light painting tools and, as with all artwork, are open to the varying perceptions of viewers. The display opens and closes with traditional rule based light trails, from Darlington to London, to illustrate the contrast.

PUBLIC ART refers to art that is in the public realm and is therefore accessible to the public, to interaction and engagement. Generally speaking, a work of art cannot be considered as ‘public art’ if it is not one-of-a-kind or an original (in the case of sculpture or painting). Public Art pieces often tell a story, though also can be enigmatic and create curiosity as to what they are or indeed why they are where they are. They spark much debate too about their purpose, funding, indeed their point but also much appreciation. Public Sculptures often celebrate local people, a war hero, sports person, royalty or celebrity. They also provide access to local history and heritage and provide a bridge between the past and the present. Sculptures can keep the past alive by their very presence in a neighbourhood. My love for Public Art arose when I was fortuitously able to photographically document the manufacturing of County Durham’s tallest sculpture, Joseph Hillier’s ‘In Our Image’, from it’s start in the factory to it’s installation in Newton Aycliffe. Seeing the process through was a joy and it fired a passion in me to photograph the region’s sculptures and become a volunteer photographer on Art UK’s three year Public Sculpture Project. The selected pieces are from my personal projects as well as my recordings included in Art UK’s digital catalogue (acknowledged). It’s good to look at art in the public realm and ask questions about it. Maybe if it doesn’t spark questions within us it isn’t doing it’s job? It’s also good to share perceptions of what we see, with each other and even compare our thoughts with the artist’s intentions. We all see differently and that’s enriching as we bring varied nuances to the table.

Elaine Vizor, ARPS, Photographer
(Associate of the Royal Society of Photographers)

Creative Darlington and Darlington Library present "Now, Then". This is an exhibition celebrating Darlington and the people who have made it the wonderful place that it is.

Lead artist, Lizzie Lovejoy has engaged with members of local communities through workshop, drop in sessions and conversations, learning about the identity of this culturally rich town, over the past nine months.

Inspired by Northern language, "Now, Then" takes its name from the local greeting which Lizzie was gifted with when speaking to people around the town. The artwork breaks down these words, exploring Darlington's innovative heritage and its ever growing present, with stories from yesterday as well as many years ago.

Throughout this project, Lizzie and the participants explored what it means to be Northern and why we are so proud to be part of Darlo culture.

This exhibition also features the work of 5 artists with a strong connection to Darlington. They submitted their work to the Darlo Draws callout.

The "Now, Then" exhibition and Darlo Draws activity have been supported by Project Funding from Arts Council England through the Your Library Story - Darlington Library creative programme award to Darlington Borough Council.

About the Artist

Darlo born Lizzie Lovejoy, is a working-class poet, performer and picture-maker who has an itch for creating that cannot be scratched. Everyday they write and sketch something new, a lifelong creation in pencil and ink that can never stay in the lines. Lizzie won the North East Culture Award for Visual Artist of the Year 2023 and recently took to the stage at Durham Miners Gala.

https://www.lizzielovejoy.com/

A public exhibition exploring a new order of social justice. It derives from 19th Century women in the North East of England and their radical non resistance.

The women and their associated areas include;

• Elizabeth Pease - Darlington
• Josephine Butler - Northumberland
• Harriet Martineau - North Tyneside.

Each is known for advocacy, original thinking, activism, and support for the cause of women’s political inclusion and emancipation. The exhibition reflects the change in human affairs over the years.

"Pease, Butler & Spence - Radical Non-Resistance & the Art of Transgression" takes its lead from an artwork at the National Portrait Gallery, London. ("The World Anti-Slavery Convention 1840’" by the history painter and diarist Benjamin Robert Haydon.)

Elizabeth Pease was born in Darlington. She was born into a family of wealthy wool merchants. She is known for her campaigns such as workers rights and equality.

"Place, People and Living Memory" includes:

• an extended photo-essay
• current practice in painting
• photography
• AV film
• sound work
• events with the intent to show rather than tell.

Artists in this show are:

• Dave Allinson (AV Film)
• Pip Dickens (Painting)
• Alec Gatenby (Print Media & AV film)
• Claire Grey (Photography)
• Bridie Jackson (Docusong)
• Karen Melvin (Photography)
• Pat Naldi (Essay text & Film)
• Alicia Paz (Painting, Photography & Print)
• Nicky Peacock (Sculpture)
• Jo Spence (Photographer)
• Tereza Stehlikova (Film)
• Ikuko Tsuchiya (Photography).

Circling is a solo exhibition by artist Laura Wilson. The work is a series of weavings made with linen. They explore how memory is created, stored and translated through the body, learning, movement and labour. Linen is one of the strongest fibres in existence. It resists mildew and bacteria, it is hardwearing and doesn’t easily decompose.

Traditionally skilled people were required to produce it. Over the last two years Laura has been learning how to weave by hand on a table loom mentored by weaver Claire Whelan. She has also been researching the social history of the fabric and its facture.

Laura has researched into her family history, the production and export of linen in Northern Ireland and the history of Linenopolis. (Linenopolis is the name given to her home city of Belfast in the 19th Century when it was at the centre of the world’s linen industry.) Some of her ancestors worked in factories in Portadown and Lisburn in Northern Ireland as weavers, warpers and yarn winders. She explores ways information is passed on from one person to another and between generations, in particular how knowledge can be stored within the body.

Works in this exhibition were developed in parallel with Laura’s changing pregnant body. The largest, 'Winding, then Winding' (2023), was produced after childbirth. It took structure from the cycle of her day caring for her newborn - changing the weaving pattern or weft yarn following nursing or soothing. The linen maps the passage of time as a new parent, growth spurts, cluster feeding and naps. Laura considers that as a counterpoint to the increasing pace of mechanical production and often invisible, outsourced labour of today’s new technologies and unsustainable production of fabrics for fast fashion, as well as the relationship between women’s work and labour.

The exhibition title comes from Laura’s newest work presented here for the first time. 'Circling' (2023) is a weaving made with the artists mother, who she taught how to weave earlier this year as part of her exhibition at CCA Derry~Londonderry. They wove together on the first day of the exhibition and other weavers from Northern Ireland were invited to contribute to the weaving during the exhibition run. Laura’s mother passed away in Autumn 2023 and Laura has completed the weaving that they started together.

A text by Kerri ní Dochartaigh accompanies the work and is available for visitors to take away, or download from www.laurawilson.me [External link]

The exhibition in Darlington Library brings to light Darlington’s rich and fascinating history producing high quality linen. Until the 19th Century linen was one most important trades in the town and surrounding villages. The first machine for spinning flax was developed and used in Darlington by John Kendrew and patented in 1787. Pease’s Mill (now demolished) sat at the centre of the town, employing mainly women and children in its early days.

Wilson has selected objects and artworks from the Local Studies Archives and Darlington Borough Art Collection and presented them alongside her work. These include the painting Pease’s Mill, Darlington, County Durham by Myles Meehan (1904 – 1974).

Funded by the County Durham Community Foundation’s Dover Prize Fund. Thank you to Durham County Local History Society as copyright holders for granting Darlington Borough Council permission to reproduce The Linen Weavers of Hurworth-on-Tees article by Vera Chapman in this exhibition and to:

• Stephen Bunting
• Severina Dico-Young,
• Kerri ní Dochartaigh,
• Jack Field,
• Rob Field,
• Sharon Gollan,
• Catherine Hemelryk,
• Ian Rigby,
• Claire Whelan,
• Alex Wilson,
• Creative Darlington,
• Darlington Cultural Volunteers,
• the staff at Darlington Library
• all the participating weavers.

Laura Wilson was born in Belfast and lives and works in London. She has an interest in how history is carried and evolved through everyday materials, trades and craftsmanship. She works with specialists to develop sculptural and performative works that amplify the relationship between materiality, memory and tacit knowledge.

Wilson’s interdisciplinary and research-based works have been exhibited widely including at:

• CCA Derry~Londonderry, Northern Ireland
• MIMA, Middlesbrough (2023)
• Site Gallery, Sheffield (2022)
• The Collection, Lincoln with Mansions of the Future, UK
• First Draft, Sydney, Australia
• The Landmark Trust, Wales, UK (2021)
• 5th Istanbul Design Biennial – Empathy Revisited: Designs for More than One
• Norwich Castle Museum & Art Gallery, Norwich, UK as part of New Geographies (2020)
• The British Museum, London, UK with Block Universe
• Kettle’s Yard, Cambridge, UK
• The Petrie Museum of Egyptian Archaeology, London, UK (2018)
• SPACE, London, UK
• V&A Museum, London, UK
• Invisible Dust at Hull and East Riding Museum, Hull, UK (2017)
• Delfina Foundation, London, UK (2016 & 17)
• Site Gallery, Sheffield, UK (2016)
• Whitstable Biennial, UK (2014)
• Camden Arts Centre, London, UK and Turner Contemporary, Margate, UK (2013)
• W139, Amsterdam and De Warande, Turnhout, Belgium (2012).

A Churchill Fellow, Wilson was awarded the inaugural Jerwood New Work Fund 2020, the Dover Prize 2021 and will be undertaking a Fellowship with the V&A Museum in 2024.

laurawilson.me [External link]