Our First Three YearsThe Cultural Spring Phase One January 2014 - December 2016

Our consortium partners – the University of Sunderland, the Sunderland Music, Arts and Culture (MAC) Trust and The Customs House in South Shields – then submitted a joint bid to Arts Council England’s Creative People and Places (CPP) programme to fund an ambitious project to increase engagement and participation in the arts in the two boroughs.

03 Introduction

04 Welcome from Project Director Emma Horsman

05 How our communities have helped shape The Cultural Spring

06-09 2014: Our first year; Great North Passion, Summer Streets, Street Art Heroes, Bring the Happy

In 2012 our three founding partners created a ten-year vision to fundamentally change the way the people of South Tyneside and Sunderland consumed, experienced and made excellent art.

The CPP fund focuses investment in parts of the country where people’s involvement in the arts is below the national average.

In June 2013, The Cultural Spring was awarded £2m to fund a project between January 2014 and December 2016.

The project chose ten wards - five in south South Tyneside and five in north Sunderland – to focus on: Castletown, Red House, Southwick, Fulwell and Roker/St Peter’s wards in Sunderland ; in South Tyneside our target wards were Biddick Hall and All Saints, Boldon Colliery, Cleadon and East Boldon, Whitburn and Marsden and Whiteleas.

Four main aims were outlined:> Increase arts participation

in our wards> Enable more excellent art

to happen in our wards> Create a lasting social

and cultural legacy for Sunderland and South Tyneside

> Reflect and share learning

However, from the beginning our guiding principle has been that we will not ‘do’ arts and culture to our local communities. We’ve always been passionate about talking to our local communities and understanding what they want to see in their neighbourhoods. Our arts and culture will be delivered with them, alongside them – and by them.

What we want to leave behind is a lasting, meaningful and sustainable legacy. Not just a marked shift in the profile of and engagement with arts activity in South Tyneside and Sunderland, but improved cultural infrastructures and communities who value the arts, and contain individuals or groups which have the necessary skills and drive to further provision in their area.

community workshops in Year 1

91

02 03

10-13 2015: Year Two; RUSH, Summer Streets, Inventors! and Mr Drayton’s Human Jukebox 14-17 2016: Year Three; A Great Night Out, Summer Streets and WordPlay

18-22 Our community workshops, Our Your Art programme, Research and Development opportunities and our Go and See programme

23 The future of The Cultural Spring

Contents

We have met and worked with residents (many of whom have never taken part in an arts activity) to support them to join a regular workshop programme, perform on stage alongside professional companies and start to lead their own sessions. With a little bit of support from The Cultural Spring people have taken their enjoyment in the direction that they wanted to – this has led to the creation of numerous groups, including Hylton Ukes, Whitburn Singers, the GUB Club, The Rushettes and numerous memorable experiences.

I’m personally passionate that everyone has an opportunity to take part in the arts if they want to, whichever art form that may be, and that they get to work with professional artists based locally, regionally, nationally and internationally. I do think programmes such as Creative People and Places

help to change the way the arts are seen and delivered, and I am keen to see what the next three years holds. With communities and artists working in partnership to create relevant, memorable and special events and programmes.

We’re a small team, with great colleagues who support us. We would like to think we serve the communities engaged in the project well and we’ve received great Press and PR during the past three years as well as some lovely accolades, including three Journal Culture Awards in 2015 for Great North Passion and Summer Streets; two WOW Awards for our Contribution to Culture and Summer Streets in 2015 and in 2016 a Leading Cultural Destinations award for Cultural Activation in local communities. We could not have done this without the buy in and enthusiasm of the local communities who engage with us.

The Cultural Spring was formed through the ambition and drive of many people. The project presented an opportunity to create art for and with local people on their own terms. During the past three years we have tested things out and learned from everything we’ve done to ensure that what people participate in is of the very best quality.

We’re really looking forward to the next three years. Whether you’re a resident looking to get involved, an artist or an organisation wanting to engage with us, our door is always open. We would love to hear from you. Or if you’ve already taken part in a CulturalSpring event or programme, we very much look forward to seeing you again.

Emma HorsmanProject Directoremma.horsman@theculturalstring.org.uk

We’re a small team, with great colleagues

We wanted as many people in our neighbourhoods to be involved as possible – whether it be by spreading the word about Cultural Spring projects; helping us to decide what art we programme; taking the lead in developing new activities; helping to advocate for more arts activity locally; taking part in cultural trips to theatres galleries and festivals across the North East, or getting involved in local training about managing arts projects.

Our Community Champions and others from within our wards have played a leading role in selection panels choosing the winners of our seasonal large-scale commissions.

One of our Community Champions is LucyAnne Mackie, who has thoroughly enjoyed the experience: “Being involved with the Cultural Spring has been such a positive experience for me in many ways. Initially it was a

pleasure to become absorbed in lots of different art and music taster sessions, it really reminded me how much I enjoyed both the creative input as well as getting together with like-minded people in the community.

“Before long I realised that I was watching other people as well as myself grow in confidence under the gentle and reassuring guidance of the artists leading the sessions.

“It was a completely unexpected pleasure to be invited on to the selection panel for meeting and interviewing potential artists for upcoming events. It was an opportunity to observe both the talent being sourced and their approach to involving the community. It was good to know that community input is important to The Cultural Spring and that there is continuing provision for representation.”

We have also had tremendous support for our volunteer programme which has enabled many people to work with us on our live, outdoor events. For instance, our volunteers worked with the BBC as stage managers on The Great North Passion.

Your Cultural Spring

“Before long I realised that I was watching other people as well as myself grow in confidence under the gentle and reassuring guidance of the artists”

04 05

Our guiding principle has always been to work with communities in choosing what programmes, commissions and projects will be delivered on our wards. So we appointed Community Champions, a network of people passionate about the arts in their local community and who have helped shape the project over the last three years.

“I’m personally passionate that everyone has an opportunity totake part in the arts if they want to, whichever art form that may be.”

The Great North Passion was commissioned by the BBC’s Religious and Ethics department and became The Cultural Spring’s launch event. It took place on April 18, Good Friday, and was the BBC’s flagship Easter programme - broadcast live at noon by BBC1. The Great North Passion won Best Event Tyneside and Best Overall Event at the 2014 Journal North East Culture Awards.

At its peak, 1.3m viewers watched the broadcast, which was hosted by Fern Britton. Viewing figures claimed more than a third of North Easterners watching TV at that time were watching the broadcast.

The project was the culmination of six week’s worth of community engagement. It brought together more than 20 artists with 12 local communities including schools, churches, community associations and heritage sites

to explore different themes of Christ’s Passion - Truth, Burden, Exhaustion, Loss, Kindness, Falling, Hope, Humility, Forgiveness and Self Sacrifice.

Twelve red shipping containers, each representing an individual theme or Station of the Cross, were transformed with a variety of different interpretive art forms and placed in Bents Park, South Shields, forming the shape of a massive cross.

More than 3,500 people attended the event and subsequent weekend exhibition. Shipping container content included bespoke pieces of music, intricate lighting displays, sculptures, spray paint murals, poetry and photography projects.

Rebecca Ball, then Project Director of the Cultural Spring, said: “Although the Passion was held on Good Friday as part of the Christian festival of Easter, it was

Great North PassionApril 2014

important for us and the BBC that this was seen as an inter-faith event that explored the universality of the Passion’s themes.”

1.3m viewers watched the broadcast

20 artists

12 local communities

2014 Year One

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Summer Streets Summer 2014

First held in 2014 Summer Streets is a celebration of a rich variety of musical genres. The free music festival, hosted in Thompson Park, Southwick, started as a day in 2014, but its popularity led to it becoming a weekend event for 2015 and 2016.

Creative Director Ross Millard, singer and guitarist for The Futureheads and Frankie and the Heartstrings, programmes the festival and aims to introduce audiences to new types of music as well as creating a platform for new and emerging local talent, and more established, recognised bands and artists.

Sunderland has always had roots in unique and creative street art. In 2013 as part of the Bristol Urban Arts Festival the UpNorth, Upfest took place in the city.

In the months prior to the festival taking place Frank Styles created Two Whites, a 12-metre wide by 12-metre high butterfly mural created on the side of a building located in the city centre.

With a vision to encourage more of this amazing work both in Sunderland and South Tyneside, we launched our third major commission Street Art Heroes - inviting 12 artists from around the world into 20 local locations, creating 30 installations.

Led by artist, creator and author Garry Hunter, we brought artists from as far as Brazil, Australia and Morocco,

Ross’s eclectic programmes have included rock bands, jazz musicians, dance groups, choir groups, bluegrass, drumming groups, tea dance bands and opera workshops. The programmes have also included opportunities for people to play an instrument for the first time through classes and workshops.

The festival opens with performers parading through the streets of Southwick, with flag wavers and musicians giving a lively, colourful taste of the weekend ahead.

In 2014 Summer Streets won Best Event Sunderland in the Journal North East Culture Awards.

each with their distinct styles and skills, to the North East over the course of 80 days between September and November, 2014.

Canadian artist Peter Gibson, aka Roadsworth, created three of his iconic pavement paintings, including a beehive on St Oswald’s playground, and animal shapes out of deconstructed African flags in Park Lane, Sunderland.

Artists Eyez, Artista and Frank Styles worked in collaboration to create a giant mural behind Tesco on Newcastle Road, Sunderland, citing the historical importance of the glass industry.

Meanwhile, Will Alexander created a huge cardboard model of Stephenson’s Rocket; Chewing Gum Man Ben Wilson drew intricate portraits on to discarded

Street Art Heroes Autumn 2014

Bring the Happy Winter 2014Bring the Happy was The Cultural Spring’s Winter Tales project that began in winter 2014. The project aimed to spread some happiness on the streets of our wards, working in collaboration with Leeds-based Invisible Flock.

Invisible Flock had previously run the project across Europe and further afield, asking people to place their happymemories on giant maps of the cities and towns they live in.

Using installations at an empty shoe shop in South Shields, the Roker Pods which toured our wards, and National Glass Centre residents of South Shields and Sunderland were asked for a happy memory, where it took place and how happy it made them feel on a scale of 1 – 10. These memories

were then placed on to an interactive digital map of the area forming part of a digital archive with memories from around the world.

What emerged from the project wasn’t just personal happy memories, but a glimpse into the stories that make a town or city.

gum and Cityzen Kane made alien-type structures to adorn buildings and places in South Shields.

Other street artists who worked with us included Irony, Alex Senna, L7M, Toothfish, Artista and Pigment.

Memories included first loves, regrets, births, weddings, chance encounters and life changing moments.

The project culminated in three live shows hosted at the University of Sunderland’s North Shore in late February. The musical performance re-told the collected stories from hilarious to heart-breaking, uplifting to upsetting.

08 09

In 2014 Summer Streets won Best Event Sunderland in the Journal North East Culture Awards.

RUSHSpring 2015

Commissioned by The Cultural Spring working in collaboration with Events International and Southpaw Dance Company, RUSH, a mass movement dance performance, was inspired by mass protest, misrepresentation and global dissatisfaction. The ambitious project explored 21st century social and economic problems faced by people living in the North East.

Themes such as zero-hour contracts, Government cutbacks and child poverty were explored through an artistic alternative to anti-social behaviour and violent protest.

Dance workshops were held for six months across The Cultural Spring wards in preparation for the large-scale outdoor dance production, held against the iconic backdrop of St Hilda’s Engine Shed in South Shields.

2015 Year Two

The workshops gave people the chance to take part in the one-off, moving performance and to have their voices heard and influence the themes RUSH tackled.

The mass-participation piece was performed on the evening of Easter Sunday of 2015. It followed the stories of three distinct characters: a zero hours worker; a young mother, and a homeless man.

More than one hundred local amateur dancers joined six dancers from Southpaw to thrill an audience of more than 550 people. The 40-minute performance included coloured dust, flares, a water cannon and a video, produced by animation company Novak, which was projected on to St Hilda’s Engine Shed.

Anne Simpson, from South Shields, whose daughter was performing, said:

“I just loved it – the energy, the music, the colour, the whole thing was great and right here on our doorstep. I’ve never seen anything like it, and it’s so important that we have performances like this in Shields. I can’t believe it was free – I’d have paid to see it.”

Martin Wood had travelled through from Newcastle to see RUSH:

“It was clever, accessible and different. I loved the John Lennon Working Class Hero section and thought the bit with dancers and sleeping bags was beautiful – the lady next to me was in tears. The pace of the whole thing, and the energy, was so impressive, I couldn’t believe they weren’t all professional performers. It cheered me up – a bit – after the derby result.”

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Summer StreetsSummer 2015

Our Summer Streets Music Festival was again held in Thompson Park, Southwick, in June 2015. Headlined by Hyde and Beast, the festival was held over two days, with the Sunday having an Alice in Wonderland theme. Ross Millard again programmed an amazing, electic mix of musical genres which was thoroughly enjoyed by 5,000 people.

INVENTORS! Autumn 2015

An umbrella for ladybirds; a Hoover you can ride on and a hovering skipping rope were just some of the wild and wacky inventions dreamed up during INVENTORS!

The project was led by Sunderland designer, artist and inventor Dominic Wilcox. Known for his innovative and off-the-wall ideas Dominic has exhibited worldwide in museums and galleries, including London’s Design Museum and the V&A.

Emerging from Dominic’s interest in the imaginative nature of children and the impact someone can have on a young person’s life, INVENTORS! set out to inspire the next generation of Sunderland and South Tyneside inventors. It encouraged children to believe in the power of their minds and pushed their imaginations to show them the potential of their ideas.

Dominic led 19 two-hour long workshops at schools and with community groups, with 450 children aged between four and 12. The children were tasked with thinking of their own inventions and drawing them.

Some of these fantastic ideas were then taken to local manufacturers who turned dreams into reality. An exhibition of the working prototypes and models was held in a pop-up shop on Fawcett Street, Sunderland and then in the Central Library, South Shields.

The project attracted a huge amount of media attention, with articles appearing in The Times, The Telegraph, The Independent and on-air coverage on CNN, the BBC’s Newsround and on Canadian TV. INVENTORS! also featured on Buzzfeed, tech publication WIRED and the German family magazine Eltern.

INVENTORS! was also the inspiration behind a STEAMCo Day held at Monkwearmouth Academy.

Mr Drayton’s Human JukeboxWinter 2015

In May, 2015 The Cultural Spring was looking for a new storytelling project which we could run across our ten wards. Freelance director for the BBC Helen Spencer and her partner BBC producer Steve Drayton pitched the idea of the Human Jukebox which was commissioned in late summer of 2016, with the project to be delivered over the winter.

For six months more than 300 people throughout South Tyneside and Sunderland were interviewed and asked what is your most memorable song? And what is the story behind it?

From these two simple questions came astounding stories of personal triumph, amazing bravery and unbearable loss. They also produced an amazing eclectic playlist spanning reggae to pop, rave to rock.

The day, attended by Arts Council England Chair Sir Peter Bazalgette and local MPs, was aimed at promoting the importance of teaching arts and creativity in schools and colleges. During the event, Sir Peter declared Sunderland ‘the poster child of how arts and culture can drive regeneration.”

Amazing! Such creative and original ideas! So inspiring! Very proud of our talented students! Art department Monkwearmouth Academy

Some of the most interesting stories were retold during Mr Drayton’s ‘Social Evenings’ which were held in venues at Roker, Whitburn and Marsden. At these evenings some of the interviewees told their incredible stories and their choice of song was played, sometimes by a live band or group.

The project culminated with a packed live finale at Hylton Castle Working Man’s club on January 30, 2016. The event was full of surprises, laughter and reflection with live performances, music and touching re-tellings from both contributors and celebrity names.

Sunderland-born author Terry Deary performed a memorable version of Elvis’s, I Can’t Help Falling In Love and BBC Newcastle’s Alfie Joey sang Frank Sinatra’s, I’ve Got You Under My Skin with backing dancers from the Kathleen Davis Dance School.

The Hylton Ukes , who came together through The Cultural Spring’s workshop programme, performed Donovan’s Catch The Wind and there was also belly dancing from Kay Taylor and her group.

Lauren Mcleish from South Shields told the story of how she lost both her parents at a young age. She was raised by her grandmother, who was present on the night, and whom she touchingly paid tribute to. Sharon McQullen chose HooberStank’s The Reason and told her story of how it helped her overcome personal obstacles in her life.

The amazing people we met and interviewed can be found, along with their stories and choices, at www.mrdraytonshumanjukebox.com

people attended an Inventors! workshop

975

Number of community workshops in Year 2

58

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A Great Night Out was the culmination of months of workshops held across Sunderland and South Tyneside and celebrated the area’s rich heritage and amazing community spirit.

It was delivered on May 31 in The Point, Sunderland, by WildWorks, a respected theatre company that has delivered site specific performances in towns and cities around the world.

For months before the performance, WildWorks worked with Wearsiders and South Tynesiders, collecting extraordinary stories from ordinary people. Accompanied by specially-commissioned music, performers brought these stories to life in a moving and often funny performance.

The venue was transformed into a, ‘Glittering Dream Space’ full of community talent and local heroes who all arrived in their best attire. Greeted with champagne and canapés, guests enjoyed a projection of 1930s film the Swings before the stories got underway.

The audience was plunged into darkness as a former miner told of the time he was trapped in a pit after the shaft collapsed in on itself. He dreamed of the Northern Lights and sea, a dream which came true when he was freed from the mine and sailed to Thunder Bay, Newfoundland and Chicago.

Former soldier turned teacher Len Gibson told his incredibly powerful story of his years in captivity as a Japanese POW.

With friends dying around him, he created a banjo in an attempt to raise morale. Overcoming sickness, disease and surviving the camp he married his nurse, Ruby, who took care of him when he returned home. Len, now 95, played his banjo and sang On The Street Where You Live, a song he used to sing to Ruby who had recently passed away.

Other performances came from Ross Millard, who led the house band, the Hylton Ukes and George Shovlin and the Radars. Ray Spencer expertly hosted the evening.

David Bowies Heroes provided a fitting sound track to end the night which was full of laughter, tears and pride.

A Great Night OutSpring 2016

2016 Year Three

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WordPlayAutumn 2016

WordPlay was a joint commission with South Tyneside Council and helped to celebrate the opening of The Word - The National Centre For The Written Word, in South Shields on November 3, 2016.

Delivered by the same team that created RUSH - Event International and Southpaw Dance Company - WordPlay was a mass movement, dance spectacular that drew on the rich heritage and deep literary history of South Tyneside and explored themes relating to the written word.

Summer Streets Summer 2016

Held for the third time in Thompson Park, Southwick, our Summer Streets music festival attracted an estimated 8,000 people who enjoyed a weekend of live music which included the premiere of a Cultural Spring research and development project, Putting the Band Back Together.

For two months workshops were held in local community venues throughout South Shields and Sunderland, where dancers of any ability aged 16 and above were taught choreographed routines by professionals from the Southpaw team.

The final performance took place in the Market Square with the impressive backdrop of the Word building. More than 100 dancers performed in front of an audience of a thousand people.

Number of people at WordPlay, 2016

1,000

“It was a great piece of art and proof, if any was needed, that when a great idea is supported and a community comes together it is our greatest social weapon. The long term benefits should not be underestimated: speaking to the wonderful young participants from Newcastle and Sunderland College who told me they would be following their dreams because the experience had inspired them.”Ian Horn

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The event, hosted as usual by the BBC’s Jeff Brown and Ray Spencer from the Customs House, was headlined by Field Music and included performances from the Royal Northern Sinfonia, The Cornshed Sisters, indie band Martha and South Shields band the Heavenly Thrillbillies.

people attended Summer Streets, 2016

From the very beginning our seasonal workshop programmes have embodied the organisation’s mission to engage more people and local communities in arts and culture.

For the past three years, we’ve run workshops across our ten wards, covering a wide variety of art forms including glass fusing; local storytelling; ceramics; learning to play the ukulele; photography; creative writing; digital imaging; sewing and textiles; drama; singing groups and much more.

We worked closely with our communities to ensure the workshops delivered are what they were interested in, and over the last three years our programmes have been refined and honed with the help and experience of workshop attendees.

Venues across our wards were carefully chosen to ensure our workshops were delivered in places as close as possible to our residents – these have included coffee shops, churches, community centres and workingmen’s clubs.

They provide opportunities for people to come along and learn a new skill or art form, and to socialise and form new relationships with people who share similar interests. Our hope has always been that the workshops would lead to self-sustaining groups.

One such group is Hylton Ukes who now meet twice a week and came together through ukulele workshops held in the Hylton Castle ward. Hylton Ukes have performed live at events including A Great Night Out, Summer Streets and Mr Drayton’s Human Jukebox.

Our workshops have also provided residents with opportunities to work on some amazing projects from huge dance performances featuring hundreds of participants, to creating artwork for exhibition and meeting influential artists.

RUSH and Wordplay workshops gave residents the opportunity to be taught by professional dance group Southpaw and take part in large-scale, choreographed productions.

Working closely with schools, Ship of Light workshops allowed people to design their own bottles and have them featured in the display as part of the 2016 Sunderland Illuminations.

Our Workshop Programme

“I’d heard about it and came long on a Tuesday night to have a look. It excited me and now I’m a regular attender. I didn’t know the group before, but now they’re my best mates.”Ian, Hylton Ukes

And Lindsay Kemp, the man who taught Kate Bush and Bowie to dance, led workshops giving ward residents the chance to interact and learn from a hugely respected artist.

The workshop programmes encourage inclusivity, break down barriers and create new and varied ways to engage, helping us achieve our ultimate aim of leaving a lasting legacy of communities with a genuine and abiding interest in arts and culture.

‘The course has rekindled an old hobby and refreshed some of the techniques!’Alice Smith, Drawing and Painting.

‘Recommend the course very highly. Stimulating, exciting, rewarding and very informative.’Hannah Holcroft, Costume design.

550People attended our workshops in 2016

Number of community workshop programmes in Year 3

63

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Bed of RosesIn the summer of 2014 we funded artists Gilly Rogers and Aly Stoker to deliver their Bed of Roses project. This involved a pop-up garden shed appearing within our wards in which Gilly and Ali would ask people what made their lives a bed of roses – this could be a person, a memory, a place, a pet or something entirely different. Answers were recorded and formed a soundscape that was later used at various Cultural Spring events.

Look and Inspire: PinholeThis was a community engagement project developed by local artist Jo Howell, and funded by The Cultural Spring development in 2016 to engage people with their local area through photography. In the workshops participants learnt how to build their own camera out of recycled materials, and then use traditional darkroom techniques to produce unique photographic images of Sunderland.

All of the workshops were free and materials were provided. The resulting photographs created an exhibition which went on show at ????

Letters to MyselfFunded through The Cultural Spring’s research and development scheme, Letters To Myself took the form of both a participatory arts project and theatre show. It focused around themes of self-reflection, self-value, collective knowledge and experiences and was created by producer Becci Sharrock and participation lead Rachael Holgate.

Becci and Rachael have worked with a huge number of arts and culture organisations including Live Theatre, Theatre Sans Frontieres, ARC, Northern Stage, Weave Movement Theatre, Ausdance Victoria and Dance South West. Their shared interest in how writing can be used in creative ways to represent the world and creatively working with the community to bring about positive change inspired the project.

As well as producing our large-scale commissions and delivering our seasonal workshop programme, The Cultural Spring has also supported and developed other artistic projects through our Research and Development programme and through our Your Art scheme.

Our R&D projects have included:

Putting the Band Back TogetherCommissioned in the Autumn of 2014 Putting The Band Back Together aimed to breathe new life into discarded instruments and ‘lapsed’ musicians.

The project started with community get-togethers

where folk who hadn’t played an instrument for some time were invited along to play and to develop new songs. Delivered by Unfolding Theatre’s Annie Rigby working with Ross Millard, the project then developed into a live stage show which premiered at The Cultural Spring’s Summer Streets in 2016 and then went on to enjoy huge success at the 2016 Edinburgh Festival. It has since completed a UK tour.

In the live show, Ross and musicians Maria Crocker and Alex Elliott explore the reasons why we stop playing, the vast emotional connections to music each of us can have and the story of Mark Lloyd who inspired the project in the first place.

An ex-bandmate of Alex’s, Mark was diagnosed with terminal cancer. He spent his last few months contributing to the creation of the show and getting his old band back together for one last charity concert.

For six months they engaged with participants across the ten Cultural Springs wards in Sunderland and South Tyneside. They hosted writing workshops, informal group discussions and travelled with their, ‘mobile living room’ where they invited communities in the region to get involved.

The project encouraged participants to write letters to their past, present or future selves answering questions such as what do you wish you could say to yourself? What do you wish everyone knew? Or what would you like to say to your loved ones?

Ranging from the short, humorous and light hearted

The project encouraged participants to write letters to their past, present or future selves answering questions such as what do you wish you could say to yourself?

8 Research and Development Projects over three years

to the long, introspective and thoughtful the letters covered all manner of topics and personal experiences which were used to piece together the final performance at the Arts Centre Washington on the September 8, 2016.

The performance followed a narrative structure made up entirely of material gained from community participation tackling themes of love, friends, families and decisions. It represented both an acceptance and recognition of the past as well as a celebration of daily triumphs taking the audience on a trip down memory lane through songs, dance and creative expression.

Arranging Mark’s life into a ten-track album, Alex steps into his shoes to express his story and its various stages through interpretative dance, monologues and genre-spanning music made up of original songs.

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Research and Development Projects

The project started with community get-togethers where folk who hadn’t played an instrument for some time were invited along to play and to develop new songs.

In October 2016, The Cultural Spring was awarded a further £1m by Arts Council England, allowing the project to continue up to December 2019.

Over the next three years, the Cultural Spring will work in five new wards in each borough - Hendon, Millfield, Pallion, Sandhill and St Anne’s in Sunderland and Horsley Hill, Beacon and Bents, Simonside and Rekendyke, Monkton and Bede in South Tyneside.

Cultural Spring Director Emma Horsman said: “We’re obviously delighted to be continuing our work for a further three years – and are already looking forward to working in our new wards. Consultation sessions in the ten wards have already taken place and more are in the pipeline.

“It’s vital for us to understand what people in our wards want, so we will continue to talk to them, asking what arts and culture activity they’d like to see in their neighbourhoods. But there will be more large-

Your ArtOver the past three years we have invested nearly £52,884 in our local communities through our Your Art scheme. It aims to help us create a lasting legacy by supporting community groups to shape, lead or programme arts events. Funding of up to £1,000 has been available, and decisions on where the support has gone have been made by panels involving local residents.

We have supported 58 groups over the last three years and these include Sangini, a women’s-led organisation aiming to increase participation in artistic and social activities among women in South Tyneside and Sunderland.

Other recipients include Hylton Castle Primary School who were given £1,000 to develop the Sunderland Oak film-making project; Happy at Home, a befriending service working in South Tyneside; Castletown Community Choir; ARTventures in Fulwell; West Harton Action Station in East Boldon and Grace House in Southwick, Sunderland.

scale commissions and the community workshops programme will continue.”

Ray Spencer, Executive Director of the Customs House, said: “It’s great news that The Cultural Spring will continue to deliver excellent arts and culture opportunities in South Tyneside and Sunderland. Cultural Spring is seen as a national exemplar, which means our people and our communities are being talked about and celebrated countrywide.”

Graeme Thompson, Chair of The Cultural Spring and Pro Vice Chancellor at the University of Sunderland, said: “As lead partner, the university is a big advocate of The Cultural Spring and we’re thrilled it will be raising aspirations and engagement within the two boroughs for another three years – at least.”

Paul Callaghan, founder of the MAC Trust, added: “The project helps to provide leadership and inspiration in both boroughs and it has achieved more than it set out to do – the numbers

of residents engaged in arts activity in our target wards has increased and communities are deciding what art they want delivered rather than being dictated to.”

Sangini, a women’s health organisation working in both boroughs is joining the three original consortium partners.

Sreelekha Reddy, chair of Sangini, said: “We are extremely pleased that Cultural Spring has been successful in securing the funding towards the second phase. We look forward to Cultural Spring continuing to spread its magic among a bigger, wider audience in Sunderland and South Tyneside.”

The Cultural Spring continues...

“We are extremely pleased that Cultural Spring has been successful in securing the funding towards the second phase. We look forward to Cultural Spring continuing to spread its magic among a bigger, wider audience in Sunderland and South Tyneside.”

Go & SeesOur programme was born out of our main aim of encouraging our communities to engage in arts and culture and promotes the fact that the arts are for everyone and not just a select few.

Offering free buses, discounted tickets and opportunities to meet performers and artists, the aim of the programme is to provide new arts and culture opportunities which may have previously been unavailable without the worry of cost or transportation.

Go and See opportunities have included the Royal North Sinfonia at Red House Academy; Tyne by Michael Chaplin at Customs House and Live Theatre; Lydia’s House at Customs House and the Canny Space, the Sunderland Empire Theatre, Festival of Thrift, ‘Encounters’ with Lindsay Kemp and SIRF (Stockton International Riverside Festival and many more.

The number of projects supported by Your Art

58

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What activities would you like to see the Cultural Springdelivering? Email your ideas to info@theculturalspring.org.uk To keep up to date, sign up to the Cultural Spring e-newsletter via the website - www.theculturalspring.co.ukor follow us on Twitter @Cultural_Spring

Contact us via www.theculturalspring.org.uk or ring us on 0191 427 8197

The Cultural Spring would like to thank all participants and audiences who have taken part in our activities and your commitment, enthusiasm and feedback which have helped to drive the project forward.

Thanks also go to:

The Cultural Spring Steering Group

Cultural Spring Community Champions who have volunteered their time and support to the project

All of the venues and schools who have provided space for our events and workshops over the past three years.

Workshop artists, recipients of our Your Art support and Research and Development projects, your creativity, vision and hard work have taken us all on a fantastic journey.

We would also like to thank all of our Cultural Calendar commissioned artists and arts organisations:

Ross Millard for Summer Streets and Great North Passion

Garry Hunter and Fitzrovia Noir for Street Art Heroes and Great North Passion

Invisible Flock for Bring the Happy

SouthPaw Dance Company and Event International for RUSH and WordPlay!

Dominic Wilcox and Suzy O’Hara for Inventors!

Steve Drayton and Helen Spencer for Mr Drayton’s Human Jukebox

WildWorks for A Great Night Out

BBC, Joseph Hillier, Julian Germain, Gem Arts, Graeme Danby, Bad Taste Cru, Kate Fox, Tees Valley Arts, Richard Broderick, Jaff Craig, Sage Gateshead, Bait, Great North Passion.

Our colleagues from South Tyneside Council and Sunderland City Council.

Thank You

Rebecca Ball, Graeme Thompson and all our colleagues from the University of Sunderland; Paul Callaghan, John Mowbray and our Sunderland MAC (Music, Arts and Culture Trust) colleagues; Ray Spencer and our colleagues from The Customs House, Mark Adamson, Bev Morton, Rob Lawson. Our colleagues from across the National Creative People and Places Network.

And finally a huge thank you to Arts Council England for making this all possible through your investment.

Photographic credits: Dan Prince, Colin Davison and Robin Fearon