Spring/Summer Newsletter At The Northern we like to keep future students up to date with what is happening on campus and beyond. In this newsletter we give you feel for the social side of life in our part of the north as well as an idea of the ways our students reach wider audiences.
ConTemporary The Northern is at the heart of the creative community in Hartlepool - a new ‘meanwhile’ creative space has opened on Church Street called The ConTemporary – this combines a flexible gallery area with a social space for creatives to get together. The space opened in March with a two week exhibition by second year Fine Art Students – Generation Dystopia – which was curated and built by the students working with a professional curator (our second year students get this external gallery experience as a part of their course). The space will go on to host regular events and will be the site of a two week residency as part of The Northern Festival of Illustration.
Music
Buckets of acting
The music scene in Hartlepool and Tees Valley gets
Our Acting for Stage and Screen students and staff are a real part of the fringe arts scene in the area,
a boost in the weeks ahead. In Hartlepool multiple venues will be hosting bands for the first Hartlepool Live festival – the headline act is Maximo Park frontman Paul Smith giving one of his solo gigs. Incidentally Paul is a former student! Hartlepool Live celebrates local performers and bands on Saturday 15 Jun and Sunday 16 Jun 2019.
with regular live performance, scratch and stand-up nights. The latest is ‘Buckets’ by Adam Barnard showing 9th & 10th May 7pm at The Northern School of Art Theatre! ‘Buckets’ swings through a kaleidoscopic world of sadness and happiness, illness and health, youth and experience, kissing and crying, singing and dying, building to a unique perspective on a universal dilemma: How do you deal with the fact time always runs out? The show also features a live band and is presented as a piece of innovative gig theatre.
There was quite a stir when our local newspaper said the headliner was Mark Smith (the much missed, late frontman of The Fall) – Paul may yet do some covers after being suitably amused by the gaffe. At the end of May neighbouring town Middlesbrough plays host to BBC Radio 1’s Big weekend with a great line up including Rita Ora, Bring Me The Horizon, Stormzy, Jess Glynne, Sigrid, Jax Jones and James Arthur.
The Northern Festival of Illustration Every two years The Northern hosts and curates an international festival of the best in contemporary and past illustration with illustrators showing work as well as giving talks, masterclasses and live drawing. In past years we have hosted John McCrea (Marvel, and DC artist) Gerald Scarfe, Ridley Scott, and many many others. This year Chris Riddell will return alongside a great line up that will include Rob Flowers, Tor Freeman and many others (keep checking the website www. festivalofillustration.com for info).
This year we have expanded the Festival to include The Northern Illustration Prize (supported by The Association of Illustrators) the 20 shortlisted illustrators will be exhibiting in the Festival – showing the best from around the world in the two categories of emerging and established illustrator – we already have entries from every continent (apart from Antarctica – we guess the snow mittens make it difficult to draw…)
Whilst the play is performed by our BA (Hons) Acting students it exemplifies the collaboration between our different degrees - the technical teams are our BA (Hons) Film, TV and Theatre students, the set is by Production Design students, costumes are by our Costume students, the poster is by one of our Graphics students and the Commercial Photography students have done all the marketing material. So you must know someone on one of those courses why not get along and support? Also it is Pay What You Decide so you don’t pay a penny until you’ve seen the show (no excuse not to come). Fancy coming along? Book on this link: bucketsbythenorthern.eventbrite.co.uk
TopModel: Our fashion lecturers help to steal the show A Teesside teacher has triumphed in a national modelling competition has revealed the look created by fashion lecturers at The Northern School of Art helped her to steal the show. Billingham-based Fiona Harrington, who was crowned as the ‘Natural Beauty Curves Award’ winner in the 2019 TopModel competition on 23 March, has released the official photo, pictured above (Credit: Colin Chau/TOP MODEL), of the show-stopping outfit created by the School’s BA (Hons) Fashion with Body Contour degree course lecturers. The 43-year-old business studies teacher said she was thrilled with how the stunning red and black outfit turned out on the day, even if the eyelash extensions that were specially-crafted out of feathers to match it presented a challenge to the make-up team!
Dr Carol Harris, from the School’s Fashion with Body Contour programme, explained how her team had come up with the highly impactful look for Fiona using a range of skills that are taught on the Fashion with Body Contour degree course. “The initial design began with a bra and a reel of elastic and it evolved from there as a very creative design and make project. The satin quilted panels and lace overlay were then developed to create a luxurious look and we adapted it to suit Fiona’s requirements by adding the feather skirt effect. “Alison in our team created the amazing eyelashes from the feather boa as an ingenious finishing touch. It looked absolutely amazing on Fiona and we are so happy to have been able to support her to achieve her very well-deserved win.”
A new collection of designs on show at Bowes Museum Students from (BA) Textiles & Surface Design degree programme have collaborated with The Bowes Museum to create an outstanding collection of new surface designs for fashion fabrics, gifts and products for public viewing. This exciting new interpretation of The Bowes Museum’s collections are the basis for this unique exhibition curated by Lianne Hubbert and Lyndon Lowe, lecturers at The Northern School of Art. The Bowes Museum is a gem in the northern arts, design & heritage community receiving visitors from all over the world to view its extraordinary collections. Students worked with the exhibitions and education team to transform number of areas in the wonderful building. See more at thebowesmuseum.org.uk