Please join us for the opening of No Last Dance. All welcome

To mark the opening of Beyond the Loudspeaker there will be a durational performance by Dirty Electronics and Tim Shaw. Visitors are able to drop in and out over the course of the event. 

This performance will contain flashing lights so may not be safe for people with epilepsy and other light sensitivity conditions.

Please contain us if you have any concerns.

An afternoon of informal discussions and workshops exploring the legacy of music collectives in the North East of England and how they were supported by youth and community workers.

Talks and workshops will include:

• Youth work practice in the late 70's and early 80's - what can we learn?

• Working with punks in the 80’s. A community arts perspective

•  What is the legacy in relation to being involved in collectivism?

• The art of the fanzine - the TicTok of the 80's

• The role of women in the collective and how the values of community development and youth work are lived in their personal and professional lives

Click here to download the event programme.

Join us for the opening of the exhibition.

All welcome. 

The third conversation in this series will focus on how artists communicate their subjectivity and articulate an understanding of what they do. 

Invited artists, Laura and Rachel Lancaster, will join this conversation and they will be responding to the above themes in relation to their own experiences.

As a reference point for the event, we will use a discussion between art historian, Isabelle Graw, and painter, Charline von Heyl, where she demonstrates an acute understanding of her practice. Although the whole interview is very interesting, the conversation on pages 42 - 44 will provide the focus for this discussion.

The aim of all three conversations is to elicit discussion that may inform the content of No Last Dance, a painting exhibition, curated by Helen Baker and Sue Spark, that will be hosted by NCA in Spring 2024. 

Click here to book your free ticket.

Image: Rachel Lancaster - Sleep Grip (2022)

Join us for a drink and meet some of the artists exhibiting their work in the exhibition.

All welcome.

The curator of the exhibition, Narbi Price, will give an informal walking tour of the show.

All welcome.

Photograph by David Hall (Nostalgia Kid).

The exhibition opening of X, tenth anniversary of Contemporary British Painting, will coincide with The Late Shows with DJ sets by Bishop (founder of Opal Tapes), and Paul Smith, best known as the frontman of Maxïmo Park.

Join us for a drink and a dance!

An evening of short films of women artists talking about making work to include: Lubaina Himid, Sonia Boyce, Emma Talbot, Jessica Stockholder and Mary Heilman.

Selected films will act as a starting point for conversations that will explore:

• attitudes to thinking and making work. 

• connecting with other artists and why we do it

• the impact of removing work from the studio to the gallery 

• what or who inspires us

This is the second public conversation leading up to No Last Dance, a painting exhibition, curated by Helen Baker and Sue Spark, that will be hosted by NCA in Spring 2024. 

The third event will take place on Saturday 17th June 2 - 4pm.

The aim of the conversations is to elicit discussion that may inform the content of the final exhibition.

Click here to book your free ticket.

Helen and Sue have compiled a short reading list of texts that have informed their research for the exhibition:

• KELSEY J, Rich Texts: Selected Writing fort Art, Sternberg Press, 2010

• GRAW I, The Love of Painting, Genealogy of a Success Medium, Sternberg Press, 2018

• MYERS T R, Mary Heilmann: Save the Last Dance for Me, Afterall Books, 2007

In this workshop, we will discuss the pay and conditions of artists working in the UK and reflect on how these can be improved. Invited speakers will give several short presentations that will act as starting points for the discussion. 

Jessica Roper from A-n, will give an overview on the findings of their inquiry into the pay and conditions of artists working in the public sector, Structurally F_cked.

Theresa Easton from Artist Union England, who will outline their rates of pay guidelines.

Peter McArdle will describe his personal experience of working with galleries to sell his paintings.

Click here to book your free ticket.

Image by Melaine Gillman

In Spring 2024 NCA will host No Last Dance, a painting exhibition, curated by Helen Baker and Sue Spark. No Last Dance will, in part, explore how time is intrinsic to the act of making and viewing painting.

As a precursor to the exhibition, NCA will be holding three public conversations in the Gallery space in April, May and June. The aim of the conversations is to elicit discussion that may inform the content of the final exhibition. 

The First Dance invites both visible and invisible artists in the North East to come together and discuss how, why and when they make and show work. As a catalyst for the evening’s discussion, we will screen a short film about the artist Phyllida Barlow and ask participants to respond to several questions (see below). If you have time before the event, please send your answers to the questions via email to: info@visitnca.com

Click here to book your free ticket for the event

Invisible Artist Questionnaire

1. How visible do you consider yourself as an artist and your work to be?

2. Where do you make your work?

3. Work doesn’t need to be seen in a gallery or exhibition. 

4. How is your work seen, by whom, where, how, when? 

5. Do you think you operate outside the conventional gallery system? If so what do you do and where do you do it?

6. Many artists don’t show their work. Does this matter?

7. How often do you view other artists work that inspires you? (Apart from in print or digitally).

8. What problems do you have as an artist?

Come and share a drink with the artists in the exhibition.

The gallery will be open from 12.

Group crits are a way for artists to talk about their work and to get feedback from viewers.

We will start the session with a short introductory guide for how to lead a group crit that allows artists and viewers to discuss artworks in a reflective and convivial way.

We will then break into small groups to talk about the artworks in the gallery.

Everyone is welcome to take part - whether they have work in the exhibition or not. 

The session will be followed by the opening celebration for the exhibition.

Join artist, Dawn Felicia Knox, as she sifts through the Carole Luby archive in preparation for a book exploring their collaboration.

All are welcome with a note that there will be images of nudity.

Carole Luby invited Dawn to make a series of photographs during her last years as she moved towards her death. Dawn also documented her last performances and the community she drew in around her. The images, together with Carole’s drawings, make a powerful document of a life and a death fully lived.

A Conversation exploring how women artists make work between and about our domestic and professional spaces. This event was part of Sally Madge’s exhibition, Nowhere better than this place.

What do we know about how Sally made work? Did she move between her domestic spaces and professional spheres like many artists do? How did her home, her kitchen table, allotment, studio, workplaces, exhibition venues, favourite places in the landscape all contribute to her artistic process and subjects for her work? What might we understand more fully about our own and future artist practices that also transcend these different physical, social and political domains?  

NCA is delighted to welcome two amazing women to ground our conversation in their research and curatorial practices: Dr. Particia Zakreski, Senior Lecturer in Victorian Literature and Culture, Exeter University and Dr. Caroline Gausden, writer and discursive curator based in Glasgow. Currently, Development Worker for Programming and Curating at Glasgow Women’s Library.

Dr Caroline Gausden is a new addition to the team having joined Glasgow Women’s Library (GWL), in December 2018. Before working at the Library Caroline was based in Aberdeen where she completed a practice based PhD in Feminist Manifestos and Social Art Practice. She is a Development Worker for Programming, Curating, Partnerships and Participation at GWL. This role involves her moving between all the different facets of the organisation, from the archive to the library shelves and surrounding neighbourhood, to think about how the collection and public programme continue to speak to each other and to the diverse groups of people who are at home in the Library.

Dr. Patricia Zakreski is a Senior Lecturer in Victorian Literature and Culture at the University of Exeter, where she is also the Director for the Centre for Victorian Studies. Her books include Representing Female Artistic Labour 1848-1890: Refining Work for the Middle Class Woman, the co-edited collection Crafting the Woman Professional in the Long Nineteenth Century: Artistry and Industry in Britain, and the co-edited reader What is a Woman to Do? A Reader on Women, Work and Art, c. 1830-90. Click here to download a PDF of the book. Her current work explores the relationship between authorship and the decorative arts in the second half of the nineteenth century. She is also co-editing a multi-volume reader on Art Education in the Long Nineteenth Century.

Facilitated by Foundation Press and Dr Judy Thomas, Assistant Professor in Fine Art, Northumbria University. This tacit workshop explores processes of making, facilitating, learning, creating and community. The session welcomes artists, educators and facilitators and involves making a mess, tea and scones and conversation.  

Sally modelled authentic and progressive teaching practices; her approaches were contemporary, political, lived and experiential. With an unknown outcome, this session collaboratively examines Sally’s pedagogic practice by exploring ideas of utopia, process, materials, community, provenance, ownership and play.  

The session will involve working with clay so participants are advised to wear clothes that can get messy. 

Click here to book your free ticket

Join us for the opening of Sally Madge’s exhibition with welcoming speeches from Helen Smith (NCA) and Sally’s family members.

The gallery will be open from 12 if you would like to view the exhibition before the reception starts.

You are invited to a Learning Lab focusing on Gresham Wooden Horse.

Gresham Wooden Horse is an art project co-created over several years by the artist, Isabel Lima, with residents and community stakeholders in the neighbourhood of Gresham, Middlesbrough.

The Learning Lab will begin with a walk-through of the gallery space with Lima. Followed by a series of invited provocations to aspects of the exhibition, focusing on the translation and impact of a place-based project into a gallery setting. The Learning Lab will facilitate a conversation with a range of invited participants, opening up the project to the collective knowledge of  community activists and residents, artists, researchers,  policymakers together with visitors to the gallery.

Moderated by Åine O’Brien, Curator of Learning and Research and Co-Founder, Counterpoints Arts.

Counterpoints Arts’ Learning Lab Programme is committed to the collective power of public learning and the constructive risks entailed in pushing the boundaries of accepted knowledge and practice. Exploring migration, the creative arts and social change, together with the role and value of the arts and culture as a necessary, democratic right.  Individual Labs facilitate lively exchange and debate, forging alliances between artists and activists, cultural workers, curators, educators, community residents, human rights advocates and policymakers. Breaking down silos and responding to need – where no one participant can claim hierarchy of thought or skill.

Click here to book your free ticket.

Join us for the opening of Isabel Lima’s exhibition, Gresham Wooden Horse.

Pay bar

An event exploring what an alternative local plan for Newcastle might look like: one that brings about a more progressive, inclusive and optimistic future. With contributions from Just Space – an alliance of community groups in London; Isabel Lima – artist; Louise Sloan – Newcastle City Council; and Tim Crawshaw – President of the Royal Town Planning Institute.

Book your free ticket for the event here.

This event is run in collaboration with the Farrell Centre and the School of Architecture, Planning and Landscape at Newcastle University

Please join us for an informal discussion between Kuba and Carol McKay, photography and art historian at University of Sunderland. The conversation will be an opportunity to hear the stories behind the photographs and find out how the different series of works presented in the exhibition intertwine and overlap with one another.

This event is run in partnership with NEPN.

CVAN’s Artists’ Forum offers the chance to meet new people, share ideas, and discuss projects and plans. Meetings are free and open to all — please come along whether you’re an artist, work in the visual arts, or are an interested bystander.

For September, NCA will be hosting the forum. Curator Helen Smith will introduce the organisation's work, followed by an open discussion around the theme 'Placemaking: what do cities expect of artists / what can artists expect of cities?'

Come to join in or just listen if you'd rather - and there'll be plenty of time for wider discussion and introductions too.

Join us for the opening of Kuba Ryniewicz’s exhibition, Parallel Stories From Here. 

Free entry / Pay bar