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Arts Centre Washington
During 2023-34, Arts Centre Washington delivered a varied programme of community art classes and groups, exhibitions, live performance and film screenings, welcoming more than 168,000 visitors.
Our gallery programme included Another Place: Another Space – artist Ken Ellison Lockwood’s collaboration with the Lighthouse View Artist Collective – and Peter McAdam’s multi-media exhibition Trout Memo. Our community exhibition programme presented Sangini’s Amra-shobai-aikhaney (we-are-here), Sunderland Indie’s Gaslit and Washington Open 2023: Spotlight.
Arts Centre Washington continued to bang the drum for theatre in the city with a wide variety of performances that reflect the age and diversity of its communities. Highlights included Journal Culture Award Winner Penguin, a piece of autobiographical theatre performed by disabled artist and Syrian refugee Hamzeh Al Husseim and produced by Curious Monkey Theatre Company. A welcome return by Red Ladder Theatre Company with the musical We’re Not Going Back – reflecting women’s lives during the 1984 miners’ strike – and old favourites Wrongsemble who kept our younger audiences delighted with The Not So Grimm Twins and A Town Called Christmas.
Through a partnership with Film Hub North we have been able to grow our film programme. As well as being a host venue for the 2023 Sunderland Shorts Film Festival, the centre presented a new look programme including Heritage Reels – archive and documentary films accompanied by talks, Film and Fun – family friendly movies with an art activity, Picture House – dementia-friendly screenings and Sunderland Film Club – independent documentary film and matinee screenings. The new programme enabled us to increase our screenings five-fold from January to March 2024.
The centre continues to grow its engagement programme to cater for a variety of needs and interests with new groups including Music on Mind – songwriting and music production for adults – and Washington Writers group and drawing courses.
In July, our Creative Age group for people with dementia, their carers and those with long term health conditions, presented their own exhibition and sold items at our Christmas Craft Fair, raising vital funds which were reinvested into the group. The exhibition was extremely popular, resulting in another regular group being established.
For young people, Creative You offered a variety of regular events and workshops for those aged 11+ in Washington. During the summer, young people helped organised a takeover of Washington Old Hall for the Creative You Summer Festival, featuring a programme of free workshops and live music from Right Track, Sunderland Music Hub and Arts Centre Washington’s young musicians project, alongside other young musicians from across the city, all celebrating the talented young people who take part in Creative You. We were delighted and proud to see our brilliant Washington Young Filmmakers group awarded a Tyne and Wear High Sheriff Award for services to the community.
In February, we hosted our biggest Bright Lights Youth Arts Festival to date. This year, for the first time, a Bright Lights Fringe Festival was held in Sunderland Museum & Winter Gardens which saw hundreds of people visit the exhibition, 94 young people take part in workshops and 236 attending performances.
Places like this, that put on events like this, is all going to help…young people
Lottie, participant in Bright Lights Youth Arts Festival
