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Beyond the Venues

Hopes & Fears at Millfield Metro Station

In July 2022, artist Chad McCail was commissioned by Nexus, through Sunderland Culture, to produce a community-led mural for Millfield Metro Station in Sunderland. Exploring a collective experience of living and working in Sunderland and the hopes for Sunderland’s future, touching upon current concerns such as high rent and bills, to sustainable living – the colourful large- scale mural was painted on the station’s entrance wall in summer 2023. An exhibition at Hills Arts Centre in Sunderland city centre explored the making of the mural, featuring puppets and other artwork produced during community workshops.

 

A graphic of four people in a cemetery. The one on the right is bent over taking a photograph of a skeleton hand that is reaching out of a grave. The two in the middle are gesturing in confusion. The one on the left is pulling a black and white dog on a lead that is walking towards the skeleton.

Creative Forums

During the year Sunderland Culture hosted two Creative Forums for artists and creatives across the city.

Held at local independent cultural venues Pop Recs and 17Nineteen, these forums provided opportunities for networking, dialogue and connecting artists, small creative businesses and organisations in Sunderland’s creative sector.

The networks offered opportunities for attendees to share micro presentations and have become helpful spaces for sharing information on support available for artists and creatives, as well as discussions about our shared cultural ambitions for the future.

 

Groups of people sit at long wooden tables talking amongst one another with coffees, large sheets of paper and pens. The room has bare concrete walls and a yellow beam through the middle. At the back is a plywood wall that has large black text on it reading 'Hunger Melody Decency'.

Speak Up

As part of the Theatre Nation Partnership, Sunderland Culture began working with Sunderland Empire Theatre and National Theatre to deliver Speak Up – a secondary school programme that sees young people take part in creative sessions to empower them to tell their own stories and connect with each other and their local communities.

Over the past year, Speak Up engaged 947 young people from five schools across Sunderland in 161 sessions. Participants created campaigns, music, animation and spoken word pieces, culminating in a June 2023 takeover event at Arts Centre Washington.

 

A young person wearing a white shirt and red tie, stands in a dark room with a green acrobat ribbon wrapped around his back and arms. Another person stands to their right talking and gesturing with their hands.

Sunderland Culture Annual Review 2023-24