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A social club on a street. Between the upstairs and downstairs windows there is a large sign. The sign has the words The Cavern written on it. Behind the social club is a block of flats. The sky is blue.

Exhibitions

The Caravan Gallery: Sunderland Pride of Place Project - Ten Years On

22 Mar – 11 May 2025

Showing in Northern Gallery for Contemporary Art Collection Space

Quick summary

Price
Free
Running time
10:00 - 17:00 Daily
Venue
  • Northern Gallery for Contemporary Art

Additional information

Access Information

Event description

“A lot of people write off places they don’t even know about”
Jan Williams – The Caravan Gallery

In March 2015, The Caravan Gallery brought their weird and wonderful photographs celebrating everyday life in Britain to Northern Gallery for Contemporary Art.

Over a hundred colour photographs full of humour, joy and social commentary were exhibited in the exhibition Extra(ordinary) Photographs of Britain at Northern Gallery for Contemporary Art, then based on Fawcett Street in Sunderland.

The exhibition was accompanied by a Pride of Place Project, in an empty shop unit on Fawcett Street, devised for Sunderland by photographers Jan Williams and Chris Teasdale of The Caravan Gallery. The shop unit provided a space to host events, workshops and informal conversations against a changing backdrop of locally submitted artworks, memories and interactive activities, exploring the heritage and folklore of Sunderland. This was all supported by their trademark travelling art gallery housed in a distinctive 1960s yellow caravan.

Ten years on we are revisiting this truly unique project with a new exhibition comprised of the material generated in Sunderland in 2015. The exhibition poses the questions – How has Sunderland changed in this time? What has Sunderland gained and lost? What makes you proud about Sunderland?

About The Caravan Gallery

The Caravan Gallery is a collaboration between artists and photographers Jan Williams and Chris Teasdale to document the reality and surreality of the way we live today. It is also a mobile exhibition space that engages with people and places “normal” galleries might not easily reach. They use colour photography to create accessible but thought-provoking images which frequently celebrate overlooked and occasionally bizarre aspects of everyday life.

Since setting up in 2000 they have travelled thousands of miles and exhibited in hundreds of locations in the UK and abroad, sharing images from their ever-expanding photographic archive with the most diverse audience imaginable.

Equally at home exhibiting in a shopping centre car park or prestigious arts venue, they invite visitors to respond to observations of their locality. People’s enthusiasm to share their own impressions inspired them to devise participatory Pride of Place Projects in partnership with local arts organisations.

Part evolving exhibition, part alternative visitor information centre, these projects give local people an opportunity to explore their surroundings in a creative way by contributing to The Caravan Gallery’s display.

 

Credit: The Caravan Gallery, The Cavern, 2015. Courtesy of the artists.

An old department store with 1950s architecture. The shop is closed up. All the shutters are down. Several of the windows are smashed. There is a For Sale sign attached to one of the walls. There are three signs with the names of the store. They all say Joplings. On the corner of the store is a large clockface.
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Two large ships are moored on the dockside of the River Wear. The ship in the foreground had an orange hull. The ship in the background has a red hull. There are two large cranes on the dockside. In the distance is the entrance to the harbour.
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A social club on a street. Between the upstairs and downstairs windows there is a large sign. The sign has the words The Cavern written on it. Behind the social club is a block of flats. The sky is blue.
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Small terraced houses sit in a row. Behind the houses are two large blocks of flats.
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Silver figures made from steel piping are positioning up a grassy hill side. In front of the figures are large steel hexagon shapes. The figures appear to be pushing the hexagons up the incline. In the distance is the River Wear. There is a warehouse and some heavy machinery.
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Blue wooden pallets sit on a bricked walkway. On top of the pallets are several rugs. The rugs are being held down with a number of bricks. In the background is a market. Two people are outside a small café.
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