FEATURE: Middlesbrough Art Week

Image: Karrabing Film Collective – Mermaids, or Aiden in Wonderland

Now in its seventh year, the North East’s largest celebration of contemporary art returns to Middlesbrough venues across eight action-packed days from Thursday 26^th September-Saturday 5^th October.

Any showcase of contemporary art must also address contemporary concerns, and MAW has always done this with aplomb. This year’s festival subtitle is ‘In The Now And The Far’, with themes revolving around key questions including ‘who has the right to take action?’, ‘in what ways does art help us reimagine our communities’ and ‘how can we grow a festival?’

Over 70 artists across 15 venues will help to answer these questions, with visitors able to engage with film screenings, workshops, exhibitions and concerts programmed by instigators The Auxiliary, as well as cultural organisations including MIMA, Navigator North, Platform A, Industrial Coast, Python Gallery, Eden Arts and many more.

Also key to the festival’s success is the emphasis it places on supporting artists at all stages of their careers, with North East creatives given top priority through programmes such as the North East Open Call, as The Auxiliary’s Liam Slevin explains: “This will be the fifth year we’ve run the NEOC, and each year we’ve tried to increase the support and resources that go into exhibitions and the artists that take part. Putting North East artists at the core of the festival and not on the peripheries is something we are very mindful of. We’ve always been about growing what’s here, and the NEOC does just that. It’s also curated by a previous NEOC artist Penny Payne, and we brought back Liberty Hodes to help select this year as well.” Similarly, the New Graduate Award works with young artists in a studio-based professional development programme.

Putting North East artists at the core of the festival and not on the peripheries is something we are very mindful of

A new initiative for 2024 includes UPROOT, a creative collaboration with community leaders, migrant networks and schools in the Tees Valley which has seen mini meadows planted at various sites this year, which will be uprooted and transported to a central Middlesbrough Meadow Hub which plays host to talks by acclaimed artist and writer Jace Clayton, civil rights activist Gracie Mae Bradley and pioneering horticulturalist Nigel Dunnett.

Further highlights of the programme include Zimbabwean-Scottish artist Natasha Thembiso Ruwona’s new commission, A Troubling, or, A Sonic Refusal, which investigates Black sound in relation to geography; Amy Drover’s beautiful drawings of endangered animals hides a distressing side; created by Strange Telemetry, Future Poker is an interactive card game which encourages conversations around green-washing, libertarianism and more; while Belgian-born, Mexico-based artist Francis Alÿs will present The Silence of Ani, a film following teenagers as they explore the ancient Armenian city of Ani, playing whistles and flutes that mimic birdsong. Liam is tight-lipped about the opening Orlana Light performance (“Walking trees…I’m not saying anything else!”), and is also excited about teaming up with promoters Industrial Coast for a performance from heavy-hitting noise artist Samuel Kerridge.

Liam picks out a few more of his particular favourites: “The Karrabing Film Collective are a grassroots Indigenous-based media group that will be screening Night Fishing With Ancestors (2023), where a world is imagined if Middlesbrough’s most famous ‘explorer’ never arrived in Australia. The film will be shown in Captain Cook Square throughout the festival. And for Most Creative Train Station, Navigator has curated this beautiful series of public interventions happening across the train station, keep an eye out if you’re coming to Middlesbrough by train!”