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We meet the Tees Valley Artists of the Year, filmmaker Andy Berriman, theatre-maker Scott Turnbull, visual artist Claire A Baker, musician Amelia Coburn and author Lisette Auton
Image: L-R Andy Berriman, Lisette Auton, Amelia Coburn, Claire A Baker, Scott Turnbull
Launched by Tees Valley Combined Authority to provide support and investment in the area’s creativity, five artists will receive professional development and financial assistance, enabling them to move to the next level of their careers.
Here, we meet filmmaker Andy Berriman, theatre-maker Scott Turnbull, visual artist Claire A Baker, musician Amelia Coburn and author Lisette Auton, to find out about their creative practice and what they’re hoping the next 12 months will bring.
“I’m a singer-songwriter from Middlesbrough. I write unusual, narrative-driven songs that take their inspiration from gothic fairy tales, film noir and the people I’ve encountered on my travels through unfamiliar lands. This year I released my debut studio album Between The Moon And The Milkman which was produced by Bill Ryder-Jones.
“I’m hoping to have enough songs written for my next record, by spending time honing my skills as a songwriter as well as collaborating and co-writing with different musicians. I’d also like to become a self-sufficient artist, so I’ll be working closely with my mentors to try and find ways of making a sustainable income as a musician.
“It may sound cliché, but being able to work on my craft without the stress or pressure of making ends meet is an absolute lifeline. Thanks to the award, this new-found time and space to be creative has already allowed me to spend more time writing music and to take a full band out on tour, which would have been nigh-on impossible without having this kind of support.”
“I’m a writer and director from Stockton. I make commercial films for a living and when I can I make music videos and short films, working my way up to features and TV shows. My passion is telling stories with rich characters, that are funny and touching. All my films are of my homeland in some way – if not set here specifically, then they spring from the sensibility I have developed growing up here.
“This year my aim is to crack some practical milestones in my career – things like shadow on a TV series, get an agent and write a treatment for a feature film. Beyond that, the most valuable thing this year is giving me, is the opportunity to take the time to really hone in on what I want to make and who I want to be as an artist.
“To some degree, this award has transformed what I think is possible in my career. For the first time in a long time, it feels like the sky is the limit.”
“Born and based in Darlington, I do stuff with words; I work with them in all their forms as an author, dramatist, filmmaker, performer and activist. One of the strands of my work is as a children’s author and I currently write for Puffin. All my books are set in the North East and always have disabled and neurodivergent characters at the centre, just like me.
“This year will allow me to focus on my work for adults, building on the award-winning Water Cycle trilogy of films I made for Durham Book Festival. This will involve writing a creative non-fiction novel which is highly experimental in form and uses a Tees Valley chorus of voices, and alongside this creating a multimedia performance for theatre spaces.
“There is absolutely no way I could make this work without the financial and highly tailored support being offered to us this year. It feels like an absolute gift and privilege to be given this time. The mentoring has already begun with New Writing North and it’s enabling me to be ambitious and bold, be brave and take risks, invite failure, dig into process and experiments, but also recognises my brain and body and how we can work to make it the very best it can possibly be.”
“As a visual artist based in Stockton, my research is concerned with the textile legacy of a dying community – the Babushkas who still live in the Chernobyl exclusion zone, with whom I have connected through our common interest in, and love of, embroidery. I am passionate about sharing their stories through the contemporisation of their textile heritage and bringing it to new audiences. My dialogical works consider loss, memory, relationships and connections.
“This bursary will give me the space, time and opportunity to fulfil a longtime ambition of working with digital, industrial processes in order to produce much larger scale works. I will spend time training on new software and machinery and concentrate on making a new body of work referencing the significant disintegration and destruction by Russia of the historic material culture of Ukraine.
“I aspire to show this new and previously unseen work at a high profile national gallery by the end of the programme, the first of its kind here in Teesside, alongside having laid the foundations of a globally accessible archive. By the year end I hope to have identified, embraced, and underpinned my creative brand, gaining the confidence and credibility to be able to clearly articulate, demonstrate and establish it in the contemporary art and craft markets.
“The Tees Valley Artists of the Year programme has made me feel that all my research and artwork to this point has value and is meaningful, which is an incredible motivator.”
“I’m a theatre maker, actor, illustrator and writer. I love making stuff and doing silly voices in wigs and/or papier-mache heads. The work I make is funny, interactive and thought-provoking. Sometimes I just dance around in my underpants.
“I’m working on a new show called Unexpected Item In The Bagging Area for theatre and TV. It’s the story of two brothers working the endless night shift in a 24-hour garage somewhere between Stockton and Newcastle. It’s a supernatural comedy horror featuring singing sausages, jazz-playing cockroaches and serial killing convicts.
“I know Teesside isn’t fucking Malibu, but I see beauty and humour all around me. As an artist, I try to reimagine my day-to-day experiences then respond to them on stage, on screen and online. Over the next 12 months I’ll continue making work…only this year I’ll be getting paid a living wage to do it.”
