Late Shows Ouseburn

One of the cool things about this city is the extensive creative scene, too much to keep track of really. Once a year the Late Shows serves as a sort of art crawl/city exploration where venues open their doors late to the public and you can visit a range of places. The first year we heard about it late and just did a behind the scenes tour of the Tyneside Cinema, which was fascinating. Last year we were out of town, so this year we’re trying to take in as much as possible!

The whole thing takes place over two nights, last night was the Ouseburn portion, covering twenty venues. We didn’t try to make all of them, but managed the Newbridge Project which was showcasing first year Fine Art students from Newcastle University – an interesting mix of pieces which leaned towards biological/organic shapes, some quite disturbing and a smattering of comfort themed works that contrasted nicely. Next was Shieldfield Art Works, a cozy space with a neat installation of floating paper lantern fish. The Biscuit Factory is a venue we’ve been to before, and as previously it is always a bit overwhelming with so much to see, the highlight was the Mushroom Sculpt a project to create ‘mycelial blocks’ made from fungi and cardboard as a new eco material, as well as a book educating children on this rather neglected topic. We stopped the the Ship Inn for a drink and snack, then into one of The Find, a new shop in the area fill of local arts and crafts. We accidentally stumbled into Cobalt Studios on the way down, which was jumpin but had a queue for their screenprinting workshop, then made it to Northern Print which I would very much like to learn more about and had tons of amazing art on display, with a focus on endangered species. On to 36 Lime Street which seemed sparse at first, but mainly because of the labyrinthine nature of the building, which contained printworks, ceramicists, musicians, architects, sculptors, glassworks, and good only knows what else, John bought a print and I found a lovely pendant. Finally we stopped by the Bottleworks which had a exhibition by local artists, and ended the night at Two by Two.