I have now had a few weeks to calm down about The Late Shows 2014. My Twitter feed
(@MuseumWalkerIan) was pretty busy over the course of the two nights, but this
blog affords me the chance to say a little more than 140 characters at a time!
So let’s start at the very beginning because, after all, it’s a very good place
to start.
After downing tools on Friday evening, I walked from the
Haymarket through to Shieldfield. The Biscuit Tin Studios were not a listed
venue this year, so I kicked off my own personal experience of the year’s event
at Holy Biscuit. Even before
entering the converted church building, there were drop in activities upon its
front lawn in the form of two sets of four chalkboards, all hinged together to
form columns which ask visitors to chalk up an item on their bucket lists.
Can’t conjure up that image? Well, a picture is worth a thousand words:
Inside the building itself, the art exhibitions were based
around alternative representations of Newcastle, through photography, comic
book imagery, montages and even a faux board game based around surviving the
city’s nightlife. It was all very inventive, and the paper gift-bag with
promotional flyers and other assorted goodies proved useful as I collected
further bumph throughout the evening. It was also where I picked up my first
glowstick of the evening! I try not to hoard them, given their popularity, but
I always manage to end up with 2 or 3, pretty much by simply not paying
attention to what I’m doing!
I couldn’t visit Holy Biscuit without stopping by The Biscuit Factory along the way. If I
were a rich man (durdle-durdle-durdle etc), then I would certainly furnish
whatever lavish Geordie residence I subsequently bought with at least something
from the Factory, as I always see something that I like on display. I also
withheld some glee at the descent into the lower quarters were the artist
studios were, not least because of the potential for free wine. A single glass
of rosé later – I had to pace my evening after all – and I had circled the
various workshops, ranging from a pungent oil painting room to a photography
project which I somehow didn’t realise was going on. I learned later from a
friend’s Facebook that it was. D’oh.
Over the railway bridge, I noticed from my Late Shows
brochure that there was a new venue to visit before passing The Tanner’s Arms
and heading down the Stepney Bank - St
Dominic’s Priory. As I’m not a Catholic, I haven’t had a reason to visit St
Dominic’s before, but the Late Shows gave me that reason. In I walked, greeted
by both the sound of soft organ music and two sets of volunteers. As well as
the expected volunteers wearing Late Shows-branded black t-shirts, there were
also members of the congregation on hand to go over the programme for the
evening’s events. So I had a sit down and enjoyed the ambience for a few
minutes before scoping out a local school’s art exhibition, which was displayed
down one side of the church. I was also approached by the priest who sounded
delighted that their bid to be a Late Shows venue had been accepted and this
was subsequently the first time St Dominic’s had participated in the event.
This left me thinking about how, and why, there were subtle differences in the venue
line-up year upon year, which had genuinely never crossed my mind before.
This would be reinforced as I started down Stepney Bank:
Roots & Wings were missing. Oh, they hadn’t done the Enchanted Door routine
since 2011, but the group had always had a presence within the Ouseburn for the
two subsequent years. At least this year there was sign explaining that their
premises were being refurbished, keeping visitors in the loop. Metaphorically
shrugging, I continued down into valley and headed towards Northern Print. And
as I turned a corner and headed towards the door, I found myself looking at a
familiar face from my days at The (Renaissance North East Museums) Hub.
Anita had opposite me for the majority of my time at The Hub
Learning Team’s office within Segedunum (#45 in my Index). She had also been
massively pregnant, and her maternity leave coincided with the end of my fixed
term contract there. I had seen her and baby son since then when going back to
visit the team, but as the team started to drop in numbers, and my visits came
to an end, Friday evening must have been the first time I had seen Anita in
about 3 years. And I had to do a double-take when I spotted her, for the sole
reason that she was now in a wheelchair. But we had a very upbeat conversation,
catching up upon what the other was doing. I recommended St Dominic’s before
wishing her and her companion (whose name escapes me – that’s the pitfall of
leaving this write up a few weeks, I guess) all the best, and turning back to the
printworks.
This year provided me a genuinely new experience: visiting Northern Print when it wasn’t rammed
with visitors. I remarked as much to the Late Shows volunteers there, before
considering it fortunate timing and proceeding through the building without a
queue ahead of me. Initially, I had gone in knowing what to expect; after all,
how do you change up what can be exhibited within a workshop filled with large
printing machines? The answer came from the volunteer at the bottom of the
stairs, who noted that the disabled toilet had been converted into The Cistern
Chapel by the satirical artists Modern Toss, featuring a series of comedic
prints utilising obscene language. Particularly funny was “The Periodic Table
of Swearing”, which I believe can be bought from their website. And it’s my
birthday next week....
A hearty chuckle later, I descended into the Ouseburn
proper, where I soon caught sight of The Time Bandits; again, regaling the
patrons of both The Cluny and The Ship Inn with their Jack the Ripper show.
Sidestepping them, I moved towards Ouseburn Farm, whose catering sorted me out
for my evening’s sustenance. I just hope the burgers weren’t produced on-site.
Passing through the denizens sitting outside The Cluny, I
then turned into 36 Lime Street Studios
and explored its many floors for art, again enjoying my climb to Jim Edwards’
studio at the very top of the building. Next door at Seven Stories (#144), after briefly being confused by two
volunteers addressing me at once, leading to a moment of weirdness between all
three parties, I quickly headed to the stairs and descended to the Creation
Station on the bottom floor. Here, I saw children being guided through
colouring activities by staff dressed up as literary characters. This would be
the theme throughout the seven floors, as literary characters milled about the
frankly stunning exhibitions this year: Moving Stories: Children's Books from
Page to Screen in particular stretched across two storeys. The uniqueness of
the venue also allowed for the Artist’s Attic to put on shows for its
audience, as can be seen here:
Once I had had my fill of children’s literature, I headed
south down Lime Street towards the Tyne. There were two further venues I would
not be able to experience as I passed. The first was Ouse Street Art Club,
whose mobile of alcohol, videogames and table tennis was nowhere to be seen.
The other was Victoria Tunnel, the famed tunnel that leads from the Ouseburn to
deep beneath the Great North Museum: Hancock in the Haymarket. Obviously, that
hadn’t gone anywhere, but the Tunnel operates on a tour basis and visitors who
want to experience it have to book in advance. I never do and therefore have
never got to experience it. And tunnels do count in my Index, as evidenced by
my trip to The Tar Tunnel (#155) in
Ironbridge Gorge. At the end of Lime Street, I came to a dilemma: I can never
remember the best way to get to The Toffee Factory from that spot. Usually
because the upper floors that are adjacent to the road bridge over the Ouseburn
canal are usually blocked off by security. This year I decided to get there by
walking by the canal path....only to find it fenced off for further
construction work. Another year of dashed experimentation!
Eventually getting there by circling the Tyne Bar, The Toffee Factory had a swing theme
with costumes, cocktails and...dance lessons. A mixture of fun and awkwardness,
I formed part of the crowd and drank in the atmosphere rather than the
cocktails. Whilst there, I saw Lauren, who had previously co-ordinated
volunteers back when I had been one in 2011, so we briefly compared notes for
the evening before I let her get back to her friends, who had no idea who I
was! I have yet to reach the height of fame where people point at me in the street and
shout “Hey, it’s that guy! That guy who sometimes goes to museums and writes
about them even less!”
Getting to the River Tyne itself, I noticed that,
discounting Victoria Tunnel, I had hit pretty much every Ouseburn venue, save
for three places. Three places I had never been to before, for that matter.
With that in mind, and it being 9:30pm, I decided I would seek to correct that.
Now, the unlucky part of this mystery trinity which did not receive my
patronage was Wychcraft Furniture, as a) the brochure did not make it sound
very engaging, and b) it was further up the valley and would mean re-tracing my
steps. So I proceeded the short distance along the Tyneand made my first ever
visit to The Cycle Hub. I could
speak about its engaging design competition (posters for the Tour de France
stages in Yorkshire which visitors were encouraged to vote on), or the
uniqueness of the venue itself. But moreover, it provides some stunning views
of the Tyne:
The remaining venue, which was providing quite the Twitter
buzz, was the Mushroom Works,
another artist studio. The only downside was its location, which is not so much
a glib dismissal of Byker (which I’m sure has its charms [now, that’s a glib
dismissal!]) as a comment on being a 5-10 minute walk away along the river.
Most people were sensible and made use of the free shuttle bus. I was not so
sensible and opted to make that journey on shanks’ mare instead. Upon reaching
Mushroom Works, I had a look around and liked what I saw, with the fairy theme
proving very popular. There was the option of a drink for the road, but as I
would be walking home to Heaton, I opted to forgo it and begin my trek home.
After an exceedingly good night’s sleep (all that walking
paying off, not least those stairs at 36 Lime Street), I had a leisurely
Saturday by all accounts. It was only around 4pm I noticed a line on the front
of the brochure. Whilst Newcastle and the Ouseburn would be opening their doors
at 7pm as per usual, Gateshead would be getting the jump on them by opening up
at 6pm. Not only that, they’d also be offering special orange glowsticks! That
appealed to me more than it should do a sane man and I immediately started
preparing my dinner. I had resolved to walk the event again and it would take
me 45 minutes to get from my house to the BALTIC. Moreover, it was a great
excuse for me to start the evening in Gateshead as I had continually overlooked
it over the past few years for reasons of proximity. Indeed, I doubt I will
ever take in the Shipley Art Gallery for future Late Shows, given how far away
it is. Unless I take a bus, I guess. Anyway, Saturday.....
The BALTIC has become one of the iconic images of the
Quayside, and I do like to stop in whenever I find myself down by the Tyne,
even though I can’t technically add it to the journals. After collecting my
orange glowstick, I took the lift up to the highest exhibition floor and worked
my way down, after a cursory glance from the viewing platform. The main floors
were playing host to the work of New York artist Lorna Simpson, which closes on
22 June. The exhibition mixed photography, drawing and videos, which ranged
from gold-clad dancers to mirror image chess and a man being looped whilst
whistling, so it’s fair to say that it was diverse. There were other
exhibitions as well, such as the Near Here contemporary sculpture display
from Swedish artist Nina Canell, but they didn’t resonate with me quite as
much. So once I had had my fill, I moved on and up the bank to the BALTIC’s
equally photogenic neighbour The Sage. It was too early in the evening for the
featured entertainment to have started, so instead of watching jazz ensemble ‘Dropping
Bombs’ perform requested tracks, I watched their sound check instead whilst
planning the rest of my route around Gateshead. And that didn’t sound bad!
St Mary’s Heritage Centre was a genuine shock, on the basis
that I had never heard of it before. This could easily have been in Journal #2
(“The Sunny Book”) if I had come across it before, but every time I have walked
past it en route to the Sage, I must have thought I was simply walking past a
very well-placed church! Based within a church building, large spaces had been
set aside for the drop-in visitor activities, which had a Hollywood movie feel.
For fans of Ghost, there was a potter’s wheel in the upper area near the main
entrance, whilst the central space had a number of visitors cutting up
magazines in the name of arts & crafts. I had one eye on the standing
display boards and how they chronicled the history of Gateshead, but I quickly
reminded myself that this would have to be added to the journals at a later
date. Yet again, The Late Shows had unearthed another cultural hidden gem. Or
at the very least, spelt out that the wood I couldn’t see for the trees did
actually exist.
That would turn out to be the high point of my time in
Gateshead. After somehow negotiating the major roads of Gateshead to get to the
edges of the town, the nearest attraction were shows being put on by the Lawnmowers
Theatre Company. Unfortunately these shows were
starting on the hour every hour and I had arrived at 7:30pm. Cursing my
timing, I headed next door to the Old Town Hall. This was also show-based, not
least with the Time Bandits prowling about, but I had managed to miss these as
well! I had the option of going downstairs and looking into the studios of the
East Street Arts collective, but everyone else had had the same idea in the
lull between shows. I had a rough schedule to stick to, so I exited and headed
for the Railway Bridge to get back into Newcastle. There are more famous
bridges over the Tyne, but a) the Railway Bridge was more direct for the route
I was taking, and b) has the unusual custom of couples leaving personalised
padlocks along certain railings as a symbol of their relationships.
Stepping off the bridge, I was now back opposite The Castle
Keep (#104), which was clearly quite popular given the lines of people waiting to get
into the building stopping only to let a separate line of people to come out of
the keep. No Time Bandits here – in the Great Hall was a musical quartet with
two ladies in their autumnal years singing “California Dreaming” in full
acapella. I didn’t linger. Excitingly, the keep’s neighbour - The Black Gate -
which opens to the public later this year, was using The Late Shows as a
preview event. Like the Lawnmowers Theatre Company, visitors were being let in
on the hour, and as luck would have it, it was now 8pm. However, the First
Come, First Served rule would be my undoing here and the queue for the tour was
pretty substantial. Still, patience is a virtue and I need only wait a month or
two more before I can assess The Black Gate for myself in my own time. And that’s
pretty exciting!
Continuing on my route, I headed for Westgate Road, as that
would eventually lead me up to Discovery Museum, via a few other notable sites.
As it happened, the Literary & Philosophical Society was not a Late Shows
venue this year, but its neighbour The Mining Institute did not disappoint. Not
only was it opening up more rooms than ever before, it was also playing host to
local circus outreach troupe “Let’s Circus”. In that my evening had been
somewhat whistlestop so far, I allowed myself a fair chunk of time enjoying the
surreal nature of watching performers make use of such a venue to perform their
revue acts. The majestic main hall was used for aerial rope dancing (see
below), whilst the grand lecture theatre was used for the one-woman act “The
Good Wife”, whilst the framed images of former Institute dignitaries had been
modestly vandalised with clown stickers!
Onwards, I headed west and stopped into Newcastle Arts
Centre. As well as having a look around its main gallery space, I headed up to
the mezzanine. Sophie Foster, the artist whose NEST project had been on display
at Ouseburn Farm the previous year, was delivering drop-in activity sessions
involving “tangrams” – Google it. Opting not to cut out shapes and play with
glue alongside children, for self-esteem reasons, I instead played about with
the larger pre-cut shapes on a separate table and took a picture for posterity.
After a chat with Sophie, having not met her before, I
pressed on towards Discovery. But before I entered TWAM Central, I stopped by
the Globe Gallery. Here, the main exhibition I saw was based upon artist Ken
Byers and his impressions of the Swan Hunter’s cranes, which were previously
dotted alongside the Tyne at Wallsend. Said impressions were not just charcoal
renderings hung on the wall, but the gallery’s basement featured a
motion-sensor projection which looked at the crane based artwork.
Hopping across to Discovery Museum (#98), I saw Anita once more,
stationed beside the main desk near the entrance. After sharing a laugh at the
bus-like nature of our recent reunions (twice in two days after no contact for
years), I made my way up to the Great Hall to scope out the theme of this years
display. Once again, much like my first experience of The Late Shows in 2010,
it was giant game-based, although this year’s iteration had inflatable based
cages and games, not unlike something they’d use on CBBC shows of my era, such as
50:50 or Get Your Own Back. Moreover, I saw someone who I very much associated
with Giant Games – my former colleague Claudia, who had been the Family
Learning Officer at the Hub. My favourite memory of Claudia was that she had
made sure that everyone who came into the Hub, for however long they were
associated with the team, attempted to learn how to juggle! As I had done with
Anita the previous night, I swapped notes with Claudia and found out what she
had been up to, before talking about how my museum project was going; the Hub
were responsible for me seeing a good few museums and heritage sites for the 14
weeks I was with them.
Before leaving, I made sure I headed to A Soldier’s Life
and took this picture for my friend Dan (the story as to why was in my previous blog post):
As I left Discovery, the clock was striking 10pm. Unless you heading to World Headquarters to
party well into the night, the cultural venues would finally be shutting their
doors at 11pm. In that I had walked from Heaton to the Gallowgate via
Gateshead, clubbing was not even a consideration. I simply wanted to finish up
at GNM Hancock before the night was over. So, earbuds in, I started making my
way up to the Haymarket. I’d be lying if I said I didn’t feel a tad
self-conscious as I walked up Percy St, as I was taking a shortcut past a
number of well-patronised boozers, whose punters were unlikely to have seen
many people walk past wearing a glowstick around their neck. Moreover, I was
feeling quite tired. I had not indulged in any drinks over the course of the
evening, and whilst alcohol would have hardly helped my energy levels, I hadn’t
even indulged in a cup of tea either.
So it was not the Museum Formerly Known as the Hancock that
I made a beeline too. Instead, I stopped by its sister site GNM: Hatton, as I
had been tipped off on Twitter about its free juice bar. The museum was somewhat
quiet in terms of numbers given the time of night, but there was a party
atmosphere near the juice bar, as music was playing through a large speaker
set. After casting my eye over the many plastic juice cartons, I picked up the
Raspberry flavoured drink, jabbed the pointed straw through the plastic lid and
drank in those sweet, sweet e-numbers! After a sit-down within the adjacent
gallery, I had a brief wander and found a learning officer sat amongst now
empty activity tables. I declined her offer to have a go at whatever it
happened to be – at that moment, I just wanted to get over the finish line. And
have another Raspberry juice. Armed with a second carton, I found myself
particularly engaged with the photography exhibition based around Marilyn
Monroe. Yes, she was a very photogenic woman, but I found the labels and panels
to be just as interesting as they told stories about particular aspects about
her life.
With half an hour left, I made it to GNM: Hancock (#102), arriving
just after TWAM head honcho Iain Watson had entered. The newly refurbished museum had opened its doors just
prior to me starting my MA course, so I was no stranger to the museum. In fact,
if the mood takes me, I sometimes toddle across there on my lunch break as I
work just over the road from there. But the one thing I was determined to see
was the touring V&A Museum of Childhood exhibition Magic Worlds, which is
on until 22 June. The temporary exhibition space was transformed into a variety
of linked spaces, taking in various thematic elements of children’s stories, be
it in literature or on screen. Case in point, a personal highlight was seeing
video footage of Sooty & Sweep, even if it was with the current bloke
rather than Matthew Corbett.
Once I had encountered the Magic World, I took a stage exit
left and vamoosed, making one final walk back to Heaton. As I walked home, I
counted the number of places I had stopped by over the two nights: 21. Out of
50 venues, I’d managed 10 in the Ouseburn and another 11 that night. Could I
have seen more? Theoretically, it must be possible, but the trade-off would be
that by experiencing everything, you would simultaneously have no time to
really experience anything when there. I spent a lot of time in the Mining
Institute and probably spent more time than most at Newcastle Arts Centre
through taking part in an activity, but I’m so glad that I did take the time,
after having breezed through Gateshead as quickly as I had.
In fact, Gateshead was probably the only down note of the
weekend. The concept of starting earlier and having unique glowsticks was a
great selling point for me, but The Sage didn’t seem ready for an early event and
the fact that the attractions at the two central Gateshead venues were not
drop-in in nature, relied on good timing on the visitors’ part. If I were to
put my finger on what I think is the central appeal of The Late Shows, it’s the
accessibility aspect of the event. The idea that someone can just walk into a
place they wouldn’t normally visit, at an hour which they wouldn’t normally
visit said place, and get caught up in what’s going on. I understand why
certain events need to be staggered – shows need time to build an audience,
tours need to account for the number of people involved, and so on – but I
think the best attractions are those that cater to the visitor at their own
pace.
I think I’ve typed all I can possibly type about The Late
Shows at this point! It’s an event I’m very passionate about supporting and I
think it’s a credit to the organisers, the participating venues and, most of
all, those who volunteer their time to make it such a success. Moreover, it’s a
great showcase of Tyneside at its best, which you can’t always say about
Newcastle on Friday and Saturday nights, especially around the Bigg Market. So
if you have never been to Newcastle before, or for a long time, and would like
to see its cultural side at its best, I’d recommend you pencil in a weekend in
May 2015! Barring a massive shift in the status quo, I know that’s where I’ll
be!
