PILOT PROJECT LAUNCHED FOR NEW CULTURAL VENUE IN SUNDERLAND CITY CENTRE

SUNDERLAND, TYNE & WEAR: 10^th November – 24^th November

Athenaeum Building, 27 Fawcett Street, Sunderland, SR1 1RE

Breeze Creatives in collaboration with Sunderland BID will be showcasing three events in the Athenaeum Building on Fawcett Street, Sunderland.

As joint-winners of Sunderland’s 10x10, the events will act as taster events, keeping the vibrancy of Sunderland city alive into the evening. To celebrate the Athenaeum building the events, under the umbrella of ‘Athenaeum Nights’ include; an exhibition which plays and responds to the scale of the space, a demonstration lecture, captured by Steampunk photography, in the national home of photography- Sunderland. The finale event; a rising talent of young artists, including Charlie Dearnley and Adam Goodwin, join to create an improvisational group exploring a conversation between music, dance and live visuals.

Dylan Shields, ‘The Fall of the Rebel Angels’
10^th November 2016, 7:30-10pm
11^th – 13^th November 2016, 12-5pm

‘The Fall of the Rebel Angels’ is an exhibition of specially commissioned sculptural work by Dylan Shields, to launch a new cultural space in Sunderland city centre. Dylan is an artist who predominantly focuses on sculpture, investigating the relationship between traditional, narrative painting and contemporary materials. He explores the relationship between art history and its context in modern society, highlighting the forgotten narratives of old masters. He uses re-cycled cardboard and parcel tape to produce work that is at once familiar but dramatized by its original use of form and perspective. Dylan Shields graduated in 2011 and has exhibited internationally in Japan and the Netherlands and nationally in London and Edinburgh and the North East.

Joseph Swan and Photography in Sunderland
17^th November 2016, 7:30-9:30pm

Coinciding with the city’s Christmas light switch-on, the Barlow Series in collaboration with NEPN present: Joseph Swan and Photography in Sunderland. Most people know Joseph Swan as the inventor of the incandescent light bulb. But he was also a photography entrepreneur and businessman, with connections far and wide. We’re celebrating this story in Sunderland, the town where he was born and grew up and where he encountered photography for the first time.

Join us for a Victorian Athenaeum evening, where we will combine ‘learning and entertainment’, with (brief!) photographic talks, demonstrations of old and new photographic processes and the opportunity to chat and socialize. It’s our version of ‘steampunk’ photography: 19th century techniques and inventions with a contemporary twist.

Bring your cameras and mobile phones to help us celebrate this story and find out more about how Joseph Swan is inspiring a new generation of photographers, artists and historians in the North East.

Babble: Three Legged Chair
24^th November 2016, 7:30-9:30pm

An evening of transdisciplinary play and performance. ‘Babble: Three-Legged Chair’ begins with a participatory workshop in which attendees are invited to play and explore the artists’ processes. This workshop will culminate in a short performance involving the attendees, which will roll into a performance by Cooking with Faye. The evening will then conclude with a performance of CHURCH by Charlie Dearnley and Sean Cotterill (commissioned by Dance City).

Cooking with Faye: Jamie Cook, Lizzie J Klotz, Adam Goodwin (final line-up TBC). An improvisational group exploring a conversation between music, dance and live visuals.

CHURCH: CHURCH seeks to examine the metamorphosing potential of spiritual experience, exploring altered states of consciousness and considering cultures of drug use to invoke the divine. Utilising bespoke interactive technologies, dance and spoken word.

Schedule:
19:00 - 20:00: Workshop
20:00 - 20:30: Cooking with Faye
20:40 - 21:00: CHURCH

- ENDS -

Information for editors

For media enquiries contact Zoe Anderson on 07533 195512 or email info@breezecreatives.com.

Press image available at: https://www.dropbox.com/sh/a6dyyhiariv0ngq/AAD9dGIOu92Od-pgoSmttWJma?dl=0

• Breeze Creatives, based in Newcastle upon Tyne, specialises in cultural projects and events around the North East of England, and provides artist studios and project spaces in Newcastle city centre. Breeze Creatives latest projects include Abject Gallery, a contemporary art gallery exhibiting a mixture of national and international emerging artists. breezecreatives.com
• Sunderland 10x10 seeks to support North East based artists and creatives and nurture the development of contemporary arts in collaboration with local Sunderland businesses. By fostering new relationships and connections between businesses and artists in and around Sunderland, Sunderland 10x10 provides a valuable opportunity for artists to learn from and share skills, ideas and knowledge with Sunderland-based, commercial businesses and realise the value and contribution artists make to the creative economy. sunderlandculturalpartnership.co.uk
• Sunderland BID aims to revitatalise and regenerate commercial areas in towns and cities across the UK. From a modest start there are now scores of BIDS all over the country, working in partnership in many diverse areas but with one aim - to help the commercial area thrive. The BID is financed through a levy paid by businesses in the improvement area which means that they have vested interest in ensuring that we are successful in making Sunderland city centre a vibrant, exciting and safe place to visit. www.bidsunderland.co.uk